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Ireland’s top ten most popular tourist attractions for 2011 named - PHOTOS

Top fee-paying and free tourist attractions in Ireland identified

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, June 8, 2011, 7:38 AM

Updated Wednesday, June 8, 2011, 12:50 PM

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Cliffs of Moher

PHOTOS - Ireland’s top ten most popular tourist attractions for 2011 photo gallery

Failte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority, has revealed the 2011 list of fee-paying and free attractions around Ireland.

Dublin Zoo, who have welcomed many new arrivals this year including giraffes and gorillas, came in at first place in the fee-paying category while the National Gallery of Ireland maintained its dominance in the free attractions category.

The authority said that although 2010 was the most difficult year in tourism in decades the popularity of the attractions remained high.

FEE-PAYING

1.         Dublin Zoo

Failte Ireland reported that its numbers grew by almost seven percent in 2010 to 960,000.

The Zoo opened in 1813. It is the largest zoo in Ireland covering 24 hectares (59 acres) of Phoenix Park.

This May the zoo welcomed 12 new arrivals including a litter of piglets in the “Family Farm”, a blackbuck calf, a Sulawesi-crested macaque. Also in the last year the zoo welcomed a new giraffe and gorilla.

www.dublinzoo.ie

2. Guinness Storehouse

The Guinness Storehouse, at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, has welcomed over 4 million visitors in the last decade. The Storehouse introduces the beer's four ingredients, water, barley, hops and yeast, as well as the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness.

Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and an interactive exhibit that encourages responsible drinking. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present day brewing process.

The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar where visitors may claim a complimentary pint of Guinness and enjoy the 360° views over Dublin City.

www.guinness-storehouse.com

3.         National Aquatic Centre

National Aquatic Centre is a water-sports facility near the village of Blanchardstown Dublin. The NAC was built to be "the home of Irish swimming", with modern facilities such as a 50m competition pool (one of only three in Ireland), diving pool with movable floor, and leisure centre — it is Ireland's largest indoor water leisure facility.

www.nationalaquaticcentre.ie

4.         Cliffs of Moher

The most famous and breathtaking parts of Ireland’s craggy west coastline are the Cliffs of Moher, which feature some of the most breathtaking views on the entire island.

The Cliffs stretch for almost five miles and rise up to 702-feet over the waters of the Atlantic ocean. The amazing view from the Cliffs includes the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, The Twelve Pins and the Maum Turk Mountains.

The landscape and seascape of the Cliffs of Moher have, for centuries, welcomed a multitude of visitors; close to one million people per year now travel to this iconic location.

www.cliffsofmoher.ie

5. The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks 800 AD or slightly earlier. It is a masterwork of Western calligraphy and is widely regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure.

It is on permanent display at the Trinity College Library, Dublin. The library usually displays two of the current four volumes at a time, one showing a major illustration and the other showing typical text pages.

www.tcd.ie/Library/bookofkells

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FREE ATTRACTIONS

1.         The National Gallery of Ireland

National Gallery of Ireland continued its dominance as the favored free attraction, recording more than 736,000 visitors last year.

Although it’s not the Louvre, the National Gallery of Ireland does have its charms and when visiting Dublin art lovers should make some time for a leisurely stroll. Situated at Merrion Square near the home and birthplace of Oscar Wilde and close to the National Museum in Kildare Street it is not too out of the way. And the small but exquisite collection of renowned masterpieces, including an only recently discovered Caravaggio, will make the visit definitely worth your while.

www.nationalgallery.ie

2.          Botanic Gardens

The National Botanic Gardens are located in Glasnevin, north-west of Dublin city centre. The 27 acres (19.5 hectares), are situated between Prospect Cemetery and the River Tolka where it forms part of that river's floodplain.

The gardens were founded in 1795 by the Dublin Society (later the Royal Dublin Society) and they have grown to hold 20,000 living plants and many millions of dried plant specimens. There are several architecturally notable greenhouses.

www.botanicgardens.ie

3.          Irish Museum of Modern Art

The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is Ireland's leading national institution exhibiting and collecting modern and contemporary art. The museum opened in May 1991 and is located in Royal Hospital Kilmainham, a 17th-century building near Heuston Station to the west of Dublin's city centre.

www.modernart.ie

4.         Farmleigh

Farmleigh was formerly one of the Dublin residences of the Guinness family. It is situated in the civil parish of Castleknock on an elevated position above the River Liffey to the north-west of the Phoenix Park. The estate of 78 acres (32 ha) consists of extensive private gardens with stands of mature cypress, pine and oak trees, a boating pond, walled garden, sunken garden, out offices and a herd of rare native Kerry cattle.

As if this location needed anymore press after Queen Elizabeth II made it her based during her visit to Ireland this May.

www.farmleigh.ie

5.         Holy Cross Abbey

The Holy Cross Abbey in Tipperary is a restored Cistercian monastery situated on the River Suir. It takes its name from a relic of the True Cross or Holy rood. The fragment of that Holy rood was brought to Ireland by the Plantagenet Queen, Isabella of Angouleme around 1233.

The Holy Rood relic was last exposed for public veneration in 1632, and following the Cromwellian war, Holy Cross Abbey fell into ruins. Local people used the roofless ruins as a burial place after 1740. It became a scheduled national monument in 1880, "to be preserved and not used as a place of worship".

Special legislation in the Dáil on its 50th anniversary, 21 January 1969, enabled Holy Cross Abbey to be restored as a place of Catholic worship, exceptionally for a national monument. The Sacristan of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican provided an authenticated relic of the Holy Cross, and the emblem of the Jerusalem Cross, or Crusader Cross, has been restored for the Abbey.

www.holycrossabbey.ie

PHOTOS - Ireland’s top ten most popular tourist attractions for 2011 photo gallery

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8 Comments

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joycean | Jun 27, 2011, 07:25 PM EDT

Some of these places may be nice, but are not unique: a zoo, botanical gardens, a water park, museums, even breweries. Every American city has those things, and probably better examples. Not really worth crossing an ocean to see.

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mamaginnty | Jun 15, 2011, 04:44 PM EDT

A little bit over the top..Towngate, every country had its days of loin cloth pants, bows and arrows, cowboys and indians. No way did Britain ifluence the irish brain in medicine , science blah blah, they wanted no schooling for the irish at all. The irish gave thier sweat to put England and America where it is today. Yes our country is in a financial mess just now, but the ordinary irsh man did not do this, big time billionaire gamblers ruined us as well as our then government. We irish are a proud people, no low self esteem here boyo.

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WoundedKnee | Jun 12, 2011, 09:33 AM EDT

What garbage, towngate. Who the hell do you think built the Georgian squares, the castles etc? They were Irish workers and craftsmen, you idiot! Take your low self esteem elsewhere.

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Towngate | Jun 11, 2011, 09:04 AM EDT

Bunkerhill: Good stuff! and points well made on Cathy's splendid Post. I wonder if the kink in the Irish psyche about not 'strutting their stuff' is the fact that they would have to bite the bullet and accept that many of its achievements in arts,literature,architecture,medicine, science, etc.,were made under British influence. The building of the Cities, towns,Castles,harbours,waterways roads and railways and Civic, Education and Judicial systems established by them are retained by the current Masters of Ireland. ~ ~ ~ Of course it would be marvellous for us to be able to claim these things as our own - but we can't. We are wearing a coat that belongs to someone else! We will never know what Ireland would have achieved in the last 800 years left to its own devices and without interference from abroad - but my quess - based on the shenannigans that went on before the 'English' arrived - is that they would have carried on their murderous internicine wars ... (as in N.I.) ...until there was virtually nobody left standing, ... and then some foreign power would have walked straight in anyway! ... and the country would be a reflection of Spain,France,Holland, China, India... or whoever! ~ ~ ~ But here we are today; stupified and confused by our British Identity Crisis,unsure of our standing in the world,waking up to the Horror of owing 100 billion euro to our foreign friends - for which we can blame nobody but ourselves and which we despair of ever being able to pay back. ~ ~ Tragically ... No strong powerful and visionary leaders stepped forward in the last Election and the present cobbled occupants of The Dail are beginning to behave exactly like the last ones. "God Save Ireland,cried the Hero!".

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mickmickt | Jun 09, 2011, 07:49 AM EDT

what about the giants causeway?

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phinsman | Jun 08, 2011, 05:29 PM EDT

I wish there were more places listed outside of Dublin... Dublin is too metropolitan for me.

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bunkerhill | Jun 08, 2011, 04:31 PM EDT

I really commend Irish Central for this article and information. I can see that while you keep in touch with current events affecting the younger generations, and rightly so, you are also very interested in Ireland's historic past which actually has been lost to the world to a large degree. It seems when most people, not of Irish descent, think of Ireland they think of the potato famine and all the dreadful images. In actual fact it was not a famine as there was plenty of food, but no one ever seems to say that. There is never a mention of Ireland's glorious historic past in every endeavor. I feel this contributes to low Irish self esteem. The neighbors next door strut their stuff to Hollywood and the world always dressed in their most magnificent finery, at commoner's expense of course. While Ireland always seems to dwell on the worst of times with no mention of castles, literature, megaliths, seafaring and everything else they have accomplished back to time immemorial. There is something wrong with this picture. However you are publishing their history and that will be so enlightening to so many. Again many thanks.

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amkerri | Jun 08, 2011, 10:41 AM EDT

Queen VICTORIA visited Farmleigh this May??!!??

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