Posted by Scott on April 30, 2008, 7:20 am
128.241.42.208
The May newsletter concludes with a list of 16 Irish Must-See Historic Sites that travel writers chose. Let's expand that to the Must-See Irish sights of any kind.
Scott's Top 10 List:
1. Dublin City Centre - Of course.
2. Aran Islands & The Burren - A land of stone, tiny fields and sea. A uniquely Irish place. The Burren in Clare is made of the same karst limestone landscape.
3. An Irish Mountain Stream - Pure essence of Ireland. Any quiet mountainside, any sheep cropped streamside.
4. In a forest by a salmon filled river or trout stream - The real 'hidden Ireland'. Best in May-June during Bluebell season.
5. Newgrange - The huge 5,000 year old Temple of the Sun and World Heritage Site.
6. Killarney National Park - A Big House, ruined Abbey, Bronze Age Mining, farm life re-enactment, Ireland's oldest forest, Western Europe's biggest Yew Forest, Lakes, Mountains, Views and Killarney Town for the distilled "Oirish" experience.
7. Skellig Michael or Glendalough - Skellig Michael is Ireland's other World Heritage Site, an isolated island and preserved early medieval monastic community. Very difficult of access well off the coast of Kerry. Glendalough, just outside Dublin in the Wicklow Mountains, is the easy-to-get-to version, but complete with plenty of other tourists.
8. Wexford National Heritage Park - A lovely walk through Irish history starting with a hunter-gatherer hut on through a stone age farm, iron age ring fort, early Christian settlement, Viking boathouse, Norman castle and more.
9. Any Big House - The huge homes, gardens and estates of the English ascendancy.
10. Any castle - my favorite is Cahir Castle.
Restricting this list to 10 sights left out the National Museum, Connemara, the Rock of Cashel, Tara (hurry!), the historic distilleries, period gardens, Irish music pubs, sea scapes and beaches, Derry and so many more of my favorites. But, I did cheat with Dublin since that includes Trinity College and the GPO. If you stretch the point, Dublin could include the distilleries, Kilmainham Jail, pubs and the National Museum.
Well, folks, what did I miss? More difficult, what would you drop to make room for something else? Thank goodness, with a bit of time we can see them all in real life and no need to miss a thing.
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