The top ten most beautiful places to visit in Ireland

Make your next vacation to the Emerald Isle special and visit these favorites

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

12 Comments

The Cliffs of Moher, in County Clare, should be on everyone's list of "must sees" in Ireland

Photo by Google Images

Tweet

But don’t get the wrong impression – just because many people flock to the site, this in no way spoils the experience of being there; it’s easy to forget your surroundings and lose yourself in nature as you stand near the edge of the majestic Cliffs.

4. Giant’s Causeway

The Giant's Causeway, a coastal area of about 40,000 basalt columns near the town of Bushmills in County Antrim, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.

Folklore tells us that  an Irish giant named Finn MacCool once lived in the area, and from across the sea he could see a Scottish giant, Benandonner, his rival, whom he had never met.

Finn challenged Benandonner to come to Ireland to fight. Because no boat was big enough to carry the giant, Finn built a causeway of stones in the water so that Benandonner would be able to make it across.

When Finn realized the Scottish giant was far bigger than he had expected, he fled to the hills where his wife disguised him as a baby. This move foxed Bennadonner because he thought that if the child was that big, the father would be even bigger. Benandonner fled back to the Scotland, ripping up the causeway behind him, so that Finn wouldn’t be able to follow him.

In truth, Giant’s Causeway was created by a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago – an interesting fact, but the Finn MacCool myth is a bit more fun to believe.

No matter how it came to be, the Causeway is one of the best places to walk through in the North.

5. Aran Islands

A trip to Galway would be incomplete without a visit to the Aran Islands, the collective name for the small islands, Inishmór, Inishmaan and Inisheer. The mystical, frozen-in-time islands are famous for their preservation of a rural existence largely unchanged, at least culturally, over the centuries. There may be some electricity there these days, but the ways of the past are carefully preserved among locals who make their living much the same way their ancestors did.

The residents of the islands are happy to accommodate guests, whether by raising a pint in friendship or unraveling the folklore of the enchanted isles.

Elizabeth Zellinger, a Swiss citizen, moved to Inishmór, the largest island of the three, in 1974 and grew to love it so much that in 1996 she founded Celtic Spirit (www.irish-culture.ch), an organization that runs cultural vacation experiences on the island every summer. Groups of eight to 14 people shuttle back and forth to classes and workshops held at the Creig-an-Chéirín Center in Inishmór, overlooking the sea and the mountains of Connemara. The program is a great way to explore and learn about this fascinating island group.

Print

E-mail

Tweet