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Team SeeThis.Place
Complete travel guide to Ireland. Handpicked places including waterfalls, mountain roads, thermal springs, UNESCO sites, scenic drives and hidden gems. All with GPS coordinates.
Hairpin bends, sheep on the road and the Atlantic opening up behind every hilltop. 179 kilometres around the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry — Ireland's most legendary loop. Drive anticlockwise and you'll have the sea side the whole way. Skellig Michael appears like a ghost in the haze.
GPS: 51.7708, -10.0094
Slea Head Drive winds along Europe's westernmost mainland point. Beehive-shaped monastic cells from the 600s cling to the cliffs, the Atlantic smashes in below you, and Dingle town smells of fish and chips and turf fires. National Geographic named the peninsula the most beautiful place on earth.
GPS: 52.1893, -10.0837
618 stone-hewn steps up a vertical Atlantic island. No railings. No shade. Just rock, wind and 1,400-year-old monastic cells clinging to the summit like birds' nests. Skellig Michael in County Kerry is where the Christian world ended — and Star Wars began.
GPS: 51.7708, -10.5386
Ireland's first national park — 10,000 hectares of oak forest, lakes and mountains founded in 1932. Muckross House from 1843 mirrors itself in the lake. Torc Waterfall tumbles 20 metres between moss-covered rocks. The red deer — Ireland's only wild herd — have roamed here for 5,000 years.
GPS: 52.0058, -9.5562
11 km narrow mountain pass between MacGillycuddy's Reeks and Purple Mountain. The road climbs 200 metres through five mountain lakes, medieval stone bridges and flocks of sheep blocking the way. Kate Kearney's Cottage at the entrance has served tea and poitín to travellers since the 1840s.
GPS: 52.0100, -9.6390
Kiss the stone and receive the gift of eloquence — that's the legend. But it's the gardens that steal the show. Poison Garden with deadly plants behind bars. Fern Garden in a natural ravine. 24 hectares of ancient woodland along the Martin River. Blarney Castle from 1446 in County Cork is more than a tourist trap.
GPS: 51.9291, -8.5706
Titanic's last port of call. On 11 April 1912, 123 passengers boarded here — none knew what lay ahead. St Colman's Cathedral from 1919 towers above the coloured Victorian terraces climbing the hill like an Irish San Francisco. 2.5 million Irish emigrated from here between 1848 and 1950.
GPS: 51.8503, -8.2943
Ireland's oldest covered market — founded 1788, rebuilt 1862 after a fire, still running with 50 stalls under cast-iron arches and a glass roof. Queen Elizabeth II visited in 2011. Vinegar, smoked bacon, tripe and spiced beef — everything Cork does better than Dublin.
GPS: 51.8976, -8.4748
Ireland's most southwesterly point. A curved concrete bridge from 1909 crosses a 45-metre chasm to the signal station on the rock island — and below you the Atlantic breaks loose. Built to warn ships of Fastnet Rock 16 km out at sea. The wind alone is worth the drive.
GPS: 51.4502, -9.8183
214 metres sheer above the Atlantic. You feel the wind in your face before you see the edge. Then it opens up — and below you there is nothing. Just sea, birds and the sound of waves breaking against the cliff. The Cliffs of Moher in County Clare are Ireland's most dramatic coastline.
GPS: 52.9715, -9.4309
250 km² karst desert of bare limestone — but not lifeless. 75% of Ireland's wild flowers grow in the cracks. The Poulnabrone dolmen from 3800 BC is the burial site of at least 33 people. The Burren in County Clare is the only place on earth where arctic, alpine and Mediterranean plants grow side by side.
GPS: 53.0487, -9.1406
Ireland's most intact tower castle from 1425 — and at its foot: an open-air village with 30 reconstructed 19th-century houses, complete with blacksmith, pub and schoolhouse. The medieval banquet in the evening serves mead and ribs with your fingers. Durty Nelly's pub by the gate has stood since 1620.
GPS: 52.6967, -8.8121
The westernmost tip of the Clare peninsula — where the Shannon estuary meets the Atlantic with 80-metre cliffs. Loop Head Lighthouse from 1854 is open to visitors. Bridges of Ross shows natural rock bridges carved by the waves. Far fewer tourists than the Cliffs of Moher, but at least as dramatic.
GPS: 52.5610, -9.9310
Three limestone islands at the mouth of Galway Bay — just stone, wind and Irish. Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr are Ireland's last Gaelic-speaking bastion. 1,400 km of stone walls divide the islands into a jigsaw of tiny fields. The currachs (tarred rowing boats) still lie on the beach.
GPS: 53.1254, -9.7675
Quay Street and Cross Street hum with buskers, beer and colourful shop fronts. Galway's Latin Quarter is Ireland's most bohemian neighbourhood — street musicians play trad sessions, Tigh Neachtain pub's yellow facade dates from 1894, and Spanish Arch by the Corrib river testifies to 16th-century trade routes to Spain.
GPS: 53.2710, -9.0527
Ireland's wildest corner: 2,000 hectares of bog, heather and mountain peaks in the Gaelic-speaking west. The Diamond Hill walk at 445 metres gives panoramic views over the Twelve Bens and the Atlantic. Connemara ponies graze freely, and the village of Letterfrack at the foot is a handful of houses and a pub.
GPS: 53.5507, -9.9402
A neo-Gothic dream castle reflected in Pollacappul Lake with the Connemara mountains as backdrop. Mitchell Henry built Kylemore in 1868 as a love gift for his wife Margaret — when she died of dysentery in Egypt, he built a miniature cathedral in the garden. Benedictine nuns have run the place in County Galway since 1920.
GPS: 53.5570, -9.8862
601 metres of vertical drop into the Atlantic — nearly three times higher than the Cliffs of Moher, but with a fraction of the tourists. Slieve League's coloured sandstone shifts from orange to green to purple in the sunlight. One Man's Pass along the ridge is only a metre wide with sea on both sides.
GPS: 54.6514, -8.7074
16,000 hectares of wild Donegal landscape with the Derryveagh Mountains, mirror-still lakes and red deer. Glenveagh Castle from 1870 sits by Lough Veagh surrounded by one of Europe's finest arctic and subtropical gardens. Mount Errigal at 751 metres starts right by the park.
GPS: 55.0072, -8.0025
764-metre holy mountain where St Patrick reportedly fasted for 40 days in 441 AD. Every year on Reek Sunday in July, 25,000 pilgrims climb to the summit — many barefoot over the sharp rocks. From the top: 360° views over Clew Bay and its 365 islands.
GPS: 53.7599, -9.6598
40,000 hexagonal basalt columns stacked like stepping stones into the sea. 60 million years old, created by a volcanic eruption — but legend says it was the giant Finn McCool who built a bridge to his Scottish rival. Giant's Causeway on the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and geological wonder.
GPS: 55.2408, -6.5116
A tunnel of 150 intertwined beech trees planted in 1775 by the Stuart family to impress visitors on the way to their estate. Game of Thrones filmed here as the Kingsroad — and now Dark Hedges is Northern Ireland's most photographed spot. Best at sunrise, before the buses arrive.
GPS: 55.1347, -6.3807
A medieval castle hanging over the Atlantic on a basalt cliff — in 1639 the kitchen literally collapsed into the sea during a storm, and the castle was never repaired. Dunluce Castle inspired C.S. Lewis's Cair Paravel in Narnia. The remains of an entire 1600s town were discovered beneath the lawn in 2011.
GPS: 55.2114, -6.5792
Dun Briste — a 50-metre sea stack that broke from the cliffs in 1393. The remains of a medieval house still sit on top, untouched for over 600 years. The descent to Poll na Seantainne blowhole, where the sea thumps up through the earth, is even more dramatic than the stack itself.
GPS: 54.3238, -9.3437
65 metres of oak shelves holding 200,000 of Ireland's oldest books, barrel-vaulted ceilings and marble busts lining both sides. The Long Room from 1732 is one of the world's most beautiful libraries — and home to the 9th-century Book of Kells. Trinity College in the heart of Dublin is Ireland's academic soul.
GPS: 53.3438, -6.2546
Ireland's most gripping museum. Kilmainham Gaol held Robert Emmet, Parnell and the 14 executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. The main hall with its three tiers of iron railings and grey daylight from above has become a film location for In the Name of the Father and Paddington 2. Dublin has much history — most of it is here.
GPS: 53.3385, -6.3058
Mist hangs between the Irish mountains. Two deep lakes glimmer at the bottom of a glacial valley. A round tower from the 10th century pokes above the treetops. Glendalough in County Wicklow is a mystical monastic valley — founded in the 6th century by St Kevin, who wanted peace from the world.
GPS: 53.0105, -6.3243
A rocky outcrop rising 60 metres from Tipperary's flat fields — and on top: a cathedral from the 1200s, a round tower from the 1000s and Cormac's Chapel from 1134 with Ireland's oldest Romanesque frescoes. Rock of Cashel was the seat of Irish kings for 1,000 years before it was handed to the church in 1101.
GPS: 52.5187, -7.8873
Darkness. Total darkness. Then a light is switched on — and you're standing in a chamber built 500 years before the pyramids. Newgrange at Brú na Bóinne in County Meath is 5,200 years old. Every winter solstice on 21 December, sunlight enters through a narrow opening and illuminates the chamber for 17 minutes. It is the world's oldest astronomical instrument.
GPS: 53.6947, -6.4754
Ireland's most visited attraction — 1.7 million guests a year in the old fermentation warehouse from 1904. Seven floors tell the story of Arthur Guinness's 9,000-year lease from 1759. The Gravity Bar on top gives 360° views over Dublin with a pint in hand.
GPS: 53.3419, -6.2868
National Geographic ranked Powerscourt's Italian terraces the third best garden in the world. 47 hectares of 18th-century landscape art overlooking Sugar Loaf Mountain — and 6 km away: Ireland's highest waterfall, 121 metres down a granite cliff in the Glensoulan valley.
GPS: 53.1843, -6.1867
Ireland's largest Norman castle — 30,000 m² behind massive limestone walls from 1176. Mel Gibson used Trim Castle as a location for Braveheart in 1994. The triple tower is unique in Europe and rises 20 metres above the banks of the River Boyne in County Meath.
GPS: 53.5455, -6.7881
Founded by St Ciarán in 544 on the banks of the Shannon — Ireland's most important monastic city for 600 years. The high crosses from the 800s, two round towers and ruins of eight churches lie scattered across green meadow overlooking the Midlands' flat bogland. The Vikings raided it 13 times — that's some respect.
GPS: 53.3261, -7.9870
The world's oldest working lighthouse — 800 years old, built by Norman knights in 1172 in County Wexford. Hook Head's limestone platforms are 350 million years old, and the fossils in the rocks are visible to the naked eye. The tower has 115 steps and burned beacon fires on top until 1871.
GPS: 52.1234, -6.9307
20-metre rope bridge swinging 30 metres above the Atlantic to a small basalt island. Salmon fishermen have crossed here for 350 years — today it's tourists gripping the ropes with white-knuckled fists. The view from the island across Rathlin Island and the Scottish coast is the reward. Carrick-a-Rede in County Antrim is Northern Ireland's most nerve-wracking walk.
GPS: 55.2374, -6.3253
Anglo-Norman castle from 1195 in the heart of Kilkenny's medieval city in southeast Ireland. The Butler family lived here for 600 years — their Long Gallery with 100 portraits and a hammerbeam ceiling is Ireland's finest Victorian room. The rose garden down to the River Nore is the quiet reward afterwards.
GPS: 52.6502, -7.2494
Dublin's beating heart — a pedestrian street from Trinity College to St Stephen's Green, filled with buskers, flower sellers and Bewley's Oriental Café from 1927 with its Harry Clarke stained glass. The Molly Malone statue keeps watch at the bottom. Dublin in 500 metres.
GPS: 53.3418, -6.2593
121 metres — Ireland's highest waterfall. The water cascades down a granite cliff face in the Glensoulan valley in County Wicklow, surrounded by 200-year-old oak and beech trees. Just 6 km from Powerscourt Estate, but in a separate valley with its own entrance. The picnic lawn at the base is Wicklow's finest.
GPS: 53.1467, -6.2105
An 800-year-old Norman castle on Lough Corrib in County Mayo, western Ireland. Founded in 1228 by the de Burgo family, expanded by the Guinness dynasty in 1852, now one of the world's finest castle hotels. You cross a drawbridge to get home in the evening.
GPS: 53.5344, -9.2846
A castle by the river in the heart of Connemara's wilderness in County Galway, western Ireland. Salmon fishing from a private bank, 450 hectares of forest and mountain, and the Twelve Bens as backdrop. Grace O'Malley, Ireland's pirate queen, lived here in the 1500s.
GPS: 53.4601, -9.8627
A castle from 1014 that has belonged to Irish kings for a thousand years — the O'Brien clan, direct descendants of Brian Boru, Ireland's most famous High King. Towers, moats, falcons and a golf course among the ancient oaks in County Clare.
GPS: 52.7836, -8.9057
The wind bites at the top of Montpelier Hill, 383 metres above Dublin. Before you: the ruins of a 1725 hunting lodge built on top of a Bronze Age cairn. Inside, aristocrats of the Hellfire Club allegedly held black masses by candlelight. The roof blew off the night after the opening — and was never replaced.
GPS: 53.2521, -6.3302
The air changes temperature after ten steps down. Mitchelstown Cave in County Tipperary holds Ireland's largest underground chambers — three halls with stalactites that have had millions of years to form. The Tower of Babel rises 9 metres from the cave floor like a petrified giant column. Discovered by accident in 1833 when a worker fell through a hole in the ground.
GPS: 52.3039, -8.1086
You look up — and there it hangs. 7.3 metres long, thin as an icicle, attached to the ceiling 40 metres below the Burren's limestone surface in County Clare. Ireland's longest free-hanging stalactite should have snapped under its own weight long ago. But it's still there. Discovered in 1952 by two local cavers.
GPS: 53.0431, -9.3447
In 928 AD, Vikings lit fires at the entrance and suffocated 1,000 people who had sought refuge in the darkness. Bones and silver coins from the massacre have been found inside. Dunmore Cave in County Kilkenny is Ireland's darkest chapter — literally buried underground.
GPS: 52.7339, -7.2466
Two upright stones carry a flat capstone in the middle of the Burren's grey limestone desert. Poulnabrone Dolmen in County Clare is 5,800 years old — older than the pyramids of Giza. Beneath the capstone, archaeologists found 33 human skeletons, flint axes and a polished bone pendant. One of the dead was a newborn baby.
GPS: 53.0487, -9.1401
The echo of an underground waterfall reaches you before you see it. Ailwee Cave beneath the Burren in County Clare is 2 million years old — and deep in the darkness they found the skeleton of a brown bear that lived here 10,000 years ago. Discovered in 1944 by a farmer who followed his dog into a crevice.
GPS: 53.0892, -9.1437
Hidden beneath a flat grassy field 3 km from Castleisland. Crag Cave in County Kerry is 1 million years old, but nobody knew it lay beneath their feet — until 1983 when geophysical surveys revealed the void. White calcite crystals light up like icing sugar in the lamplight.
GPS: 52.2528, -9.4403
A crescent of white sand wedged between 200-metre cliffs on Ireland's largest island. The road to Keem Bay on Achill Island in County Mayo winds along the cliff edge with views over the Atlantic — then the beach opens up like a secret at the bottom. The sea is ice-blue and crystal clear. Until the 1940s, basking sharks were caught from a lookout on the cliff above.
GPS: 53.9680, -10.1939
Ireland's most northerly mainland point. The wind tears at your jacket, waves thunder 100 metres below, and the horizon is nothing but Atlantic all the way to Iceland. The cliff at Malin Head in County Donegal is called Banba's Crown — named after a goddess from Irish mythology. During World War II a lookout post stood here, and the ÉIRE sign in stone can still be seen from the air.
GPS: 55.3833, -7.3667
A chalk-white lighthouse on a rocky headland in the far reaches of Donegal, with the Atlantic crashing in from three sides. Fanad Head Lighthouse has shown the way since 1817 — built after the frigate HMS Saldanha was wrecked in the bay with 253 men on board. The coastal cliffs are folded and striped with 500 million years of geology.
GPS: 55.2756, -7.6346
Europe's most westerly inhabited point — until 1953, when the last 22 residents were evacuated. Great Blasket Island lies 3 km off the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, and the abandoned stone houses still line the green slope down to the sea. The islanders wrote three of the most important books in Irish literature about life out there.
GPS: 52.0892, -10.5469
A semicircular stone fort from the Bronze Age, built right on the edge of a 100-metre vertical cliff face over the Atlantic. Dún Aonghasa on Inis Mór — the largest of the Aran Islands in County Galway — is 3,000 years old with four concentric ring walls. Crawl to the edge on your stomach and look down. There is no fence.
GPS: 53.1256, -9.7669
Dubliners call it the Guinness Lake — not because the water tastes of stout, but because the Guinness family owns the shore with the white sand beach that looks like the head on a pint. Lough Tay sits deep in a glacial valley in the Wicklow Mountains, County Wicklow, just 40 km south of Dublin. The water is dark brown from peat.
GPS: 53.1060, -6.2668
Ireland's most underrated mountain road winds 13 km over the Caha Mountains on the Beara Peninsula in southwest Ireland. Healy Pass climbs to 334 metres from Adrigole in the south to Lauragh in the north, through exposed rock faces, peat bogs and nothing. No tourists, no buses, just you and the sheep.
GPS: 51.7222, -9.7571
A 12 km loop west of Clifden in Connemara that climbs the cliffs and gives you the entire Atlantic in panorama. Sky Road in County Galway rises to 150 metres above sea level with views over Clifden Bay, Inishturk and Turbot Island. The road is narrow, the grass is electric green, and stone-walled fields fall away towards the sea.
GPS: 53.4900, -10.1200
An Italian Renaissance garden in the middle of an Irish bay. Garnish Island — also called Ilnacullin — lies in Bantry Bay, County Cork, and was transformed from bare rock to subtropical paradise by Annan Bryce and garden architect Harold Peto from 1910. The Gulf Stream keeps frost at bay, and rhododendrons, Japanese maples and rare conifers thrive.
GPS: 51.7364, -9.5411
Ireland's prettiest village — and it's not just a postcard trick. Adare in County Limerick has thatched cottages along the main street, three medieval monasteries and a Norman castle from the 1200s. The Dunraven family built the colourful cottages in the 1820s as housing for the estate workers.
GPS: 52.5636, -8.7926
A massive tower house from the 1400s rising directly from the shore of Lough Leane — Killarney's largest lake in County Kerry. Ross Castle was the last place in Munster to surrender to Cromwell's forces in 1652. Legend said the castle could only fall from the water, so General Ludlow sailed flat-bottomed boats onto the lake.
GPS: 52.0415, -9.5316
A star-shaped fortress from 1682 guarding the entrance to Kinsale harbour in County Cork. One of the best-preserved bastion forts in Europe with 5-metre-thick walls. During the Williamite War in 1690 the fort was bombarded for 13 days from James Fort on the opposite shore. Walk the ramparts with views over the harbour and the colourful fishing village.
GPS: 51.6979, -8.4991
Ireland's Alcatraz — an island in Cork Harbour that has been monastery, fortress and prison for 1,300 years. Fort Mitchel on top of Spike Island in County Cork is one of the world's largest star-shaped forts. During the Great Famine the island held up to 2,300 prisoners. The prison only closed in 2004.
GPS: 51.8350, -8.2850
Europe's first marine nature reserve — a saltwater lake connected to the sea through a narrow channel. Lough Hyne in West Cork, County Cork, is just 800 metres long but home to over 70 species of fish and bioluminescent plankton that make the water glow at night. Paddle out in a kayak after dark, and every stroke leaves a blue-green trail of light.
GPS: 51.5010, -9.2990
The cloister columns have faces carved in stone 800 years ago — knights, dragons, bishops. Jerpoint Abbey near Thomastown in County Kilkenny is a Cistercian monastery from 1160 with Ireland's best-preserved Romanesque cloister. Beneath the chancel lie tomb slabs with medieval portraits of knights in armour.
GPS: 52.5109, -7.1580
Home of the world's largest telescope for 70 years. Birr Castle in County Offaly has been in the Parsons family since 1620. In 1845 the third Earl of Rosse built "Leviathan" — a reflecting telescope with a 183 cm mirror that mapped spiral galaxies before anyone knew what they were. The telescope still stands in the 50-hectare gardens.
GPS: 53.0954, -7.9148
Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting stopped here in 1861 — and refused to drive on. Ladies View over Upper Lake, Muckross Lake and Lough Leane in County Kerry is the Ring of Kerry's finest panorama. The three Killarney lakes lie like mirrors between soft, forested mountains, 280 metres above the sea.
GPS: 51.9670, -9.5940
Ireland's most recognisable mountain — a flat-topped plateau with vertical limestone cliffs rising 526 metres above County Sligo's green fields. Ben Bulben was shaped by the ice age and is steeped in Irish mythology. W.B. Yeats asked to be buried in the churchyard at its foot.
GPS: 54.3667, -8.4744
A Victorian manor from 1843 in the heart of Killarney National Park, County Kerry, built in Tudor style. Queen Victoria visited in 1861 — the preparations were so expensive the family went bankrupt. 65 rooms furnished in period style. The gardens hold Ireland's finest rhododendron collection.
GPS: 52.0178, -9.5017
Red sandstone cliffs, thatched pubs and a harbour full of blue fishing boats. Dunmore East in County Waterford has been a fishing settlement since Viking times. The harbour was expanded in the 1820s by engineer Alexander Nimmo. Councillor's Strand is wedged between two headlands — perfectly sheltered.
GPS: 52.1550, -6.9960
365 islands — one for every day of the year, locals say. In reality they are drumlins, elongated hills left by the ice age and now half-drowned in the Atlantic. Clew Bay in County Mayo stretches from Westport to Achill Island with Croagh Patrick — Ireland's holy mountain — towering 764 metres above the south side.
GPS: 53.8333, -9.8000
A mountain lake deep in the Shehy Mountains of County Cork with a small chapel on an island connected to the shore by a causeway. Here Saint Finbarr founded Cork's first monastery in the 6th century. Here the River Lee begins its journey all the way to Cork city. The silence is complete.
GPS: 51.8333, -9.3167
The building has four prows — like Titanic's hull seen head-on. Titanic Belfast opened in 2012 in County Antrim on the exact spot where the ship was built in 1909-1911. Nine interactive floors tell the story from drawing board to ocean floor. You stand in the original dry dock and look up.
GPS: 54.6081, -5.9103
You sail underground. Marble Arch Caves in County Fermanagh starts with a boat ride on an underground river before the path leads through chambers with stalactites and fossil corals from 330 million years ago. Cuilcagh Mountain Boardwalk starts from the same Geopark centre. Northern Ireland's most spectacular underground.
GPS: 54.2551, -7.8132
C.S. Lewis saw the Mourne Mountains from his window in Belfast — and created Narnia. Northern Ireland's highest mountains in County Down rise straight from the Irish Sea. Slieve Donard tops out at 850 metres. The Mourne Wall — 35 km of granite wall built 1904-1922 — is one of the world's most spectacular hiking routes.
GPS: 54.1333, -6.0000
5,500-year-old field systems buried under peat — older than the pyramids. Céide Fields in County Mayo is the world's oldest known agriculture: stone walls, houses and fields from the Neolithic age, preserved in the bog. The cliffs facing the Atlantic are 110 metres high.
GPS: 54.3066, -9.4570
Ireland's largest megalithic cemetery — 60 burial monuments scattered across green fields in County Sligo with Queen Maeve's grave (Knocknarea) as a backdrop. Carrowmore is 5,700 years old — older than Newgrange. The circular stone chambers are intact enough to walk into. Ben Bulben on the horizon.
GPS: 54.2508, -8.5193
Queen of the Glens. Glenariff is the most beautiful of Antrim's nine glens in County Antrim, and the forest park holds three waterfalls along a 3 km trail through moss-covered rainforest. Ess-na-Crub, Ess-na-Larach and Mare's Tail cascade into a gorge of ferns and oak trees.
GPS: 55.0194, -6.1185
Founded in 1200 by William Marshal — England's greatest knight — after a shipwreck and a vow to God. Tintern Abbey in County Wexford is named after its Welsh namesake. The Cistercian ruin stands surrounded by ancient woodland and Bannow Bay. The Colclough family lived in the abbey as a private home for 400 years.
GPS: 52.2357, -6.8358
244 metres above the sea, 360° views, a stone fort 2,000 years old. Grianan of Aileach in County Donegal was the seat of the O'Neill kingdom. The wall is 5 metres high and 4 metres thick. From the top you see Lough Foyle, Lough Swilly and the Inishowen Peninsula at once.
GPS: 55.0167, -7.4167
Game of Thrones was filmed here — and it's easy to see why. Tollymore in County Down is a fairy-tale forest of giant sequoias, stone arches and streams at the foot of the Mourne Mountains. The Shimna River flows under Gothic bridges. Stepping stones, cave formations and a silence broken only by birdsong.
GPS: 54.2160, -5.9170
Ireland's most dramatic coastal road — 47 km around the western tip of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry with the Blasket Islands as a backdrop. Slea Head Drive passes beehive huts (clocháns), Star Wars cliffs and beaches with turquoise water. The road is narrow, sheep have right of way, and every bend opens a new postcard.
GPS: 52.1062, -10.4692
The cliffs change colour — copper, emerald, ochre. 460 million years of geology exposed by the Atlantic. Copper Coast in County Waterford is Ireland's only UNESCO Global Geopark, named after copper mines from the 1800s. 25 km of coastline with sea stacks and Ordovician fossils.
GPS: 52.1423, -7.3650
Over 35,000 birds in breeding season. Puffins, gannets, razorbills, guillemots and cormorants nest on cliffs rising sheer from the sea at the Saltee Islands, County Wexford. Boat trip from Kilmore Quay (15 min). The island is uninhabited, but a self-proclaimed "prince" built a stone throne in 1956.
GPS: 52.1167, -6.6167
The Ring of Kerry's unknown little sister — and better. The Beara Peninsula in County Cork is wilder, less populated and more authentic. Ring of Beara (140 km) passes Healy Pass, Caha Pass, Allihies copper mines and Dursey Island. No tour buses, no queues. Just the Atlantic, the mountains and you.
GPS: 51.7247, -9.8373
A castle island in the middle of a lake, surrounded by 350 hectares of ancient forest. Lough Key Forest Park in County Roscommon is Ireland's midlands' best-kept secret. The Treetop Walk 9 metres up gives a bird's-eye view of the lake. Castle Island with the MacDermott castle ruin is the picture of Irish romance.
GPS: 53.9821, -8.2460
The Viking name gives it away: Carlingford — Kerlingfjörðr, the old woman's fjord — is a medieval town in County Louth that looks as though time stopped in the 1300s. Norman castle ruins, The Mint, the Tholsel gate and narrow streets. Carlingford Lough with the Cooley Mountains as backdrop.
GPS: 54.0400, -6.1883
Ireland's most laid-back surf destination. Strandhill in County Sligo sits at the foot of Knocknarea with Atlantic waves year-round. Voya Seaweed Baths offers warm seaweed baths after the session. Not for swimming (rip currents), but perfect for surfing, kiting and long beach walks.
GPS: 54.2705, -8.6090
Europe's only island cable car crosses Dursey Sound in County Cork — a strait with violent tidal currents. The cabin shares space with sheep and mail bags. Dursey Island has 6 permanent residents, no shops, no pub. Calf Rock, Cow Rock and Bull Rock on the horizon are rocky islets with seabird colonies.
GPS: 51.6094, -10.2097