South East Ireland

Recommended days	7
Budget	£
Difficulty	Easy

If I mention this holiday in South East Ireland to the kids it is mostly met with sobs. We did manage 5 castles in one day which, in hindsight, was possibly too much! South East Ireland is a great place to visit, it is familiar, good roads, easy to get to and a lot quieter than the UK.

I can’t remember quite why but for some reason Deb decided to dye her hair red on this trip too. It didn’t last and she had it removed as soon as we got home but castles and red hair are my two main memories of this trip!

Dublin

Dublin is a wonderful city to visit and we pre booked a couple of tours for the kids to start on a positive note. We did fool them though by starting off with a visit to the Book of Kells exhibition. I found this fascinating and a great introduction to Irish history. The exhibition is in Trinity College and you get to see the library too which is impressive.

Following from this we did the Viking Splash DUKW tour and a carriage tour of the city. The Viking Splash tour was superb – totally engaging for the kids and great fun as well as a very different way to see the city. The carriage tour was a far more detached experience and probably not one we’d do again.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Ferns and Enniscorthy castles

Next day we headed south to Ferns and Enniscorthy before arriving in Wexford. I’d like to say we drove through beautiful countryside with glorious views of the Wicklow Mountains but actually it just rained. And rained.

Ferns and Enniscorthy both had nice little castles to visit. The one at Ferns had a very helpful lady who gave us a tour and the one in Enniscorthy had some good dressing up clothes and was in a town so the girls could actually have a welcome cafe stop!

• 

• 

• 

Irish Heritage Centre, Wexford

Wexford is a pretty little town with a nice harbour and was good for wandering around between rain showers. Other than an overnight stop the main reason for visiting was the Irish Heritage Centre nearby. The kids absolutely loved this, lots of interactive exhibits for them to enjoy and with any luck they may have even learned something too!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Dunbrody Famine Ship

One place we were recommended to visit was the Dunbrody Famine Ship. This is (obviously) on the harbourside in the town and was very well done. Costumed re-enactors explained the story of the Irish famine in, what seemed to me, a historically fair way. They showed the living conditions on the ship (no human rights lawyers in the 19th century!) which were horrendous.

Rock of Cashel

Continuing through the rain showers we headed for the Rock of Cashel, one of those iconic Irish buildings. This was pretty crowded as it is obviously on many coach itineraries and it is certainly geared for tourism. The hillside location meant that the celtic cross and the round tower were visible for miles around and the internal stonework was impressive.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Cahir Castle

Continuing the castle theme we headed to Cahir Castle, a proper military fortification in the Norman style rather than a fortified palace. This was an impressive structure and nice to walk around, especially watching the herons fishing in the river.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Another world famous Irish brand is Waterford Crystal. Although very little of it is now made in the city it still houses a factory and museum and we took the tour. This was a surprisingly interesting trip and the glassware in the museum was simply breathtaking – even the kids were entranced.

From there we headed to Kilmore Quay, a very pretty little harbour that blessed us with some rare sunshine. Our final stop was Kilrane beach, an almost deserted stretch of sand, before catching the Rosslare ferry home.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

South East Ireland is a great introduction to road trips. We stayed in the south and east but the west coast is meant to have some amazing roads and scenery and it’s an easy place to get to from the UK.

2011