Great Places of Ireland

[rebs23]

Won't be going anywhere this year for hols, staying in Ireland and travelling around.
Wondering has anyone got out of the way or not really publicised scenic spots to visit.
To give you an example West Waterford especially around Villierstown and from Lismore down river is a great unspoilt area.
Any suggestions anyone and please no parochialism!

[Eire06]

An Rinn in Waterford just outside Dungarvan is a beautiful place one of the top spots in Ireland IMO.

[Babysis]

hand on heart i would reccommend the Renvyle penninsula out on the West coast of Galway. Spend a good bit of time there, and it is stunning. its a 2 hour drive from Galway city, and its a good 20min drive further on from Clifden. May not be your thing, but i love it out there. loads to do aswell.

[drinkfeckarse]

Get yourself away down to the West Cork area, some great scenery there. Failing that go to Cobh

[paul_oshea]

go down to lough cullaim, lough conn in mayo to pontoon bridge, it is one of the most amazing views i have seen in anywhere i have been. and the good thing is there are loads of nice pubs and pull in spots all around there.

i just did this about 2 weeks ago with a lad from argentina brought him around most of ireland and even he said the best pics were taken from there. granted it was a perfect day, no clouds, could see for miles, but well well worth a visit, another is the twelve pins and lough mask, kylemore abbey, along the burren etc and even out the connemara road. had a great time and it is well well worth a visit.

you can only see one side from this pic but still can get an appreciation for it:
http://pontoon.mayo-ireland.ie/Fishing/Fishing.htm

[paul_oshea]

i would agree with babysis on that as well, its not that well known either like pontoon everyone knows and has gone to west cork and to be honest i think its overrated, even a lot of kerry is, unspoilt you really need to go west, even up to belmullet pollathomas etc, unreal up there.

going out the connemara road along up towards rosmuck etc you can go to renvile from there also, really really great views along the way, nice pubs, laybys ( well picnic type areas ) and hill climbing and if ye want to live it the galway way sheep shagging and all.

[Peadar]

There are few places in Ireland that can match West Cork and Kerry!

One thing I personally would love to do is get a Shannon cruiser.
Another Shannon Cruise link...

[Babysis]

i would agree with babysis on that as well, its not that well known either like pontoon everyone knows and has gone to west cork and to be honest i think its overrated, even a lot of kerry is, unspoilt you really need to go west, even up to belmullet pollathomas etc, unreal up there.

going out the connemara road along up towards rosmuck etc you can go to renvile from there also, really really great views along the way, nice pubs, laybys ( well picnic type areas ) and hill climbing and if ye want to live it the galway way sheep shagging and all.

You can go for a drive out to Omei (excuse speeling, cant be botherd looking it up, sorry) ~Island, although there is nothing really out there, but its the novelty of going across the beach to get there. Kylemore is stunning, where my aunty went to school. Leenan, is where the Field was filmed, if you like that sort of thing. The strand beach is stunning in Tully - pure white sand. You can go to Diamonds bar in Tully and hire bikes, or go horse riding, or like me, get drunk with the old irish lot

I am biased, but as "Paul O shea" says it is stunning.

[strangeirish]

Tallaght is very nice in the summer.

[paul_oshea]

that is great alright but ye need a group with ye, getting ****ed along the way, stopping in each night at a different town drinking and singing, tis great craic. its not that expensive either for weekend hrie if ye have a good few.

when we were driving from the ros to portlaoise there is some place in offaly that is unreal, its a backroad i cant tell ye what the name is but i can try and find out, anyhow you climb in a wooded area for ages and i mean ages then you come out on top of a mountain or big hill maybe all that is around is planted trees and a big gap either side, you can see literally for miles and miles, i have never been able to see so far or clearly from a mountani before, if anyone knows wehre it is post it up. its a great view altogether and a nice drive, but thats about it as its in the middle of nowhere. if you were going from east to west or south to west it would be worth going through.

[pineapple stu]

Just back from a weekend in the Killykeel Forest Park log cabins near Killyshandra in Cavan - good craic and a great location. Don't think they have a website (though probably under Coillte), but there's fishing, hiking, tennis, equestrian, random spaces of grass for football and fully equipped log cabins (fridge, freezer, microwave, TV, showers, beds, etc.).

[Peadar]

fully equipped log cabins (fridge, freezer, microwave, TV, showers, beds, etc.).

What, no PlayStation?
Sounds like crap to me!

[Malby]

Get yourself away down to the West Cork area, some great scenery there. Failing that go to Cobh

I agree, just back from there and it was lovely.

[pineapple stu]

There's a plug socket too!

One of the lads brought a laptop with 3,000 songs downloaded - music for the night sorted! Fridge and freezer fit plenty of beer - we even killed a bat by accident 'cos the silly fecker flew into the freezer when someone was getting another tin and wasn't discovered until the morning!

[Babysis]

Another place i really enjoyed was all round the Glenties (sorry about the spelling). Not as good as Renvyle IMO, but impressive none the less. Stopped off in some adventure/hiking centre there, really beautiful scenery.

[Peadar]

we even killed a bat by accident 'cos the silly fecker flew into the freezer!

I've heard of cold showers but frozen bats take the biscuit!

[SIZE=1]There's never a taxi around when you need one. [/SIZE]

[paul_oshea]

all round the Glenties

in tir chonnail? there is some gap up near there that is class if the sun is setting.

[Babysis]

in tir chonnail? there is some gap up near there that is class if the sun is setting.

I couldn't really appreciate it as much as I would have liked. It was the night after Halloween, my first one in Derry. Hanging the next mornign, aos when I was offered the chacne to explore, i assumed it would be a chilled out stroll -not a 5 hour car journey in a roasting hot car . Not good, but the views were still fantastic. The guy i was with had done all the outdoor recreation stuff round there, so knew all the history and stories from taking tours out, was very good.

[fosterdollar]

Another place i really enjoyed was all round the Glenties (sorry about the spelling). Not as good as Renvyle IMO, but impressive none the less. Stopped off in some adventure/hiking centre there, really beautiful scenery.

Donegal has been absolutely destroyed over the last ten years, especially the North West. Used to holiday a lot around Sheephaven Bay, Dunfanaghy, Port-na-Blagh but it's gone to sh!te now with ten times more holiday homes than houses than belong to actual natives. Much of the natural features of the area has been destroyed.
Glenties is more west and used to be a nice place but haven't been in a long time. Glencolmcille which is too far from there and Ardara are/used to be beautiful places. I remember something about the sea depth the far side of the headland in Glencolmcille beeing the deepest in Irish waters or something. Probably white lies though.

[Countyman]

West Clare is yer only man. Loop drive, kilkee cliffs, white strand , doolin (on a quiet day) . Ballyvaughan is nice too.