tel: +35391457898
Wendy Perrin- Morgenthal Cultural Ireland
Leslie & Richard Morgenthal
Monday 14th April – Monday 21st April 2025
Monday 14th April – Monday 21st April 2025
Picturesque coastal towns and villages, green pastoral fields, soaring cliffs, wild barren landscapes, the crash of the ocean, the laugh of a local. Ireland is romantic, authentic, a home away from home where both old and modern seem to cohabit seamlessly on a small island in the middle of the sea. Packed with history and tradition your days are spent exploring the island of Ireland’s famous and off-the-beaten-track sites of natural, cultural and political interest. A world-renowned food scene means your evenings are spent dining in style and with the promise of a pub just around the corner, music and laughter are never far away. Your trip to Ireland will surprise and delight you but the people of Ireland will stay with you, long after your journey has taken you home.
With your first week in Ireland completed tour Art Tour coming to an end in Liss Ard Estate, your private Wilderness Ireland guide will be delighted to meet you there bright and early so we can take advantage of the full day.
We start by making our way to the Beara Peninsula and meeting a local archaeologist Aoibheann who spends her time finding, researching and documenting neolithic and megalithic rock art of which there are significant concentrations in Kerry. Exploring this remote peninsula, your guide introduces us to this enigmatic and little-known ‘first cousin’ to passage tomb art. We discuss how to recognise rock art, the landscapes in which it is found and the current thinking on its meaning and purpose.
This evening your guide will take you to dinner where you an toast your week ahead.
Overnight: Sheen Falls Lodge
Room Type: Superior Deluxe Room
Meals Included: Lunch and Dinner
Killarney National Park is the most famous of Ireland’s national parks – and with good reason, as it is flourishing with breathtaking mountains, lakes and waterfalls. Historic manor houses and abbeys make for an interesting visit, but Killarney is best explored via a private boat trip across the lake with a boatman whose furry friends join him daily.
Join Dux on a calm boat tour across the lakes of Killarney surrounded by the mountains on all sides.
Before leaving Killarney we suggest you step back into the past on Muckross Traditional Farms and visit a very different Ireland – the Ireland of the 1930s and 1940s. Then, a trip to the well was still a daily chore for the housewife and electricity had yet to be introduced to the countryside.
Overnight: Sheen Falls Lodge
Room Type: Superior Deluxe Room
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
Today you will travel to the southern shores of the Iveragh peninsula, also known as The Ring of Kerry, where you will meet one of our favourite characters. A fisherman, foraging expert, storyteller and a true Irish gent, John, will take you on a wander along the shoreline learning about life on Ireland’s west coast all the while regaling you with tales of characters from the region, from lonely monks to 18th century civil rights activists to mythical heroes.
Take some time today to tour The Ring of Kerry stopping at picturesque bays and harbours and points of interest along the way before returning to your hotel in Kerry this evening.
Overnight: Sheen Falls Lodge
Room Type: Superior Deluxe Room
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
We leave behind the mountains of Kerry this morning and make our way farther north, across the mouth of the river Shannon, and into Co Clare, home to the Burren region of Ireland.
Use the quiet of the afternoon to visit Ireland’s famed Cliffs of Moher, part of the UNESCO Global Geopark, a special region with outstanding geology. Visually stunning, the Cliffs Stand 702ft at their highest point and stretch for 5 miles along the Atlantic coast. Take in the views, stop into the visitors centre, and most of all, take a family selfie for those at home.
Check into your small boutique hotel this evening in a secluded part of the countryside with an award-winning tasting menu.
Overnight: Ballyvaughan | Gregans Castle
Room Type: Superior
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
It’s hard to resist the allure of one of the many islands that dot the Irish coastline and today you will take to the water and ferry to The Aran Islands. The history of these islands goes back millennia and today Gaelic is still the daily spoken language of the inhabitants.
The Aran islands seem to defy their size by all they have to offer: breathtaking scenery, medieval castles, cliffs and prehistoric forts are all to be found on this little group of islands. Inis Mór, the largest of the three islands, is your destination today where you will meet two brothers who offer a unique off-road adventure of the islands.
Overnight: Ballyvaughan | Gregans Castle
Room Type: Superior
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
You continue your exploration from Clare to Connemara, once described as “a savage beauty” by author Oscar Wilde.
En route, we take the opportunity to stop in Galway City, a charming Medieval-era city with a thriving arts and culture scene. Poets, musicians, actors and playwrights have long held Galway as an inspiration mecca but Galway holds a turbulent history, one of clan sieges and tribe wars.
Take a deep dive into Galway’s past with a local historian who’s knowledge of her streets is second to none.
After, we visit one of Ireland’s most picturesque gardens on a magical journey into the heart of Celtic heritage and mythology. Set within 11 acres of native woodland & wildflower meadows, enjoy the sun trail, an ancient ring fort (fairy fort), thatched roundhouse and crannóg, and the largest sundial in Ireland.
Your hotel this evening is a favourite of ours, buried in the heart of Connemara, surrounded by the Twelve Bens Mountain range with a history as colourful and expansive as the grounds she sits on.
Overnight: Connemmara | Ballynahinch Castle Hotel
Room Type: Luxury
Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch
Drive through the windswept Twelve Bens Mountain Range to Killary, Ireland’s only fjord. Start the day with a visit to a local sheep farm for a private sheepdog demo in this wild and remote landscape. From there, walk an abandoned famine route along the southern shoreline of the fjord.
After a pit stop at a local café for lunch, we have the option to visit Kylemore Abbey, a haven of history, beauty, and serenity and home to a Benedictine order of Nuns for the past 100 years or transfer you back to Ballynahinch Castle where you will have some free time to enjoy the estate this afternoon on a guided estate walk and boat experience.
Dinner this evening will be a birthday celebration in the award-winning Owenmore Restaurant or if preferred, we can head into the local village Clifden we are sure to find some live music.
Overnight: Connemmara | Ballynahinch Castle Hotel
Room Type: Luxury
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
This morning, either your guide or a private transfer will take you to Shannon Airport for your afternoon flights to Boston.
We truly hope that your time exploring Ireland with us has been memorable and we welcome the opportunity to once again, come explore the Emerald Isle.
Meals Included: Breakfast
Room upgrades are available in all hotels
The per-person price of this trip is €11,430, based on availability at the time of booking.
A €12 pp Wilderness Conservation and Community Fund donation is included. Please let your trip designer know if you wish to opt-out.
Please see our booking terms here.
