The mild climate, ancient Celtic history, dramatic peninsulas, golden beaches and great food, plus a bit of blarney are waiting for you in Eire.

Driving off the ferry at Rosslare the warm scented air wraps around you as you pass palm trees and dark red fuchsia hedges. Could this really be only a four-hour ferry ride from England? It’s more like the Mediterranean.

Ireland - Eire - Early Christian Settlements

Stick to the coastal roads as you wend your way south from Rosslare and explore some of the small villages en route. A couple of miles off the N25 is Ardmore, a pretty little seaside resort at the base of a tall cliff. There’s a lovely cliff top walk banked with wild flowers, which combines wonderful views with the ruins of one of the earliest Christian settlements, dating from 340-390. there are some ancient crosses decorated with rough hewn figures, worn down by wind and weather and so placed that they gazed out to sea. There’s a calm, spiritual feeling about this place.

Ireland - Eire - Full Irish Breakfast

The peninsulas of counties Cork and Kerry stick out into the Atlantic with nothing between them and America. Tiny fishing villages are scattered along the coast , many with houses advertising Bed and Breakfast for very modest amounts.

Start the day with a F.I.B.(Full Irish Breakfast) and you won’t need anything more until the evening: plates piled with succulent Irish ham, really fresh eggs, white pudding (a kind of spicy sausage), and baskets of Irish soda bread. You think you’ll never be able to eat it all, but you always do.

Ireland - Eire - The Blarney Stone

On towards Cork which is small enough to explore on foot. Pick up a map at the tourist office and follow the Tourist Trail around narrow lanes, quays and bridges. From here its only six miles to Blarney Castle. Legend says that kissing the Blarney Stone gives you ‘the gift of the gab’ - but you’ll need a head for heights as the Stone is set in the parapet of the castle, 120 feet above the ground. In the old days it was necessary to get someone to hold onto your ankles to stop you falling through the opening as you lay on your back, with head bent down over the parapet to kiss the Stone. Today, however, it’s perfectly safe, as iron bars cover the opening.

Ireland - Eire - Bernard Shaw

About a ten-mile drive around the head of Bantry Bay is Glengariff, a good spot from which to explore the region. From here you can take a 15 minute boat trip to nearby Garinish Island, passing by basking seals to land in a semi-tropical paradise of giant ferns, 25-foot high fuchsia trees, and all kinds of exotic shrubs and flowers planted at the turn of the century, all flourishing in this extraordinarily mild climate. Perhaps the beauty of this place inspired Bernard Shaw - in 1923 he stayed in a house on the island where he wrote the greater part of Saint Joan.

Ireland - Eire - Four mile long beach

On to the Dingle Peninsula which stretches thirty miles out to sea and is a wild, magical place to explore, with a remarkable concentration of prehistoric and early Christian monuments. The area is ideal for walking, with paths criss-crossing the whole peninsula.

Dingle is a pretty little place with some good restaurants and it is close to . We wanted to spend a bit of time at Inch Strand, a wonderful isolated peninsula of sand dunes, full of small snails with different coloured shells, huge burrows for hares, and masses of tiny yellow flowers everywhere. With the drifting mist and the ocean pounding away alongside, it is an exhilarating experience to stroll along the four-mile-long beach - one of the best bathing spots in the area.

Ireland - Eire - Food

Last but not least, there’s the food. The freshest of fish; lobsters, oysters, home-cured ham, the list goes on. Even plain old fish and chips from the ‘Chippie’ taste better than any you’ve ever had - perhaps because of the bit of Blarney that comes with them!

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