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Day 1 - Dublin's Fair City
Arrive Dublin. Familiarisation tour of the city including visits to The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (Sir William Robinson 1680); St Patricks Cathedral, Marsh's Library (Robinson 1703); Dublin Castle, including Francis Johnston's Chapel Royal of 1807; and Trinity College with its Library (Thomas Burgh, 1712), Chapel (Chambers 1779) and Printing House (Richard Castle 1734). Stay at the city centre hotel. Dinner with introductory talk at a recently restored 18th century town mansion in North Great Georges Street.
Day 2
Visit Clanwilliam House (Castle 1738); Newman House (Robert West 1765); a restored house in Fitzwilliam Street; the Georgian Squares with their delightful fanlights and colourful doors; Powerscourt Townhouse (Robert Mack 1771); the Rotunda Hospital (Castle & Ensor 1740s); The Casino at Marino (Chambers 1770) - "the most perfect building in Europe". Evening free to explore local pubs and restaurants.
Day 3 - Royal Meath
Depart Dublin, visiting Castletown House, restored by the Irish Georgian Society (Gallieli & Pearce, 1720s), the first and largest Palladian house in Ireland; Carton House, another Palladian mansion (Castle 1739); a Medieval Castle; Bellinter (Castle, 1750); Headfort (Semple & Chambers, 1770 with Adam interior).
Day 4 - The Follies of the Midlands
A Palladian lakeside villa (Castle, 1740) with a notable gothic eyecatcher; a gothic mansion by Francis Johnston, 1800; a neo-classical mansion built for Lord Portarlington with a 1750s folly; Richard Morrison's classical masterpiece 1820 with grottoes and a fake castle; a Palladian dolls' house of circa 1750 with an important Chinese Chippendale galleried staircase; Birr, a fine 18th century town.
Day 5 - The Rivers of the Sunny Southeast
Through the Slieve Bloom Mountains to a pre-Palladian house built in the courtyard of a medieval castle; a 17th century tower house; a classical 18th century farmhouse attributed to Francis Bindon. Along the Nore Valley past Swifte's Heath and Foulksrath Castle. Explore the medieval streets of Kilkenny with its merchants' houses, castle and cathedral. Return to Birr.
Day 6 - The Wild West: Galway & Clare
Portumna Castle, Lord Clanrickarde's Renaissance castle on Lough Derg; Loughrea Cathedral with Celtic revival detailing; Nash's only remaining Irish gothic castle; a 1740s cut stone house designed by Francis Bindon for the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland; Bunratty Castle, a restored 15th century chieftain's palace surrounded by an open air museum of vernacular buildings. Overnight in Limerick area.
Day 7 - The Lakes & Mountains of Kerry
Visit an 1830s Gothic mansion in the village of Adare. The village has many delightful 1820s thatched cottages and a rustic development by the Edwardian architect, Detmar Blow; at Killarney visit Muckross House, a Victorian Gothic mansion for the Herbert family and Pugin's Cathedral; Kanturk Castle, a semi-fortified 17th century stronghouse in the valley of the River Blackwater; Doneraile Court, the 18th century seat of the St. Leger family restored by the Georgian Society; the medieval walled town of Kilmallock; an unusual 18th century country house with gothic detailing and fine 1780s stucco work. Overnight in Limerick area.
Day 8 - The Golden Vale
Through the Silvermines mountains to a massive Norman revival castle (Bardwell 1837; Cashel Palace, once a bishop's palace, overlooking the plains of Tipperary (Pearce 1730) and the Rock of Cashel, a collection of medieval and Hiberno-Romanesque ecclesiastical buildings; Cahir Castle, an important Norman fortification; the Swiss Cottage, a cottage ornée by Nash; over the romantic Knockmealdowns and by way of Lismore Castle to Mitchelstown with its 18th century almshouses and through the Glen of Aherlow to Limerick. Farewell dinner at a private castle.
Day 9
Depart Shannon.
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