The Mini Rough Guide to Ireland (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781785732904
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Make the most of your time with this brand-new, pocket-sized travel guide from Rough Guides Compact, concise and packed full of essential information about where to go and what to do, this is an ideal on-the-move guide for exploring Ireland. From top tourist attractions like The Rock of Cashel, The Dingle Peninsula and The Giant's Causeway to cultural gems, including The Book of Kells, Newgrange and Temple Bar, including a once in a lifetime trip along the Wild Atlantic Way and exploring the delights of The Cliffs of Moher and surfing Atlantic breakers in Lahinch, plan your perfect trip with this practical, all-in-one mini travel guide. Features of this travel guide to Ireland:
- Inspirational itineraries: discover the best destinations, sights and excursions, highlighted with stunning photography
- Historical and cultural insights: delve into the country's rich history and culture, and learn all about its people, art and traditions
- Things not to miss: the most essential sights and experiences at a glance
- Practical full-colour map: with every major sight and listing highlighted, the full-colour maps make on-the-ground navigation easy
- Key tips and essential information: from transport to tipping, dining out to where to stay, we've got you covered
- Covers: A Brief History, Where to Go, What to Do, Eating Out, A-Z Travel Tips, Recommended Hotels, and Special Features on history, events and special places to explore. Get the most out of your trip with: Rough Guide Mini Ireland About Rough Guides: Rough Guides have been inspiring travellers for over 35 years, with over 30 million copies sold globally. Synonymous with practical travel tips, quality writing and a trustworthy 'tell it like it is' ethos, the Rough Guides list includes more than 260 travel guides to 120+ destinations, gift-books and phrasebooks.

Out and About

The best way to see Ireland is by car, though various package deals or bus tours exist as an alternative. You can see a good deal of the country using public transport, although apart from the main routes, the bus schedules are designed more for locals than tourists.

iStock

Dublin’s Samuel Beckett Bridge

This book covers the highlights of the Republic and Northern Ireland, starting in Dublin and proceeding clockwise. We cannot describe all the sights – or all the counties – but wherever you go, you’ll enjoy Ireland best at an unhurried Irish pace.

Dublin

The Republic of Ireland’s capital (circa 1.4 million) is the birthplace and muse of many great authors, and an elegant European city with many outstanding examples of eighteenth-century architecture. From its noble avenues and intimate side streets to chic shopping and traditional pubs, Dublin 1 [map] is characterised by contrasting moods; a melting pot of old and new where traditional lace still masks modern windows. Amid all the historic monuments, lie museums, colleges, and sporting venues.

O’Connell Street to St Stephen’s Green

The main avenue in Dublin is O’Connell Street. Measuring 46m (150ft) across, it has several monuments to Irish history lined along the middle. The Millennium Spire, a 395-foot high stainless-steel monument, replaced the nineteenth-century Nelson’s Pillar blown up by anti-British rebels in 1966.

What’s in a name?

The city’s name comes from the Irish ‘Dubh Linn’, meaning ‘a dark pool’. The alternative Gaelic name, ‘Baile Átha Cliath’, means ‘the town of the hurdle ford’.

O’Connell Street’s most famous landmark is the General Post Office (GPO). The GPO served as the insurgents’ headquarters during the 1916 Easter Rising and was badly damaged in the fighting. A plaque on the front of the building commemorates the event. The onsite museum, GPO Museum Witness History, documents the 1916 Rising and its aftermath.

Just opposite O’Connell Bridge is the imposing monument honouring ‘The Liberator’, Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847, for more information, click here), after whom both the street and bridge are named.

From the bridge, wider than it is long, you can look along the embankments of the River Liffey. To the east rises the copper dome of the eighteenth-century Custom House. Like many buildings along the Liffey, it was badly damaged in the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) and subsequent Civil War (1922–23). Further east lies the shiny new IFSC (Irish Financial Services Centre), gateway to the high-rise Docklands area, with modern apartments and the 2,000-seat Grand Canal Theatre. To the west is the Ha’penny Bridge, so-called because that’s what it originally cost to cross.

Gareth Byrne Photography

The General Post Office

The imposing white building facing College Green on the south side of the River Liffey is a branch of the Bank of Ireland, originally home of the Irish parliament in the eighteenth century. The bank moved in when parliament was abolished by the Act of Union in 1801 (for more information, click here).

Behind the railings at the entrance to Trinity College A [map] are the statues of two famous alumni – philosopher Edmund Burke and playwright Oliver Goldsmith. Founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, Trinity is a timeless enclave of calm and scholarship in the middle of this bustling city. Until 1793 it was an exclusively Protestant institution, and the Catholic Church forbade Catholics to attend Trinity ‘under pain of mortal sin’ right up until the late 1960s. Today, TCD, as it is called, is integrated. Students lead informative college tours from a desk at the front porch (June–Sept daily, every 30-40 minutes from 9.45am; Oct–May Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon).

The campus forms a beautiful monument to academia and architecture, and visitors enjoy cobbled walks among trimmed lawns, fine old trees, statues, and stone buildings. You can also enjoy art exhibitions at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, (www.douglashydegallery.com) and the child-friendly Science Gallery (https://dublin.sciencegallery.com ).

The greatest treasures are in the vaulted Long Room in the Old Library (June–Sept Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 9.30am–6pm; Oct–May Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat 9.30am–5pm, Sun noon–4.30pm; www.tcd.ie), where double-decker shelving holds thousands of books published prior to 1800, and priceless early manuscripts are displayed in glass cases. In the adjacent Colonnades Gallery, queues of tourists reverently wait for a look at the Book of Kells. This 340-page parchment wonder, handwritten and illustrated by monks during the ninth century, contains a Latin version of the New Testament. The beauty of the script – the illumination (the decoration of initial letters and words) – and the bright abstract designs make this the most wonderful treasure to survive from Ireland’s Golden Age. The vellum leaves are turned every day to protect them from light and to give visitors a chance to come back for more.

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

Fellows Square and the Old Library at Trinity College

A left turn on leaving Trinity by the main gate brings you to the entrance of Grafton Street B [map] , the main shopping and social artery of the city’s southside. More than anywhere else, Grafton Street demonstrates Dublin’s knack for seeming to bustle and dawdle at the same time. Buskers entertain passers-by on their way to Brown Thomas, the city’s famous high-end department store, and other shopping emporiums, such as the stunning Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, and the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre at the south end.

Examples of Europe’s finest Georgian houses can be seen facing Merrion Square. The discreet, smart brick houses have Georgian doorways flanked by tall columns and topped by fanlights. No two are alike. In a complex of formal buildings on the west side of the square stands the city’s largest eighteenth-century mansion, Leinster House, once home to the dukes of Leinster. Today, Leinster House is the seat of the Irish parliament, which consists of the Senate (Seanad Éireann) and the Chamber of Deputies (the Dáil, pronounced ‘doyle’). Just north of here, on Merrion Square West, is the National Gallery.

At the entrance to the National Gallery of Ireland C [map] (Mon 11am–5.30pm, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri & Sat 9.45am–5.30pm, Sun 11.30am–5.30pm; permanent collection free, charge for some exhibitions; www.nationalgallery.ie) you will see a statue of George Bernard Shaw, the famous and respected Dubliner known locally as a benefactor of the institution. The gallery has a collection of over 16,300 artworks. Irish artists receive priority, but other nationalities are well represented, such as Dutch, English, Flemish, French, Italian, and Spanish masters, including Fra Angelico, Rubens, Rembrandt, Canaletto, Gainsborough, Goya, Van Gogh, and Renoir.

The main entrance to the National Museum of Ireland D [map] (Tues, Wed, Thurs & Fri 10am–5pm, Sun & Mon 1–5pm; free; www.museum.ie), a Dublin institution showcasing the country’s archaeology and history, is reached from Kildare Street. Its collection of antiquities holds several surprises, from Irish bog bo...

Table of contents

• 10 Things Not To Miss
• A Perfect Tour of Ireland
• Overview
• History and Culture
• Out and About
• Things To Do
• Food and Drink
• Where To Eat
• A–Z Travel Tips
• Where To Stay