Ireland Off The Beaten Path Tips by globetrott Top 5 Page for this destination

Clonfert

Clonfert in County Galway is nowadays just a tiny hamlet close to the ruins of Clonmacnoise. The only place of interest for tourists is this lovely church : Saint Brendan's Cathedral that was built together with the monastery of Clonfert in the 6th century. It was destroyed in 1541 and not rebuilt again. In its high time the monastery had 3000 monks, but you will not find a lot of traces of the monastery any more today.
Nevertheless the entrace to the cathedral is quite interesting with the gothic sculptures of the 12th century, see also my other photographs !

Drumcliff

Drumcliff (sometimes also spelled Drumecliff) is an interesting village just about 8 km north of Sligo. There are the remains of a celtic round tower and also an interesting celtic High Cross at the cemetery, just a few meters from the grave of William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), Irish poet and dramatist and winner of the Nobel prize for literature. On his gravestone you will just see the inscription :

Cast a cold eye
on life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
these lines are taken out of one of his last poems

Carrowmore and Carrowkeel

Carrowmore and Carrowkeel are a wide area of neolithic stonegraves, just about 10 km from Sligo. It is interesting to see these giant structures, beeing several thousands of years old. The grave of Queen Maeve is the most famous of these tombs.
All of this area is closeby the mainroad and you can walk around there any time freely and without restrictions !

Website: http://www.carrowkeel.com/files/main.html

Boyle Abbey in County Roscommon

Boyle Abbey is a quite well preserved Cistercian monastery and it dates back to the 12th century. In the 17th and 18th century Boyle Abbey was used as a military garnison but it still looks great with long cloisters and other fine details.
There is an exhibition inside a restored gatehouse dating back to the 16th/17th century !

You will find the abbey in Boyle town, off the N4 (the Dublin-Sligo Road).
Restricted access for people with disabilities.
Guided Tours: Every hour from 10.00 - 17.00
The abbey is open for visitors
between Easter and end of October : 10am-6pm
Last admission is 45 minutes before closing.
Average Length of Visit: 1 Hour.

Askeaton Abbey in County Limerick

Askeaton Abbey was founded as a Franciscan Friary in 1389 and although it is just a ruin today, the abbey still shows some great cloisters with a total length of 60 meters, carved from limestone, beautiful transepts, the east window, the carving of St Francis and the chapter room, which is the final resting place of two Irish martyrs. Some Earls of Desmond are buried in the abbey as well. Like many other abbeys in Ireland it was destroyed several times but always rebuilt again untill it had burned down in 1847.
Askeaton is in County Limerick, in order to get there take road N69 and drive into the west of the town of Limerick.

Fore Abbey in County Westmeath

Fore Abbey in county Westmeath dates back to the year 630 AD and it is the only remaining Benedictine monastery-ruins in Ireland. 300 monks were once living there, when St. Fechin had founded Fore monastery here.
Fore Abbey is about 60 km north-west of Dublin.

The Irish heritage Park in Wexford

Once I arrived by ferry in Wexford and thought that this place is great to start to explore Ireland from, because it shows you various excamples of houses and ways of living over the last 5000 years in Ireland. It will help you to understand many things a lot better, when getting around the irish landscape.
You will need at least 2 hours to explore all of this great museum !

Johnston castle

Johnston castle is an interesting castle in a distance of about 6km west of Wexford. You will pass by it, when driving along the main road to the west towards Waterford. You can park your car in the giant castle-park. I did not go inside the castle, but I had a nice walk in the park in order to take my photographs.
Johnston castle houses the Irish Agricultural Museum and it has a large park around it. There is an entrance fee for the park, and that fee includes the parking of your car as well.

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey is just a ruin nowadays, but quite impressive :
This Cistercian abbey was founded by William, Earl Marshall and he named it after Tintern, a village in Wales.
The Abbey was inhabited by the Colclough family from the 16th century until 1960s. You will find this interesting ruin 16km south of New Ross off the R734 road or 29km from Wexford off the Wexford to Ballyhack road R733.

Tintern Abbey is open for visitors :
Mid June - Late September: Daily 10.00am - 6.00pm
October: Daily 10.00am - 5.00pm

lots of bears in Dingle-Island

In Dingle Peninsula you will find this lovely house, decorated with lots of bears in the most beautiful way. Just take a look at the many great details, there is also a big car-parking next to it with a great view of the Blasket islands !!It used to be a B&B and I saw it first 15 years ago. These pics were taken at that time and last time I had been there, 5 years ago, plenty of the colors had faded a bit, but it still looked great.
Don't miss this lovely building, when driving the "Atlantic Drive". After having left Dingle-town to the west-end of the peninsula you will see this building with its fancy facade on the right after 3 or 4 km.