Top ten picturesque and historic villages in Ireland – PHOTOS

Experience the “real Ireland” in these proud heritage towns and villages

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Westport House, Co. Mayo

Photo by .mayo-ireland.ie

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Within the town you’ll see the 15th century Franciscan Friary, while outside the town is the surviving monastery, Mount St. Joseph’s Cistercian Abbey.

7 Westport, County Mayo

Westport, just next to Clew Bay, is one of the few planned towns in the country. An estate town, it was built to the plan of James Wyatt, an architect during the Georgian period. The Mall, one of the main streets in the town, an elegant tree lined street, is testament to this.

8 Youghal, County Cork

The past meets present at the mouth of the River Blackwater where Youghal is at once a prime example of a Norman walled port town and a modern seaside resort.

A walking tour of the town will allow you to walk in the footsteps of Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, and Sir Richard Boyle, among many more famous historical figures. You will also pass the 18th century clock tower, Victorian shop fronts, and 13th and 16th century dwellings.

9 Rosses Point, County Sligo

The Rosses Point, in the area famously known as “Yeats’ County”, guards Sligo Town’s harbor and is marked by the Metal Man lighthouse, built in 1821 by local seafarers.

North of Rosses Point, marine archaeologists have recently uncovered a wreck of the Spanish Armada which was storm-driven upon this coast in September 1588.

The poet William Butler Yeats and his brother, the artist Jack Butler Yeats, spent their summer holidays at Elsinore House, in Rosses Point.

Elsinore Lodge  was the seat of the Middleton Family where the Yeats brothers spent many a summer with their cousins. The house was built by the pirate captain John Black or Black Jack, and it is still said to be haunted by him (he supposedly knocks at the window pane three times, which should prove quite difficult at this stage). The house has fallen into disrepair, and even though plans to restore it emerge in the press every now and then, nothing has been done so far.

10 Cong, County Mayo

The village of Cong (which means “Saint Feichin’s narrows” in Gaelic / Irish) is situated on an island surround by a number of streams on all sides. The village was once home to Sir William Wilde, historian and father of the playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer, Oscar Wilde.

Cong is home to Ashford Castle, one of Ireland's finest hotels, converted from a Victorian faux lakeside castle, built by the Guinness family. The village also boasts of a fine example of a ruined medieval abbey, Cong Abbey, where Rory O'Connor, the last High King of Ireland, is buried.

The town has much more historical lore to be explored but it is probableymost famous, in contemporary times, as the location where Maureen O’Dowd’s “The Quiet Man” was filmed.

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