Sights & Culture
Capture the imagination with a visit to one of Ireland's castles, monuments,stately homes, or beautiful gardens, many with compelling tales of times gone by.
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Arts, Culture & Festivals
A land that has nurtured poets, playwrights and musicians, Ireland is rich in arts, music and culture to make your trip more magical
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Museums and Galleries
Ireland boasts some of Europe’s most intriguing museums and art galleries
As the Irish people have a genuine sense of fun, they invented a festival to celebrate all sorts of occasions – the least you can do is join in…
Activities
Whether your passion is golf, fishing or even splashing about on a surfboard, Ireland has the perfect locations, not to mention the best natural backdrops in the world
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The Emerald Isle’s rugged landscape can be exhilarating at times, but there are lots of sublime cycling routes winding through some of the most superlative scenery the country has to offer.
The magical extra ingredient that Irish cycling holidays can offer is our network of countless little leafy lanes and quiet rural roads, almost completely free of traffic, which thread through the unspoiled countryside. Many of these small roads have an ancient lineage; their lines were traced hundreds of years ago.
Around Northern Ireland, you’ll find The National Cycle Network – over 770 miles of four high quality, signed cycle routes from Belfast to Ballyshannon, Ballycastle to Ballyshannon, the Kingfisher Trail and the Loughshore Trail.
Wherever you cycle, you are guaranteed to find scenic beauty, a varied landscape, wayside history, friendly villages, the Irish tradition of generous hospitality and the warmest welcome in the world.
Shopping
Go on, rise to temptation as you check out the delectable and precious goods on offer in stores around Ireland
Ireland is fast shaping up to be one of Europe’s most stylish shopping destinations. From the supremely fashion-conscious streets of Dublin and Belfast, to the small artisan craftshops hidden down quaintly cobbled lanes, Ireland is the ideal place to find something chic, stylish and utterly unique.
Glass by design
If you’re looking to bring something typically Irish home, Ireland is famed for its exquisite crystal and glassware with Galway, Tipperary, Tyrone and Waterford leading the pack.
With outstanding reputations for excellent craftsmanship, the leading crystal companies embrace both traditional and contemporary styles following collaborations with some of Ireland’s top fashion designers. These include Louise Kennedy for Tipperary Crystal and John Rocha for Waterford Crystal.
Newbridge Silverware has also launched an elegant glassware collection with famed Irish designer Paul Costelloe. Meanwhile, Jerpoint Glass Studio is a small, family-run glassblowing studio in Kilkenny where you can see both the glass being blown and pick up an individual piece to bring home with you.
From Aran to cashmere
Ireland has a worldwide reputation for knitwear and woollen goods, so it makes a fantastic hunting ground for something to keep out the cold. Traditional Aran sweaters have a unique style all of their own, while designers such as Jimmy Hourihan are turning out elegant capes in a mix of cashmere and wool. Good places to seek out traditional Irish knitwear are Kilkenny Design, Blarney Woollen Mills, Dublin Woollen Mills and Avoca Handweavers.
Mind you, if you’re looking for something more contemporary, then try the internationally renowned Irish knitwear designer Lainey Keogh or cashmere designer Lucy Downes’ Sphere One collection.
What to bring home?
You’ll be spoiled for choice with a whole host of souvenir shopping opportunities: Parian china from Belleek; a bottle of Jameson whiskey, or Bushmills whiskey from the oldest licensed distillery in the world; linen from the Irish Linen Centre; lace products from the various craft shops, and, of course, a fresh or smoked Irish salmon.
For something a little different, try The Cowshed Studios in Kesh, County Fermanagh, where you will find unusual hand painted Batik art and Celtic garden sculptures.
Step out in style
If traditional stuff isn’t quite up your street, then prove your sartorial worth with something special from one of Ireland’s top designers including Louise Kennedy, Quin & Donnelly, Oakes, Paul Costelloe, John Rocha, Lainey Keogh, Michelle O’Doherty, Joanne Hynes, Orla Kiely and haute couturier Jen Kelly.
Capital boutiques
Go home with something uniquely Irish by taking a peek inside the eclectic collection of boutiques across the country.
In Dublin, gorge on unique boutiques including a raft of stores along Clarendon Street and South William Street. Look out for one-off designer pieces at The Design Center, Powerscourt Townhouse Center, and Brown Thomas, Grafton Street, or rummage for something cool at the Cow’s Lane Market (Saturday 10am-5pm, Old City, Temple Bar, Dublin 2).
In Northern Ireland, you simply must visit the Lisburn Road, Belfast, which isfast becoming a shopping Mecca! From antiques to fashion boutiques, craft stores to designer shoe shops, delicatessens to interior designs, you’re sure to find something special. In towns, such as Ballymena, Newry, Londonderry and Coleraine, you’ll find intriguing stores to please every taste.
Meanwhile, around the rest of the country, check out Beth in Cork (Douglas Shopping Centre, Cork) and Les Jumelles (11 Upper Abbeygate Street) in Galway.
Golfing
Like golf? You’ll love golfing in Ireland. The Emerald Isle offers more golf than any country of comparable size on the planet!
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Some of the world’s most beautiful courses are waiting to be discovered with a stunning array of lakes and rivers, mountains and drumlins, cliff tops forests and seascapes – so grab your clubs and go!
Imagine – 30% of the world’s links courses are in Ireland, and all of them are accessible to the visiting golfer. And it doesn’t cost the earth, either – with green fees on parkland courses coming in at around $50-60, it’s a golfer’s paradise!
One of the best bits about golfing in Ireland has to be the welcome that awaits visiting golfers in the clubhouse, the Irish 19th hole. There’s no better place than an Irish spike bar in which to sit back, chill out and have a laugh with the locals.
