A Taste of Ireland - a Sampler Tour of Ireland with Rising Road Tours

"A Taste of Ireland"

August 8-21, 2008 - Partially Filled, Please Join Us!
Register by June 27, 2008
This tour itinerary is also available for custom dates.
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Traditional Aran Home This tour is designed to provide the traveler with a bird's-eye view of rural Ireland not usually experienced by traditional tour packages. Our goal is to learn first hand about the culture, tradition, history (and prehistory), music, art, and lifestyle of those people still living in the Irish countryside. Although we will visit a few cities to learn more about Irish history, our main focus will be on the non-urban Irish citizens and how they maintain ancient traditions in a very modern world. A tentative itinerary appears below.

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive Shannon. On our first day, we will explore the wonders of the Burren, a karstic topography or limestone pavements and caves. Stops on this part of the adventure include: Cliffs of Moher & O'Brien's Tower, Lisdoonvarna (Burren Smokehouse and lunch), Kilfenora Cathedral & High Crosses, Poulnabrone Dolmen, Burren Exposure, Black's Head, and Connemara Marble Centre. Our goal on the first day is Wellfield Farmhouse, Oughterard, Co. Galway, where our hosts, Pat & Mary Rattigan, welcome us for our first few days in the country.

Day 2 Finds us exploring the wonders of Connemara. Stops include: Aughnanure Castle, Twelve Bens, Recess, Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Gardens, the seaside village of Clifden, Dan O'Hara's Connemara Heritage and History Centre. We may even find a little time to "mine" some Connemara marble at an abandoned quarry.

Day 3 Our adventure today takes us to Galway City by way of the craft village of Spiddal on the northern coast of Galway Bay. After a full day in Galway, we will attend the Mediaeval Banquet at Dunguaire Castle near Kinvara on the south side of the bay.

Day 4 Starts with a visit to Ashford Castle and the village of Cong, where the Maureen O'Hara/Barry Fitzgerald/John Wayne classic about Ireland, "The Quiet Man," was filmed. Cong Abbey is in the village as well. From Cong, our adventure takes us across Mayo and into Sligo. Our home for the Sligo portion of the adventure will be Ardtarmon House on the Drumcliff Peninsula north of Sligo Bay, where we will be greeted by host Charles Henry.

Day 5 Here in the lands of faeries and scholars we will spend a few days trudging ancient landscapes and visiting places memorialized in the poetry of Nobel laureate, William Butler Yeats. We start our day with the raconteur and woodcarver, Michael Quirke. After Michael has filled our heads with stories of legendary heroes who still haunt Ben Bulben and Knocknarea, we visit Sligo Abbey, the Famine Graveyard, and Rosses Point.

Day 6 Today we "get up close and personal" with Yeats Country, visiting Lissadell House, Drumcliff Churchyard, Glencar Falls, Parkes Castle on Lough Gill, and the Hazelwood Forest.

Day 7 Moves us to Donegal. Along the way we visit Creevykeel Court Tomb, the Parian China Factory at Belleek in Co. Fermanagh, Donegal Castle, and the fishing village of Killybegs. Millstone Guesthouse in Gleann Cholm Cille, Co. Donegal is our resting place for the next few days. Geraldine and Sean Byrne and their children welcome us to this rural stop.

Day 8 Provides a good day to explore the turas, or pilgrimage round, of St. Columba, which includes standing stones, church ruins, and a climb to the saint's holy well. The Ulster Folk Village provides insight into three centuries of Irish home life. Treks to megalithic monuments give us a sense of 7000 years of continuous occupation in this remote valley.

Day 9 Leads us to Derry, where Columba founded his first monastery in the oak grove (Doire) sacred to the ancient Druids. We will spend the next few days in Northern Ireland. One of the last remaining complete mediaeval walls surrounds the city center. We will walk the wall, visit the Guildhall, and journey to the Bogside to see some of Ireland's most famous graffiti art. A few hours in the O'Donnell Tower Museum gives a good sense of how Derry was the home to the modern Irish Civil Rights Movement. Old Saddler's House in Great James Street provides a welcome billet in the City Centre. Joan and Peter Pyne are our able and affable hosts.

Day 10 Takes us across the North Antrim Coast with stops at Mussenden Temple in Downhill Demesne and Dunluce Castle. Hilary Taggart welcomes us to Montalto House in Bushmills.

Day 11 Offers lessons on ancient geology as we visit the World Heritage site at the Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-na-Rede Rope Bridge. Bushmills Distillery, the oldest licensed distillery in the world, is a stop where we learn about the production of Irish whiskey. After our adventures in Bushmills, we turn south across the Glens of Antrim and return to the Republic. Our goal this night is Carraig Mor, the farmhouse of Sheila and Seamus Magennis near Ardee, Co. Louth.

Day 12 of our adventure brings us to another World Heritage site at Newgrange, an ancient passage tomb older than Egypt's pyramids. Other Boyne Valley sites on our agenda this day are Old Mellifont Abbey and the High Crosses at Monasterboice. Evening will find us in Dublin.

Day 13 Finds us on a walking tour of Dublin, which will include visits to Grafton Street, Trinity College, the Garden of Remembrance, the General Post Office (GPO), and a tour of Kilmainham Gaol.

Day 14 Takes us back across the island to Ennis in Co. Clare. Stops along the way include Powerscourt Gardens and the Rock of Cashel. Declan Barron is our host at Newpark House, a farmstead in the heart of Ennis Town.

The final morning finds us happily exhausted and full of Irish culture as we leave for home from Shannon Airport.

"I loved the trip and neighbors and friends (and also myself) are amazed at how much we were able to see and experience... I felt that we were exposed to so many different facets of Irish culture and history and that just would not have happened on any other tour. Your taking care of the details of the trip and the driving made the trip very enjoyable."

Mary G. Smith - May 2005

Rising Road Tours
828-648-8893 (Tel) ~ 888-648-8893 (Toll-free) ~ 828-648-8895 (Fax)
sam@risingroadtours.com

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