A Wonderful Ireland Trip for Mr & Mrs Blair

Our Airport Liaison Officer will be awaiting the Blairs at Dublin Airport, and will arrange for the luggage to be loaded onto trolleys and be brought out to their transport where their driver guide will be.

After the long flight today will probably be a light day - a visit to an amazing private garden, and coffee with the owner in the 18th century home, or a light lunch in a private Regency house in the heart of Dublin, with an introduction to the city from an expert who is also amusing!

Or maybe a familiarisation tour of the city centre by horse drawn buggy.   

We would suggest Dinner in the hotel, or if something lighter and more informal is preferred, then in Ely's Wine Bar or in Pearl, both nearby.  The finest food in Dublin is served in Patrick Guilbaud's Restaurant, attached to The Merrion Hotel.  It has 2 stars from the Michelin Guide and booking is essentail about a month prior to arrival.

The Merrion Hotel, the only Irish hotel listed by The Robb Report in their "Best Hotels in The World" survey, is in four historic townhouses in the centre of Georgian Dublin, opposite the Government Buildings and one block from Stephen's Green, the fashionable centre of the city.

Day 2

Dublin has long been a centre of art and culture. Stroll through the elegant Georgian streets of Merrion and Fitzwilliam Squares, shop in the elegant emporiums of Grafton Street and Powerscourt Townhouse, explore the collections of the National Museum and National Gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and many fine small private collections. The range of art and artefacts is enormous, and you will have no problem spending many hours enthralled.. The city is over a thousand years old, and many of the towns and settlements that surround it are equally ancient. Successive centuries have left their distinctive overlays of character and architecture which means that Dublin has a wealth of historically significant and fascinating sights to explore such as Dublin Castle, where the Normans ruled from the 12^th Century, St Patrick's Cathedral, of which Jonathan Swift was Dean, and Trinity College, famous for The Book of Kells and for its alumni who include Oscar Wilde and Oliver Goldsmith. And no visit to Dublin could be complete without visiting either the Old Whiskey Distillery or the Guinness Storehouse!

A Tour of Dublin's Fair City

Bank of Ireland, College Green The prestigious offices of Ireland 's national bank began life as the first purpose-built parliament house in Europe . Completed in 1739 it served as Ireland's Parliament until the Act Of Union in 1801

Trinity College Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth. Among many famous students to attend the college were playwrights Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Beckett. Trinity's lawns and cobbled quads provide a pleasant haven in the hearth of the city. The major attractions are the Old Library and the Book of Kells, housed in the Treasury. Exit form the front of the Trinity complex and walk from College Green to Dame St and Continue west passing:

The Olympia Theatre - Dating back to the 1800s, this Victorian music hall-style theatre has a capacity of 1,300. It presents an eclectic schedule of variety shows, musicals, operettas, concerts, ballet, comedy, and drama. As a variation, for the late-night crowd, live bands are often featured after regular programs.  A brief diversion here will bring you into the trendy Temple Bar area. Across the Street is

City Hall  Erected between 1769 and 1779, and formerly the Royal Exchange. It is a square building in Corinthian style, with three fronts of Portland stone. Since 1852, however it has been the centre of the municipal government. The interior is designed as a circle within a square, with fluted columns supporting a dome shaped roof over the central hall. The building contains many items of interest, including 102 royal charters and the mace and sword of the city. Adjacent to City Hall is:

Dublin Castle Built between 1208 and 1220, this complex represents some of the oldest surviving architecture in the city, and was the centre of English power in Ireland for over seven centuries until it was taken of by the Irish Free State in 1922. Highlights include the 13th-century record tower, the largest visible fragment of the original Norman castle and the State Apartments, once the residence of English viceroys and now the focal point for government ceremonial functions, including the inauguration of Ireland 's presidents. At this point Dame St takes on the name Lord Edward St , and leads to

St. Patrick's Cathedral Ireland 's largest church was founded beside a sacred well where St. Patrick is said to have baptised converts around 450A.D. A stone slab bearing a Celtic cross and covering the well was un-earthed at the turn of the century(20th). It is now preserved in the west end of the cathedral's nave. The original building was just a wooden chapel and remained so until 1192 when Archbishop John Comyn rebuilt the cathedral in stone. Much of the present building dates back to work completed between 1254 and 1270.  Cut back to

Powerscourt Town House Centre The townhouse of a famous Georgian family. Today the building houses one of the cities nicest shopping centres. In the 1960's major restoration turned it into a centre of specialist galleries, antique shops, jewellery stalls, cafés and other shop units. Carry on to Grafton Street down the narrow Johnson Court Alley

Explore the Great Georgian Squares and Doorways.;  Visit the famous Phoenix Park, Home of our President Mary McAllesse;  See the delights of the city of Roddy Doyle, James Joyce, Brendan Behan, Sean O' Casey, Oscar Wilde and Nobel Prize winners W.B Yeats, George B. Shaw and Samuel Beckett.; See Guinness Brewery, O' Connell Street;  The U2 Wall, The National Museum & Gallery

The U2 Wall

And of course Molly Malone herself "In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone As she wheeled her wheel-barrow, through streets broad and narrow, Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive o!"

 

This evening maybe a literary pub crawl to create an appetite for dinner. 

 

 

Day 3  - A day of choices

Depending on the day horse racing might be available.  If so in the morning consider a private viewing of the ateliers of the top Irish designers including Mairead Whisker, Louise Kennedy, John Rocha and Lainey Keogh, advised and accompanied by the fashion editor of the Irish Times.  An alternative is to visit the antique galleries and decorators' shop with one of Ireland's antique experts.  Leave Dublin in the late morning to visit the private stud of the Aga Khan or Kildangan, the private stud farm of HH Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.  Kildare is the home of horse racing.  So on to the racecourse for lunch.     A professional jockey will be on hand to advise on the most likely winners, though it has to be said that many an Irish pauper blames his  misfortunes on slow horses and fast women.    

Alternatively take an eco-safari in a Land Rover to the Wicklow Mountains, followed by a visit to Powerscourt House and Gardens, just 24km south of Dublin in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. Its 47 acres of garden are famous the world over. They were begun in the 1740s by Richard Castle and continued by Daniel Robertson. During the middle years of the last century he directed an army of 100 men with barrows, horses and carts in carving out terraces from the hillside and enlarging the lake. The resulting Italian gardens contain beautiful statues and urns collected by the Powerscourt Lords. The Estate contains the highest waterfall in Ireland at 398 feet set in a wooded deerpark where Lord Powerscourt introduced the first herd of Japanese Sika deer to Europe..  Also worth visiting is the Earl of Meath's  Kilruddery House.   Killruddery is unique in having the most extensive early formal gardens, still in their original style, surviving in Ireland. Dating from the 1680s they are amongst the most important gardens of their type in these islands and should be regarded as mainly the work of the 4th and 6th Earls of Meath. Killruddery Estate has been in the ownership of the Brabazon family (the Earls of Meath) since 1618. The core of the gardens is a pair of canals (550 feet long) which focus on the House at one end and on an avenue of lime trees at the other.  Return to Dublin via Glendalough. At Glendalough the early Christian monastic site was founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. Set in a glaciated valley with two lakes, the monastic remains include a superb round tower, stone churches and decorated crosses.

Alternatively head north to the valley of the river Boyne.  Leaving Dublin by way way of Newbridge House at Donabate to Drogheda to vist Brugh na Boyne.  Newbridge house was designed by George Semple, built in 1737 for Charles Cobbe later Archbishop of Dublin, was sold by Dublin County Council complete with much of the contents. The house and its furniture now provide an intimate insight into the past. In 1760 the Archbishop's fashionable daughter-in-law, Lady Elizabeth Beresford, added a large wing to the back of the classical mansion containing the magnificent red drawing-room. One of the finest Georgian rooms in Ireland, it was designed to display her husband's collection of 17th and 18th century paintings. The unique museum of curiosities dating to 1790 is full of weird and wonderful objects brought back by the widely travelled Cobbes.   The Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre interprets the Neolithic monuments of Newgrange, Knowth and Downth. The extensive exhibition includes a full scale replica of the chamber at Newgrange as well as fully model of one of the smaller tombs at Knowth. Newgrange, one of the world's most famous ancient monuments, was built around 3150BC. It is surrounded by giant standing stones and has a kerb of 97 stones. At Winter Solstice, the sun shines into the passage and chamber through the roofbox. Knowth was built around 3300BC and has two passages facing towards the east and west. The carved stones contain a quarter of Western European neolithic art. An extensive excavation has revealed a wealth of information about the site.  At the nearby Oldbridge Estate was fought The Battle of the Boyne, between King William III and his father-in-law, King James II, on 1 July 1690 (11 July according to our modern calendar). Both Kings commanded their armies in person, 36,000 on the Williamite side and 25,000 on the Jacobite side - the largest number of troops ever deployed on an Irish battlefield. At stake were the British throne, French dominance in Europe and Protestant power in Ireland. Return to Dublin via Dunsany Castle, the ancestral home of the Plunketts, Lords Dunsany for a private visit to this amazing home.

 

This evening visit the Gate Theatre and meet with Michael Colgan, the artistic director, afterwards.

 

Day 4

 

Fly to Kerry

 

Today step back to a more elegant time and travel the Ring of Kerry, the most beautiful area of Ireland, with a few lessons on herding sheep with a sheep dog from a mountain shepherd en route. A day tour of constantly changing mountain and coastline scenery with plenty of stops to admire the lovely views.  Lunch at Cill Railig, the astonisihing international artists commune created by socialite and publisher Noelle Campbell Sharpe in the deserted clifftop pre-famine village.  Travel through Caherdaniel and Waterville at the western end of the peninsula and enjoy the bracing Atlantic breezes.  Continue your drive through the colorful village of Sneem to Kenmare in time to relax at your beautiful hotel before dinner.

       

Day 5

 

In Kenmare itself there is a charming cruise known as the Seasafari down Kenmare Bay taking in the ecology and wild life of the bay, as well as the myths and legends.   Another day of romantic nostalgia - travel in a 1930 Buick to a wooded glade where a luncheon picnic will be presented.

In the afternoon another lovely tour is to follow the Beara Peninsula by way of the Marquess of Lansdowne's gardens at Dereen;  Or head South to Glengarriff and cruise a short distance through Bantry Bay, passing families of seals en route to the magical island of Garinish and its splendid gardens and Martello Tower 

On return to dry land head on to Bantry House, the once stately homes of the Earls of Bantry.

 

Return to Kenmare by way of Manning's Food Emporium. Mr Manning, an inspiration to the "Slow Food" movement in Ireland, has a fabulous range of local delicacies made by artisan food manufacturers from cheese makers to sloe gin.

 

     

   

 

Perhaps supper tonight at one of the local pubs for some traditional Irish music.

Sheen Falls

 

 Day 6

 

From Kenmare a beautiful mountain road leads through the valley of the River Roughty to the mountain herhitage of St Finbarre at Gougane Barra.  From here follow the main road to Kinsale for a fishy lunch.  Kinsale's fame was established years ago as a quaint seaside town with delicious restaurants and carefully preserved 18th-century buildings.  In the 1960's Heidi McNeice, the wife of the poet, opened the first restaurant here and it rapidly became a magnet for the world's glitterati.  In the last decade it has become unquestionably the gourmet capital of Ireland; with music and cinema stars bidding up local real estate values, it is also one of the most expensive.  Kinsale is a National Tidy Towns Winner too—but for all that it’s still a very agreeable place. Once, it was an important naval port. In 1601 the Irish joined forces with Spain against the English, and the Spanish fleet anchored here before the disastrous battle of Kinsale, which led to the ‘Flight of the Earls’ and put an end to the rebellion against Elizabeth I and her reconquest of Ireland.  St Multose Church is the oldest building in town, parts of it dating from the 13th century. Inside are the old town stocks. The churchyard has several interesting 16th-century gravestones which in spring are covered in whitebells and bluebells, and in summer red valerian grows out of crevices in every wall. Desmond Castle, a tower house from the 1500s, was once use as a custom house, and later as a prison for captured American sailors in the War of Independence; it now houses an ‘International Museum of Wine’. 

 

Return to Kenmare along the valley of the River Lee, past Carrigadrohid Castle and Carrigaphouca Castle, through the Gaeltacht, or Irish speaking area, of West Muskerry. Dine either in one of the hotel's restaurants (it has two, a bistor and a formal restaurant), or try one of the outstanding restaurants in Kenmare.

 

Day 7

 

Tour over Molls Gap to the Killarney National Park to visit Muckross House, the 19th century mansion built by the Herbert family to entertain Quenn Victoria and subsequently bought by Senator William Bourne of California as a wedding present for his daughter.  Spend some time exploring the shops of Killarney or visiting the gardens of Dunloe Castle, laid out by the plantsman Sir Roy Lancaster to show off plants from all corners of the world.  Lunch at the Aghadoe Heights, overlooking the Lakes of Killarney, beofre departing for Kerry Airport.

   

Depart Ireland