Sample One Day Tour
The landscape of Ireland is at once breathtaking and extremely easy on the eye. It is readily absorbed and experienced once a visitor is kept fully informed by an enthusiastic tour guide. Experiencing our man made heritage to its fullest extent requires the assistance of a skillset that understands the origin of this heritage and how it has survived to a lesser or greater extent up to the present time. Looking at something that has existed for a millennium or more may be compared to looking at a distant object through a telescope. Yes, the object itself can be clearly seen, however, much of what has happened between the past and the present is somewhat compressed to a point where a whole other epic or narrative is completely lost.
Here is a sample one day tour where the scenery will form a continuous backdrop to an entertaining and informative journey. The visitor will experience how our man made heritage is kept alive up to the present moment by having all the pieces in between its creation and the present time , clearly narrated. Contact us if you would like to discuss booking your tour.
Carrauntoohil. Kerry
8am.
Journey from Dublin City centre to Tara in Co. Meath, seat of our ancient High Kings. Legend has it that St. Patrick, our Patron Saint once lit a huge fire on the Hill of Slane some 10 miles distant, in opposition to a pagan festival fire ablaze on the Hill of Tara. Thus it is supposed, from here our journey from paganism to Christianity began.
10.00am.
Trim Castle. A magnificent Norman castle partially restored, giving a unique perspective of life within a fortified citadel eight centuries past. Allow the imagination to live in an era when the world was lit only by fire and knights clad in shining armour moved noisily between commoners, barefoot and in threadbare clothes.
Trim Castle
12md.
Loughcrew. A Neolithic burial site in Co. Meath, more than 5000 years old and from where eighteen counties can be seen on a clear day. Myth and reality combine here, in the form of a huge rock known as the Hag’s Chair where a prehistoric witch cast her benign spells. A nearby courtyard of restored farm buildings with thatched roofs and incorporating a café, provides a welcome rest stop and a view of rural life from a bygone era.
2pm.
Mellifont Abbey. The partially preserved ruins of a Cistercian Abbey. ‘Mellifont’ comes from the Latin phrase, Melli-fons, meaning ‘Font of Honey’ Set in rolling farmland, the daily life of monks is easily imagined as they as they toiled and prayed in medieval Ireland. A monastic life flourished here for almost four hundred years until the Tudor suppression of the monasteries.
3.30pm.
Malahide Castle, family seat of the Talbot dynasty. On the outskirts of Dublin City, a perfectly preserved castle set in landscaped parkland. Suits of armour, swords and numerous medieval artefacts, are all resplendent under the watchful gaze of portraits of ancient noblemen and ladies. From here fourteen members of the Talbot family rode out to the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. By nightfall only one remained alive. Five ghosts are reputed to haunt the castle, a very comfortable abode for all of them.
