Leinster

Founded by Vikings in the 10th century as a trading settlement, Dublin is a city rich in history and culture. The River Liffey divides the city into Northside and Southside, with numerous attractions along its banks including the Custom House and the Famine Memorial. The city's crown jewel is the Book of Kells at Trinity College, an illuminated manuscript from around 800 CE featuring intricate Celtic motifs. The Guinness Storehouse, spanning seven floors, tells the story of Ireland's national brew. Phoenix Park, one of Europe's largest city parks at 707 hectares, features wild deer roaming freely and houses both Dublin Zoo and the residence of Ireland's President. Nature enthusiasts can visit the 'Dead Zoo', Dublin's natural history museum featuring exotic taxidermy and whale skeletons that has remained largely unchanged since Victorian times. The city's architectural heritage includes Christ Church, a 1,000-year-old Viking cathedral that houses religious relics and Ireland's first Magna Carta3. For contemporary culture, the 120-metre stainless steel Spire of Dublin stands as an eye-catching modern landmark that is particularly stunning when illuminated at night.

Malahide Castle, set on 260 acres of parkland 16 km north of Dublin, was home to the Talbot family from 1185 to 1975. The land was originally granted to Richard Talbot by King Henry II in 1174, with the oldest part—a three-storey tower house—dating back to the 12th century. The castle holds significant historical importance, with 14 Talbot family members perishing in the Battle of the Boyne, and houses one of the most famous portraits of this epic battle. The atmospheric castle, which is said to be haunted, features period furniture, Irish portraiture on loan from the National Gallery, and offers various attractions including gardens, playgrounds, a butterfly house and a fairy trail1. The botanical gardens showcase Lord Milo Talbot's expertise, containing over 5,000 plant specimens from the Southern Hemisphere, including a rose garden and seven glasshouses with a Victorian conservatory. Intriguingly, the last resident, Milo Talbot, was not only a renowned gardener and botanist but also a British diplomat and former head of security for the UK foreign office, who died under mysterious circumstances during a Greek cruise in 1973—with no post-mortem conducted and his personal papers mysteriously burned by his sister Rose.

Castletown House stands as Ireland's most imposing Georgian estate, where it was built between 1722 and 1729 for William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, featuring a central block flanked by two pavilions connected by Ionic colonnades, with kitchens on one side and stables on the other. The fascinating Print Room, created by Lady Louisa Conolly, showcases an early form of decoration where prints were collected and pasted onto walls as wallpaper. Visitors can explore the unique Print Room, the impressive 80-foot Long Gallery, and the Portland stone staircase, whilst wandering through beautiful parklands that feature river walks, a temple, the remains of a bathing house, and stunning yew trees. The house maintains an active events programme throughout the year, hosting concerts, markets, and craft fairs, including mezzo-soprano performances and piano recitals.

The Wonderful Barn was commissioned by Katherine Conolly, widow of William Conolly (Speaker of the Irish House of Commons), and built in 1743 by John Glin. This remarkable five-storey conical structure features five vaulted chambers with thick walls of limewashed brick and cut-limestone, rising 22.25 metres high, with a battlemented viewing platform accessible via an external spiral staircase. Whilst primarily serving as a grain store during famine relief, it also functioned as an ornamental eyecatcher for Castletown House and offered impressive views as a prospect tower. The site includes two smaller replica structures used as dovecotes, where pigeons fed on spilt grain and were later harvested for their meat in winter. Now owned by Kildare County Council since 2005, the structure has undergone conservation work including repairs to its masonry and roof.

The magnificent Kilkenny Castle stands proudly on the banks of the River Nore, offering opulent rooms and beautifully landscaped gardens, with eight centuries of history within its walls. The city served as Ireland's capital from 1641 to 1649 and is known as the Marble City due to its distinctive black marble, maintaining its medieval character with well-preserved buildings. Visitors can explore some of Ireland's finest food producers, restaurants, cafes, breweries and distilleries, with an incredible array of dining options and a thriving artisan food community. Cultural highlights include Rothe House, Black Abbey, the Medieval Mile Museum, and the historic Smithwicks brewery where you can sample Ireland's oldest ale. Beyond the city, charming towns and villages along the River Nore offer excellent opportunities for walking, kayaking and cycling, particularly around the village of Graiguenamanagh and the beautiful River Barrow. The city is renowned for its craft and design workshops, the Watergate Theatre, and hosts notable annual events including the Kilkenny Arts Festival, the Cat Laughs comedy festival, and the Kilkenny Roots Festival.

Emo Court is a fine country villa designed by architect James Gandon, who is best known for his great public buildings including the Custom House and Four Courts in Dublin. The estate features over 35 hectares of naturalistic landscaped grounds, with formal lawns, a lake and woodland walks, whilst the extensive grounds are decorated with Greek sculptures and contain over 1,000 different trees, including huge sequoias1. Visitors can spot Irish red squirrels, which are native to the estate, along with rare birds including buzzards and egrets. The estate's history dates back to the early 18th century when Ephraim Dawson, a wealthy banker after whom Dublin's Dawson Street is named, purchased the land and married Anne Preston, heiress to the Emo Park Estate. In 1994, the estate was presented to the people of Ireland and is now cared for by the Office of Public Works6. Visitors can enjoy refreshments at the CaToCa Tea Rooms, housed in what was once the original Dower House of the Estate.

Monasterboice features an intriguing monastic site nestled in sweeping farmland, originally founded in the 5th or 6th century by St Buithe, a follower of St Patrick, though the site likely had pre-Christian significance. The site's high crosses are superb examples of Celtic art that were originally brightly painted and served an educational purpose, bringing the gospels alive for the uneducated. Near the entrance stands Muiredach's Cross, one of Ireland's most popular high crosses, standing sixteen feet tall and named after the abbot who created it. A magnificent round tower, about 35 metres high and divided into multiple stories, looms over the site; it served as both a watchtower and refuge during Viking attacks. The monastery's monks were renowned for their metalworking and manuscript illumination skills, creating beautiful works that are now displayed in museums worldwide. Today, visitors can enjoy traditional Irish cuisine at the historic Monasterboice Inn, which has been run by the Donegan family for eight generations and specialises in steak and scampi whilst promoting local artisan producers.

Knowth is the largest passage mound in Ireland, with the enormous main mound measuring 85 by 95 metres in diameter and covering more than an acre of ground. The site can only be accessed via guided tour from the Brú na Bóinne Visitors Centre, with visits typically taking about 2 hours. It houses the largest collection of engraved megalithic art in the world, carved on over 400 kerbstones and construction stones, which visitors can view by walking a complete circuit around the main mound3. Remarkably, the entrances to the large passage tomb are positioned so the light of the rising and setting sun enters the tomb at the spring and autumn equinoxes. After its initial use as a burial site, Knowth evolved significantly through history, becoming a royal residence in the early Middle Ages and eventually the capital of the Kingdom of Northern Brega. The site features six early Christian souterrains built into its side, and archaeological discoveries have revealed remnants of bronze and iron workings from the Beaker folk and Celtic periods.

Perched elegantly atop a hill overlooking the River Boyne, Slane Castle has been home to the Conynghams since the 1700s and was constructed under the direction of William Burton Conyngham. The castle was designed in Gothic-revival style by renowned architects James Wyatt and Francis Johnson, featuring dramatic gates at the Mill Hill entrance that are considered outstanding examples of gothic design. The castle has a rich musical heritage, with U2 recording their album 'The Unforgettable Fire' whilst staying there in 1984 and filming 'Pride (In The Name of Love)' in the Gothic Revival Ballroom, whilst other legendary performers including The Rolling Stones, Madonna, David Bowie, Queen, and Bruce Springsteen have headlined concerts at the venue. Nature enthusiasts can enjoy fishing in the River Boyne, which contains Atlantic salmon, sea trout, brown trout, pike, and perch, with the fishery featuring wide and deep stretches interspersed with beautiful weirs and fast-flowing water, nestled in a natural valley surrounded by woodland. Visitors can take a 45-minute castle tour and visit the Slane Whiskey Distillery, housed in 250-year-old stables, where they can observe the whiskey distilling process in the cooperage, barley room and maturation warehouse, concluding with a whiskey tasting.

This impressive 90-room castle, still home to Lord & Lady Rosse and their family, is only open to visitors during summer months. Originally built as a Norman structure in 1170, it was later acquired by the Parsons family in the 1620s. The castle gained worldwide recognition when William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, built the 'Leviathan of Parsonstown' in 1845 - a massive reflecting telescope with a six-foot-wide mirror that led to the first identification of spiral galaxies. The award-winning gardens feature 120 acres of rare trees and over 5,000 plant varieties, including one of the world's tallest box hedges, which was planted in the 1780s and stands 12 metres high. Today, the castle grounds house a cutting-edge astrophysics facility connected to the International LOFAR Telescope, whilst visitors can enjoy modern amenities including a three-storey fairy tale treehouse and a café.

Tullynally Castle, originally built in the mid-1650s, stands as the largest castle in Ireland still serving as a family home. The Pakenham family has called it home for over 300 years, after Henry Pakenham purchased it in 1655, with the family later becoming the Earls of Longford through marriage to a Longford heiress in 1740. The castle boasts over 120 rooms filled with fine artworks, antique furniture and intricate tapestries, including a stunning Chinese Room adorned with hand-painted wallpaper and porcelain artefacts. The expansive 30-acre gardens feature a Grotto Path, a Walled Garden, two ornamental lakes, a Gingerbread House and one of Ireland's largest Kitchen Gardens complete with hothouses that once provided peaches and grapes—and curiously, two friendly llamas keep watch over the grounds. The current estate reflects the travels of Thomas Pakenham, with woodland gardens enriched by exotic trees and plants collected as seeds from China, Tibet and India.

Originally a 13th-century castle, Powerscourt House was transformed into a grand Palladian mansion by architect Richard Cassels between 1731-1741. The 64-square-kilometre estate's main draws are its formal gardens and stunning views5. Key attractions include the Tower Valley, Japanese gardens, winged horse statues, Triton Lake, pet cemetery, Dolphin Pond, walled gardens, Bamberg Gate and Italian Garden. The estate features Ireland's highest waterfall at 121 metres, located about 6km from the main grounds4. The 20-hectare landscaped gardens were designed in the 19th century by Daniel Robinson, a renowned horticulturalist who, amusingly, insisted on being wheeled around the estate in a barrow after becoming too drunk to walk. The house now hosts Tara's Palace Museum of Childhood, featuring one of the world's greatest dollhouses, alongside historic toys and miniatures. Modern amenities include a golf course, an Avoca Handweavers restaurant, and a Ritz-Carlton hotel.