Cultural Tour of Ireland

Dublin Airport is 12km from the city center. Spend the first afternoon and evening in Dublin before picking up a car the next morning. Trinity College — Ireland's oldest university, founded by Elizabeth I in 1592 — is in the heart of the city and contains the Book of Kells: an 800 AD illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels that is one of the finest surviving examples of early medieval art and calligraphy. The National Museum of Ireland nearby is free and houses the Broighter Gold hoard, the Ardagh Chalice, and the extraordinary Tara Brooch. Grafton Street and the surrounding Georgian squares (St. Stephen's Green, Merrion Square) give the city its proper 18th-century character. First evening in the pubs of Baggot Street or Toner's (Yeats' local) rather than the tourist trail of Temple Bar. Order Guinness, wait for it to settle properly, and drink it at the bar.

• ✦ Trinity College and the Book of Kells — 800 AD illuminated masterpiece
• ✦ National Museum of Ireland — free, extraordinary Celtic gold
• ✦ Georgian Dublin — Merrion Square and St. Stephen's Green
• ✦ First Guinness, properly poured, in a genuine Dublin pub

Pick up a rental car and drive south through County Wicklow — the Garden of Ireland, a landscape of rounded glacial hills covered in heather and pine that begins just 30 minutes from Dublin. Glendalough (Valley of the Two Lakes) is a 6th-century monastic settlement in a glacially carved valley: two lakes, a perfectly preserved 33-meter round tower, and a collection of Romanesque churches and carved Celtic crosses. The setting is extraordinarily beautiful and the tranquility, even in summer, is remarkable. Continue south through the Wicklow Mountains to Killarney in County Kerry — Ireland's lake and mountain heartland, with the MacGillycuddy's Reeks (Ireland's highest peaks) rising above the three Killarney lakes. Check into your country house hotel and take an evening walk on the lake shores. Killarney National Park — one of Ireland's oldest — surrounds the town.

• ✦ Glendalough 6th-century monastic ruins in a glacial valley
• ✦ Wicklow Mountains drive — heather-covered glacial landscape
• ✦ Killarney lakes and the MacGillycuddy's Reeks
• ✦ Killarney National Park evening walk

The Ring of Kerry is a 179km circular route around the Iveragh Peninsula — Ireland's great coastal drive. The N70 and N71 roads hug the coastline of Kenmare Bay and the Skellig Ring, passing through the most dramatic scenery in Ireland: the Atlantic crashing against black rocks, the Skellig Islands visible offshore, and a succession of small towns (Glenbeigh, Cahirciveen, Waterville, Sneem, Kenmare) each with excellent pubs and seafood restaurants. The Skellig Michael UNESCO World Heritage Site — a pyramidal rock rising from the Atlantic with a 6th-century monastery clinging to its summit, its 600 stone steps cut directly into the cliff face — is the most extraordinary early Christian site in Ireland. Boat trips to Skellig Michael depart from Portmagee (book well in advance; weather-dependent) and take approximately 2.5 hours each way. Return to Killarney via Kenmare and the mountain pass road.

• ✦ Ring of Kerry 179km coastal circuit — Ireland's greatest scenic drive
• ✦ Skellig Michael boat trip — 6th-century monastery on a sea-cliff (book ahead)
• ✦ Kenmare town for lunch and the views across Kenmare Bay
• ✦ Atlantic viewpoints over the Skellig Islands

Drive north from Killarney to County Clare for two of Ireland's most extraordinary landscapes. The Cliffs of Moher rise 214 meters from the Atlantic in a 14km stretch of vertical rock face that extends along the coast like a geological wall at the edge of the continent — the abrupt terminus of Europe before the ocean. The Cliffs are most dramatic in morning light from the coastal path north of the Visitor Centre, before the tour buses arrive. The Burren, extending across 250 square kilometers of County Clare inland from the coast, is one of the strangest landscapes in Europe: limestone pavement, known as karst, covering an entire county in a mosaic of cracked grey slabs from which rare alpine, arctic, and Mediterranean wildflowers grow simultaneously (the result of the Burren's unique microclimate). The megalithic tomb of Poulnabrone — a 5,000-year-old portal dolmen on the Burren plateau — is one of Ireland's most photographed sites. Overnight in Doolin for the traditional music sessions.

• ✦ Cliffs of Moher — 214-meter vertical Atlantic cliff face
• ✦ Burren limestone pavement — one of Europe's strangest landscapes
• ✦ Poulnabrone Portal Dolmen (3000 BC) on the Burren plateau
• ✦ Doolin traditional music session in a village pub

Connemara in County Galway is Ireland at its most elemental — a landscape of blanket bog, granite mountains, and fjord-like sea inlets (loughs) carved by the Atlantic into the western coastline. The Twelve Bens mountain range and the Maamturk Mountains create a horizon of grey peaks above a foreground of dark amber bog and silver lakes. Clifden, Connemara's capital (if a town of 2,000 can be called that) is a pleasant base, with a good Saturday market and the Connemara Smokehouse selling wild Atlantic salmon smoked over oak. The Sky Road above Clifden is a 12km circuit with views over the Twelve Bens and the offshore islands that are among the finest in Ireland. The village of Roundstone — on a sheltered bay with traditional bodhran (Irish drum) makers, a craft brewery, and excellent seafood — is the most perfect Connemara village. Overnight in Clifden or the Ballynahinch Castle Hotel.

• ✦ Twelve Bens mountains and Connemara bog landscape
• ✦ Sky Road above Clifden — Atlantic views and offshore islands
• ✦ Roundstone village — bodhran makers, craft brewery, fresh seafood
• ✦ Ballynahinch Castle estate by a salmon river in the Connemara hills

Drive south from Connemara to Cong — a village on the shore of Lough Corrib that was the location for the 1952 John Ford film The Quiet Man, and home to Ashford Castle, the greatest castle hotel in Ireland. Even if not staying here, the castle's estate — 26,000 acres of Connemara forest and lakeshore — is worth a visit for afternoon tea in the Dungeon Bar. Lough Corrib, Ireland's second-largest lake, has exceptional fishing (brown trout and pike) and boat tours from Cong. The drive east through County Roscommon and County Westmeath passes through the Irish Midlands — not dramatic, but deeply genuine: farmland, market towns, and the long inland lakes of the Shannon system. Athlone, with its Norman castle and excellent restaurants on the Shannon waterfront, is a good stop for dinner. Return to Dublin via the M6 motorway.

• ✦ Ashford Castle estate and afternoon tea
• ✦ Lough Corrib boat tour — Ireland's second-largest lake
• ✦ The Quiet Man village of Cong
• ✦ Athlone Shannon waterfront dinner

Dublin Airport has direct flights to most US cities and European hubs. A final morning in Dublin belongs to Merrion Square — the Georgian park surrounded by the finest Georgian townhouses in the city, with Oscar Wilde's reclining statue in the corner, the National Gallery of Ireland (free) alongside, and the extraordinary collection of Irish landscape painting (Jack B. Yeats is the essential artist) in the modern wing. Pick up Irish provisions: Guinness (the real thing, brewed at St. James's Gate since 1759), Kerrygold butter, Jameson or Teeling whiskey, and soda bread from the Sheridan's Cheesemongers on South Anne Street. Dublin Airport's departure hall has a good Avoca shop for woolen goods. The Irish goodbye — which is to leave without saying goodbye — is not the right approach here. Say farewell properly.

• ✦ Merrion Square Georgian architecture and Oscar Wilde statue
• ✦ National Gallery of Ireland — free, with superb Jack B. Yeats collection
• ✦ Whiskey and Irish food shopping at Sheridan's Cheesemongers
• ✦ Direct flight home from Dublin Airport