☘ Fáilte — welcome

Ireland,
made to explore

414

Places mapped
across all 32 counties

Guides — planner, transport,
tips, history & more

DART train along the coastal cliffs near Bray Head

Getting Around

Trip Planner

Stay & Tours

✈️ Airports & ferries

Getting into the country and between coasts — airport transfers, taxis, and ferry routes.

🛡️ Tips & safety

Practical, honest advice — from driving on the left to the tourist traps worth knowing about.

🎟️ Events & sport

Venues, major sporting events, and where to actually find tickets and live listings.

📜 A bit of history

A place-by-place history of Ireland, clearly separating settled fact from local legend.

The Rock of Cashel at sunset, County Tipperary

Dunguaire Castle on Galway Bay, County Galway

Kylemore Abbey beneath the Twelve Bens, County Galway

The Dingle Peninsula coastline, County Kerry

$Cobh, County Cork$ Giant's Causeway, County Antrim

$Dunluce Castle, County Antrim$ Coastal cliffs and sea thrift, with a lighthouse in the distance

The Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare — Photo by Leighton Smith

💬 Get in touch

Spotted something out of date, got a suggestion to make this better, or know a place worth adding? Let us know below.

💛 Support Slí

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From	To	Mode	Distance	Est. cost
No connections yet — click two cities above to add your first leg.

City	Local operator(s)	Notes
Dublin	TFI / Dublin Bus, Luas, DART →	Full local network — see the Getting Around tab for detail.
Cork	Cork/Cobh Connect →	Private commuter coach linking Cobh, Carrigtwohill and Little Island with Cork city centre — separate from Bus Éireann's city routes.
Galway	City Direct → · Citylink →	City Direct runs local Galway city routes; Citylink (Galway-founded) runs express intercity coaches nationwide.
Limerick	Bus Éireann city routes	No separate local operator found — served by Bus Éireann's Limerick city network.
Waterford	Bus Éireann city routes	No separate local operator found.
Kilkenny	JJ Kavanagh & Sons →	Ireland's largest private coach operator, founded in 1919 in Urlingford, Co. Kilkenny — runs Kilkenny–Dublin, Waterford, Limerick and Carlow routes.
Belfast	Translink (Metro/Glider) →	Northern Ireland's public operator — separate ticketing and currency (GBP) from the Republic.
Derry~Londonderry	Translink (Foyle Metro) →	Same Translink network as Belfast.
Sligo	Bus Éireann	No separate local operator found.
Athlone	Bus Éireann	No separate local operator found.
Killarney	Local Link Kerry →	Rural/regional routes across Kerry supplementing Bus Éireann's national network.
Tralee	Local Link Kerry →	Same regional network as Killarney.
Wexford	Wexford Bus → · Local Link Wexford →	Wexford Bus runs almost-hourly services to Dublin Airport, also serving Wicklow along the way.
Drogheda	Bus Éireann	No separate local operator found.
Dundalk	Bus Éireann	No separate local operator found.
Letterkenny	McGinley Coach Travel →	Family-run since 1968, based in the Donegal Gaeltacht — the main Donegal–Dublin coach link, often more frequent than Bus Éireann on this route.
Donegal Town	McGinley Coach Travel →	Same operator as Letterkenny.
Ennis	Bus Éireann	No separate local operator found.
Westport	Bus Éireann	No separate local operator found — check TFI Local Link Mayo for rural connections.
Cavan	Bus Éireann	No separate local operator found.
Wicklow	Wexford Bus →	Also served on the Wexford Bus Dublin Airport route.
Dingle	Bus Éireann (limited)	Bus Éireann Route 275 serves Dingle from Tralee — services are infrequent, plan around the timetable.

Region	Best way to get around	Notes
Dublin city	Luas + Dublin Bus + DART	Leap Card covers all three; walkable core
Wild Atlantic Way (Clare, Galway, Kerry, Donegal)	Car hire or Bus Éireann intercity + Local Link	Public transport is sparse west of the main towns — a car gives far more flexibility
Cork / Kilkenny / Waterford	Irish Rail intercity from Dublin, city buses locally	Rail is fast and frequent between these cities
Galway city & Aran Islands	Rail/bus to Galway, then ferry to islands	Ferries from Rossaveal or Doolin
Northern Ireland (Belfast, Giant's Causeway)	Translink (separate network) + tour coaches	Different operator and currency (GBP) once you cross the border

Rank	Airport	Serves
1	Dublin (DUB)	The whole country — the vast majority of all Irish flights
2	Belfast International (BFS)	Northern Ireland's main hub — Antrim, Belfast
3	Cork (ORK)	Munster / the south
4	Belfast City / George Best (BHD)	Belfast city-centre-adjacent, UK/short-haul routes
5	Shannon (SNN)	Clare, Limerick, Galway, the west — US preclearance

Option	Price	Time	Best for	Book / info
Dublin Bus 16 / 41	€2.00 Leap / €2.60 cash	45–70 min	Tightest budget, light luggage	TFI →
Airlink 747 / 757 Express	€6–9 one way	25–45 min	North side hotels, Heuston/Connolly stations	airlinkexpress.ie →
Aircoach	€7–9 one way	25–40 min	South side hotels, 24-hour runs	aircoach.ie →
Taxi (rank or app)	€25–€35 day / €30–€45 night	25–45 min	Heavy luggage, groups, late/early flights	see taxi apps below
Pre-booked private transfer	€90–180	25–40 min	Named driver, business travel	via taxi apps or hotel concierge

Option	Price	Time	Notes
Airport Express 300	£9–9.50 single / £13.50 return (~€11–16)	30–45 min	Runs 24 hours to Belfast Grand Central Station, every 15 min at peak
Taxi	£25–40 (~€30–48)	~30 min	Rank right outside Arrivals; only the airport's licensed taxi firm operates on-site
Ulsterbus 109A	Standard Translink fare	Varies	Connects to Antrim, Ballymena, Coleraine, Portrush, Derry~Londonderry

Option	Price	Time	Notes
Airport Express 600	£2.30 single (~€2.80)	~10–15 min	Every 20 min to Belfast Grand Central Station, from 05:45–21:25
Taxi	~£5–10 (~€6–12)	~10 min	Value Cabs is the official on-site partner; rank right outside Arrivals

Option	Price	Time	Notes
Bus 226A	Standard TFI fare (~€2–3)	~20 min	Direct to Cork city centre / bus station
Taxi	~€20–25	~15 min	Rank right outside the terminal

Option	Price	Time	Notes
Bus Éireann 343 / Expressway 51	~€6.80 adult one-way to Limerick or Ennis	~30 min	Also connects onward to Galway and Cork; runs hourly, every 2 hours Sundays/holidays
Taxi / pre-booked transfer	Ask on arrival or pre-book — varies by destination	25–40 min to Limerick	Best for onward towns the bus doesn't reach directly

Route	Operator	Duration	Notes
Holyhead (Wales) → Dublin	Stena Line, Irish Ferries	~2h15–3h30	Busiest, fastest and most frequent GB–Ireland crossing
Fishguard (Wales) → Rosslare	Stena Line	~3h30	Good for the southeast, Wexford, Waterford, Cork
Pembroke (Wales) → Rosslare	Irish Ferries	~4h	Often the cheapest GB–Ireland option
Cairnryan (Scotland) → Belfast	Stena Line, P&O Irish Sea	~2h15	Fastest Scotland–Ireland route
Liverpool (England) → Belfast	Stena Line	~8h	Overnight option with cabins
Cherbourg / Roscoff (France) → Dublin	Irish Ferries	~18–24h	Direct France–east coast Ireland, no UK transit needed
Roscoff (France) → Cork	Brittany Ferries	~14h (overnight)	Shortest direct France–Ireland crossing; onboard cabins and pool
Rosslare → Dunkirk / Bilbao	Irish Ferries, Brittany Ferries	~18–30h	Reach mainland Europe or northern Spain without crossing the UK

A short history of Ireland, place by place

Every entry below has been checked against multiple independent sources. Where a story is legend rather than settled fact — like St Patrick's baptism at Cashel — it's labelled as legend, not history.

Timeline

~3200 BC

Neolithic Ireland. Stone Age farmers build the passage tombs of the Boyne Valley — Newgrange predates Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids.

5th–9th century

Early Christian Ireland. Monasteries like Glendalough become centres of learning; Ireland earns its reputation as the "land of saints and scholars."

795–1014

Viking Age. Norse raiders found Dublin as a trading settlement in 841; Viking power in Ireland is broken at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.

1169–1171

Norman invasion. Anglo-Norman lords land at the invitation of an exiled Irish king; Dublin becomes the centre of English power in Ireland.

1536–1603

Tudor conquest. English monarchs assert direct control over the whole island for the first time, sparking centuries of rebellion and plantation.

1690–1691

Williamite War. The Battle of the Boyne and the Treaty of Limerick cement Protestant political control of Ireland for the next two centuries.

1607

Flight of the Earls. Ulster's last great Gaelic lords sail into exile from Lough Swilly, Donegal, clearing the way for the large-scale Plantation of Ulster.

1845–1852

The Great Famine. Potato blight causes roughly a million deaths and over a million emigrations, reshaping Ireland's population and diaspora forever.

1893

The Gaelic Revival. The Gaelic League is founded to revive the Irish language and culture — and ends up radicalising the generation that leads the 1916 Rising.

1916–1922

Revolutionary period. The Easter Rising, War of Independence and Anglo-Irish Treaty lead to the partition of Ireland and the creation of the Irish Free State.

1949–present

Modern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is formally declared in 1949; the state joins the EU in 1973 and the Good Friday Agreement brings peace to the North in 1998.

Prehistoric & early Christian Ireland

Ireland's "first people" — the Tuatha Dé Danann

Long before written history, Irish myth tells of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a supernatural race said to have ruled Ireland before the arrival of the Milesians, the mythical ancestors of the Gaels. The medieval Book of Invasions credits three of their goddesses — Ériu, Banba and Fódla — with giving their names to the island itself; Ériu's name survives today as Éire. This is legend, not documented history, but Newgrange itself is cast in myth as a dwelling of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Newgrange

Built around 3200 BC by Neolithic farmers, Newgrange is older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza. Its 19-metre passage is aligned so that on mornings around the winter solstice, sunlight travels the full length of the passage and illuminates the inner chamber for about 17 minutes — a feat of engineering precision for people working entirely in stone. It's part of the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the neighbouring tombs of Knowth and Dowth.

Hill of Tara

A modest-looking hill in Meath that carried outsized symbolic weight — tradition holds it as the seat of Ireland's High Kings from prehistory through the early medieval period. Archaeological remains span more than 4,000 years of activity. Its political importance faded after the early medieval period, but it remained a powerful symbol: it was chosen as a mass meeting site by Daniel O'Connell in 1843 during his campaign to repeal the Act of Union.

Rock of Cashel

Traditional seat of the Kings of Munster from around the 4th century. Legend holds that St Patrick came here in the 5th century to baptise King Aengus — accidentally piercing his foot with a crozier during the ceremony (this episode is legend, not verified history). Brian Boru, the only High King to briefly unite all of Ireland, was crowned King of Munster here in 978. In 1101, the site was gifted to the Church, and most of the surviving buildings — round tower, Romanesque chapel, Gothic cathedral — date from the 12th–13th centuries that followed.

St Patrick

By his own account (in his Latin autobiography, the Confessio), Ireland's best-known patron saint was born in Roman Britain and brought to Ireland as a slave as a teenager before escaping and later returning as a missionary bishop, traditionally dated to 432 AD — though a bishop named Palladius had already been sent to Ireland's existing Christian communities the year before, in 431, which complicates the tidy single-founder story. The shamrock-and-Trinity teaching and the tale of him "driving the snakes out of Ireland" (the island never had snakes; historians read this as symbolic of Patrick suppressing pagan druidic practice) are both legend, not history. Croagh Patrick in Mayo, where he's said to have fasted for 40 days, remains Ireland's most-climbed pilgrimage mountain to this day.

Glendalough

Founded in the early 6th century by the hermit monk St Kevin, this monastic settlement operated for roughly 900 years and became one of early medieval Ireland's most important centres of learning. The 30-metre round tower and the ruined churches scattered through the valley mostly date from the 10th–12th centuries, built up long after St Kevin's own lifetime.

Viking, Norman & medieval Ireland

Dublin's Viking origins

Norse raiders had been striking Irish monasteries since 795, but in 841 they established a fortified base at a dark tidal pool on the River Liffey — "Dubh Linn," which gave the city its name. It grew into a major trading port. Viking political dominance in Ireland was broken at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, where the High King Brian Boru's forces defeated a Norse-Leinster alliance, though Brian himself was killed in the fighting.

Kilkenny Castle

Built in the late 12th–13th century by the Anglo-Norman William Marshal on the site of an earlier wooden fort, the castle was bought by the Butler family (Earls, later Dukes, of Ormond) in 1391 and remained their seat for over 500 years. It was besieged during the 1640s Irish Confederate Wars and again during the 1922 Irish Civil War. The Butlers left in 1935; the castle and grounds were handed to the Irish state in 1967.

Blarney Castle

The current tower house was built in 1446 by Cormac Láidir MacCarthy, King of Munster, replacing two earlier structures on the same site. It changed hands repeatedly through the Irish Confederate Wars, the Williamite War, and multiple sales, before eventually passing to the Colthurst family, who still own it today. The famous "gift of the gab" legend attached to the Blarney Stone is folklore rather than documented history.

Derry City Walls

Completed in 1618, Derry's walls are among the best-preserved city walls in Europe and can still be walked in their entirety. Their defining moment came in 1689, when the city withstood a 105-day siege by Jacobite forces during the Williamite War, giving Ulster Protestantism the enduring motto "No Surrender." The walls were never breached.

Tudor, Williamite & colonial Ireland

Trinity College & the Book of Kells

Founded in 1592 by royal charter of Elizabeth I on the site of a suppressed Augustinian priory, Trinity is Ireland's oldest university. It was established explicitly to strengthen the Protestant Reformation, and admission was restricted to Anglicans until 1793 (Catholic emancipation) and fully opened to Catholics only in 1873; women were first admitted in 1904. Its Old Library holds the Book of Kells, an illuminated Gospel manuscript created by Christian monks around 800 AD.

Dublin Castle

Construction began in 1204 under King John, on the orders that followed the 1171 Norman takeover of Dublin. For over 700 years it served as the seat of English, then British, administration in Ireland, until it was formally handed over to the new Irish Free State on 16 January 1922. Today it hosts Irish state ceremonies, including presidential inaugurations.

Flight of the Earls (Lough Swilly, Donegal)

After nine years of war against the Crown (the Nine Years' War, 1593–1603) ended in defeat at the Battle of Kinsale, Ulster's last great Gaelic lords — Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell — sailed into exile from Lough Swilly in September 1607 with roughly 90 followers, hoping to return with a Spanish army. They never did; both died abroad within a few years, as Spain instead made peace with the English crown. Their departure emptied Ulster of its traditional ruling class and directly opened the way for the Plantation of Ulster, the large-scale settlement of English and Scottish Protestant colonists that reshaped the province's religious and political makeup for centuries after.

Battle of the Boyne (Boyne Valley)

Fought on 1 July 1690 (Old Style; commemorated 12 July under the modern calendar) near Drogheda, this was the largest battle ever fought on Irish soil — around 37,000 Williamite troops against roughly 23,000 Jacobites. William III's win forced the Catholic King James II to flee to France and cemented Protestant political dominance in Ireland for the following two centuries, though the war itself continued until the 1691 Treaty of Limerick. It remains commemorated today, principally by the Orange Order in Northern Ireland.

The Great Famine

Between 1845 and 1852, a potato blight (Phytophthora infestans) destroyed the crop that roughly a third of the population depended on for food. An estimated one million people died of starvation and related disease, and at least a million more emigrated; Ireland's population fell from about 8.4 million in 1844 to 6.6 million by 1851. Ports like Cobh became the departure point for huge numbers of emigrants fleeing to North America, seeding the modern Irish diaspora.

Revolution & the making of modern Ireland

The Gaelic Revival

By the late 19th century, Irish had been in sharp decline for a generation, hastened by the Famine and by National Schools that taught only in English. The Gaelic League, founded in 1893 to revive the language, sport and culture, became an unlikely engine of political change: the young cultural nationalists it drew in — including a schoolteacher and journalist named Patrick Pearse, who edited the League's newspaper from 1903 to 1909 — went on to lead the 1916 Rising. Gaeltacht regions like Connemara, Dingle and the Aran Islands remain Ireland's Irish-speaking heartlands today, a direct legacy of the Revival's push to keep the language alive.

The GPO & the 1916 Easter Rising

On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, around 1,200–1,600 Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army members seized buildings across Dublin, making the General Post Office their headquarters. Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from its steps. The rebellion was militarily crushed within a week, but the execution of its leaders shifted Irish public opinion decisively toward independence.

Kilmainham Gaol

Fourteen leaders of the 1916 Rising, including Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, were executed by firing squad here in the weeks after the rebellion. The executions — carried out over ten days, longer than the Rising itself had lasted — turned public sympathy against the British response and toward the independence movement. The prison closed in 1924 and now operates as a museum.

Titanic Belfast & Harland & Wolff

RMS Titanic was designed and built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, launched in 1911 and completed in early 1912, employing thousands of Belfast workers. The museum on the site today marks where the ship was constructed before its single, fatal voyage.

Cobh (Queenstown)

Renamed Queenstown after an 1849 visit by Queen Victoria (it reverted to its Irish name, Cobh, in 1922), this Cork Harbour town was Titanic's final port of call on 11 April 1912, where 123 passengers boarded via tender boats — most in third class. Long before that, Cobh had already been the single largest port of emigration in Ireland, with an estimated 2.5 million people departing from here between the Famine years and the mid-20th century.

Ireland,made to explore

More ways to get ready

✈️ Airports & ferries

🛡️ Tips & safety

🎟️ Events & sport

📜 A bit of history

💬 Get in touch

💛 Support Slí

🧳 My Trip

Stay & tours

Types of accommodation & what to expect

🏨 Hotels

🛏️ B&Bs & guesthouses

🎒 Hostels

🏡 Self-catering & Airbnb

⛺ Camping & caravan parks

🏕️ Glamping & unique stays

Iconic named hotels (stable enough to point you to)

🏰 Ashford Castle

🏰 Adare Manor

🏰 Dromoland Castle

🏛️ The Shelbourne, Dublin

🚢 Titanic Hotel Belfast

Unique & famous self-catering stays

🗼 Irish Landmark Trust

🕳️ "Hobbit house" glamping villages

💡 Lighthouse keeper's cottages

Tours & days out

Hop-on-hop-off city bus tours

🚌 Dublin

🚌 Belfast

🚌 Cork

🚌 Galway

Day tour operators (mostly depart Dublin)

🎟️ Paddywagon Tours

🎟️ Wild Rover Tours

🎟️ Extreme Ireland

🎟️ CIE Tours

🎟️ City sightseeing passes

Multi-day small-group tours

🎟️ Vagabond & Driftwood Tours

🎟️ Rabbie's

🎟️ Compare multiple operators at once

Trip & route planner

1. Choose a mode, then click city to city

2. Your itinerary

💡 Cheapest possible route

Estimated trip total

Local buses & trains once you arrive

How these estimates work

🚌 Bus

🚆 Train

🚗 Car

🚕 Taxi

⛴️ Ferry

✈️ Domestic flight

Getting around Ireland

Get a Leap Card

🚌 Bus Éireann

🚏 Dublin Bus & Go-Ahead

🚆 Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail)

🚊 Luas

🚐 TFI Local Link

📱 TFI Live App

Region cheat sheet

Hiring a car

🏢 Who operates here

📄 What to bring to the desk

🛡️ Insurance & the excess

⛽ Fuel policy

🎂 Driver age

📸 Before you drive off

Airports, taxis & ferries

Ireland's 5 busiest airports

Dublin Airport → city centre

Belfast International → city centre

Belfast City (George Best) → city centre

Cork Airport → city centre

Shannon Airport → onward towns

Book a taxi

Ireland,
made to explore