Tour Itinerary
6:50 am we depart at the crack of dawn from the Suffolk Street Tourist Office. Your guide will do a quick introduction of the tour and will make sure that everybody is happy and ready to go. We wwil be leaving Dublin and passing by the Guinness Factory and also College Green Tourism Office, the best tourism office in the country! Extreme Ireland, our parent company run this office.
On the way, we will tell you more about the sights that we pass in the city center, and maybe advise on the weather you can expect for the day. As we leave Dublin behind, the urban landscape changes to that of the rolling hills and constant hedges of the Irish countryside. We'll pass an area called The Curragh in County Kildare. This area is ideal for training horses, due to the sandy soil that creates excellent drainage, making it an ideal spot for horse racing. Not surprisingly, the Curragh race track is situated nearby. County Kildare is also well known for horse breeding and vast tracks of lands today are owned by the likes of the Agha Khan and Sheik Mohammed. Close to Kildare Town, you will find the National Stud Farm, world famous for its horse breeding, coupled with the lovely Japanese Gardens.
8:45 after a short stop over to stretch our legs, we pass the Knockmealdown Mountains, made famous by the folk song "Kitty Borne O'Brien". This song is a lover's lament for a young woman who emigrates from Ireland to Canada. Like most Irish songs it is either about a broken heart or killing the English!
Further along the way, we will see the Galtee Mountains, Ireland's highest inland mountain range, with its stony scree-covered summit- but more on the Galtee's under our "Of special interest" section. This is also a famous cheese making area in Ireland. Tipperary is also home to hurling although Kilkenny their neighbour seems to beat them most of the time! Keep your eyes out for handball alleys while on the bus, a tradtional sport played mostly in rural Ireland.
10:30 we arrive at Blarney Castle and half the day's driving is already done! Blarney Castle, famous for its Blarney Stone, also has lovely wooded walks and "Rock Close"- a garden filled with Druidic rock formations, believed to be dating back to pre-historic times. To kiss the stone, you have to bend backwards when on the parrifits of the castle, holding onto iron railings- basically hanging upside down. The reward for your efforts: to be bestowed with the so-called "Gift of the gab".
12:30 we arrive in Cork City, where we have 2 hours to maybe grab some lunch at the English Market (now with a very international flavour), go marvel at the Gothic St. Finbar's Cathedral, or even ring the bells of Shandon at St. Anne's Church for a small fee. Cork is home to Murphy's Ale and the Ford Tractor factory, but more on that in our "Of special interest".
15:30 at the Rock of Cashel, we visit this great Celtic Cathedral, which include the Hall of Vicars, Cormack's Chapel, which has one of Ireland's oldest Romanesque wall paintings and the Round tower, all perched on a solid rock ringed by a curtain wall. This Rock of Cashel, is the seat of the archbishop of the diocese of Cashel and is the sight where the historical synod of Cashel. It dates back from before there Anglo-Norman conquerors and contains an amazing collection of architecture, history and Romanesque art.
16:45 we depart from the Rock of Cashel and return to Dublin, maybe listening to some Irish music and reflecting on the day's experiences.
19:00 approximately arrive back in Dublin and say our goodbyes. Thanks for joining us!
