South to Cork and Kerry from Rosslare

Editor's note

One night on the Waterford coast. In the city, the Viking Triangle groups Reginald's Tower, the Medieval Museum and the Bishop's Palace within a five-minute walk; look for Henry VIII's cap of maintenance among the Waterford Treasures. Along the coast, the Copper Coast Geopark runs for about 25 kilometres from Kilfarrasy to Stradbally. Begin at the visitor centre in the old Monksland church at Knockmahon, then take the cliff path to the Tankardstown engine house. On Newtown Head, the Metal Man points out to sea from one of the pillars put up in 1823 after the Sea Horse foundered in Tramore Bay.

Editor's note

One night on Cork Harbour. Take the ferry from Cobh to Spike Island, a 6th-century monastery that became a convict depot known as Ireland's Alcatraz, and tour the cells of Fort Mitchel. Back in Cobh, the Titanic Experience is in the old White Star Line ticket office, where 123 passengers boarded in April 1912, and St Colman's Cathedral has a 49-bell carillon. The causeway leads on to Fota. At Midleton, the old distillery is now the Jameson Experience: find the 31,618-gallon pot still, the largest ever built, and the iron water wheel of 1852 that still turns.

Editor's note

One night between Kinsale and Clonakilty. In Kinsale, walk the ramparts of Charles Fort, the star fort of 1677, and find Desmond Castle, the French Prison, in the town. The battle fought outside Kinsale in 1601 ended the Nine Years' War. At the Old Head, look out towards the spot 11 nautical miles offshore where the Lusitania was torpedoed on 7 May 1915. In Clonakilty, buy black pudding in the town where it began, visit the Michael Collins House museum on Emmet Square, and walk Inchydoney beach, where some six hundred fleeing rebels were drowned by the incoming tide in 1642.

Editor's note

Three nights at Baltimore. In June 1631 pirates from Algiers carried off at least 107 people from the village; the O'Driscoll castle, Dún na Séad, is restored and open, and Lot's Wife, the beacon, stands at the harbour entrance. The ferry runs to Sherkin all year, to a Franciscan friary of 1460 above the pier. Lough Hyne is a saltwater lake joined to the sea by the Rapids: watch it pour through, then kayak on the still water. Drombeg stone circle, near Glandore, has a Bronze Age cooking site beside it. From Reen Pier near Union Hall, boats go out for minke and fin whales, with humpbacks from around August.

Editor's note

One night at Glengarriff. Take the boat to Garnish Island and walk the gardens Harold Peto designed for John Annan Bryce, who bought the island in 1910; the mansion Peto drew for it was never built. Climb to the restored Martello tower from the Napoleonic Wars. Behind the village, Glengarriff Forest holds some of the oldest oak and birch woods left in Ireland. Then drive or cycle the Healy Pass from Adrigole over the Caha Mountains, a road first cut as Famine relief work. Stand on the Cork–Kerry county line at the top and drop down to Lauragh.

Editor's note

Two nights in Killarney. Ross Castle, a 15th-century tower house on Lough Leane, is where people swim and where boats leave for Innisfallen Island. From there the N71 climbs towards Moll's Gap, and a stepped, boardwalked trail from the Torc Waterfall car park reaches the 535-metre top of Torc Mountain. The Gap of Dunloe, cut by a glacier, runs from Kate Kearney's Cottage over the 241-metre Head of the Gap to Lord Brandon's Cottage in the Black Valley; walk it or take a jaunting car. Around Muckross, moss and ferns cover the oak trunks, best seen in the rain. Look out for the native red deer.

Editor's note

One night for Cahir and Cashel. Brian Boru was crowned on the Rock of Cashel in 977. Look up at the 28-metre round tower, the oldest building on the Rock, find the Romanesque frescoes in Cormac's Chapel, the only ones left in Ireland, and walk the cathedral that lost its roof in the 1730s. Then cross the fields to Hore Abbey below. Cahir Castle stands on a rocky island in the Suir. Find its working portcullis and the cannonball from the Earl of Essex's three-day siege of 1599, still lodged in a courtyard wall, and climb the keep to see the river on both sides.

Editor's note

Two last nights in Kilkenny before the crossing home. The Medieval Mile runs from the castle, whose Long Gallery was remodelled in the 1860s for the Butlers' pictures, to St Canice's Cathedral, where you can climb the 9th-century round tower. Rothe House and the Black Abbey are along the way, and the Smithwick's Experience stands on the old abbey brewery site. Browse Irish-made work at the Kilkenny Design Centre in the former castle stables. Near Thomastown, Jerpoint Abbey has one of the finest carved cloisters in Ireland, with knights, bishops and saints on the columns; take the guided tour, and find the double effigy tomb in the nave.