Four options for a family holiday 
Looking to explore more of Ireland? MALCOLM ROGERS presents four favourite options for a family getaway.
Co. Wicklow has just about everything you might imagine a perfect holiday destination needs. Glorious mountain scenery, idyllic harbour towns, ancient monastic settlements, handsome aristocratic gardens, stately homes — and not forgetting that Mecca of telly-tourism, the Vale of Avoca.
Of course, the splendour of this part of the country never really needed Ballykissangel to put it on the map. Generations of visitors have been heading for the idyllic village of Avoca and the Meeting of the Waters to sample it delights, and it was here that the great songwriter Thomas Moore had his imagination and inspiration fired for some of his greatest works.
Glendalough was the home of St. Kevin and his followers in the sixth century, and large parts of his monastery and settlement survive — as well as an air of tangible peace and tranquillity. You could spend a week here, just wandering along the forest paths above the two loughs, but Wicklow has many other attractions, so it’s time to move on!
Enniskerry, one of the most picturesque villages in Ireland lies just beyond the gates of Powerscourt House, whose gardens are rightly famous. If gardens are to your liking, you could also try Mount Usher — less grand than Powerscourt but just as beautiful.
Co. Wexford is rightly famous for its Slobs — the great bird watching area on the east coast — its fine sea food restaurants, and the Wexford Opera festival.
In fact, if you’re a bird watching gourmet who likes a bit of classical music, Wexford is near enough an ideal destination for you.
Wexford town is a maze of narrow, quirky lanes, leading down to the old quays. Steeped in history, this place has seen Vikings, Normans and Cromwell’s troops massing at the town gates. In 1798 the town was deeply involved in the Rebellion, and there’s a memorial to the yeomanry who tried to rid Ireland of its shackles.
Today Wexford is still a forward-looking town, although how that squares up with the presence of approximately 100 pubs is difficult to say. Needless to say, even apart from the opera, there’s no shortage of entertainment.
Despite the presence of all those hostelries, you won’t want to spend all your time in Wexford. The exquisitely preserved New Ross is well worth a visit, not only because of the splendour of the town, but also because moored at the quay on the River Barrow, lies the magnificently recreated famine ship, the Dunbrody.
Heading towards the coast, Hook Head Peninsula is an intriguing day out with its lighthouse, and if the kids want to cut loose, Courtown with its Forest Dean leisure centre has wonderful water-based amusement.
County Down is famed in song: the Mountains of Mourne and the Star of the County Down are renowned throughout the world, and it’s only right and fair.
The county has some superb coastline — and the Mournes do indeed sweep down to the sea, into Dundrum Bay to be exact. This is one of the finest beaches in Ireland, with over five miles of strand leading to Murlough Nature reserve.
Strangford Lough is an important wildfowl reserve, but even if pink-fronted geese or great crested grebes leave you fairly unmoved, the area is so picturesque it’s a must on your Co. Down itinerary.
Co. Down also has something that no other place in Ireland can boast: the grave of St. Patrick. In the leafy cemetery of Down Cathedral lies a simple granite stone underneath which lie the remains of the Apostle of Ireland.
Nearby is St. Patrick’s Heritage Centre, Down Museum and the remains of the ancient Cistercian monastery, Inch Abbey.
Throughout the county pony trekking, hillwalking and cycling are easily come by. One particularly notable centre for all three is Tollymore Forest Park, the North’s first ever national park, and located just a couple of miles north of Newcastle. Leafy glades, broadleafed groves and towering conifers eventually lead out on to the Mourne Mountains, just short of where Patrick Brontë, father of Charlotte et al, was born.
Clare is perhaps Ireland’s most famous county, boasting as it does both the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. Both of these geological features are everything they’re cracked up to be.
The Burren is worth a month of your time, but unfortunately not every one has that sort of time to spare. However, even a cursory visit will reveal an unbelievably intriguing countryside — flat limestone and shale slabs, fissured with deep trenches full of both sub-Arctic and Mediterranean flowers. It’s an extraordinary landscape of terraced hills, ancient dolmens and ruined churches.
The Cliffs of Moher are no less spectacular. This is where Europe suddenly comes to a halt and the Atlantic begins. A million sea birds (or so it seems) wheel restlessly around — guillemot, cormorant, puffins and gannets vie for space amidst the surf and rocks. The best way to see the cliffs is probably from the sea — you can take a cruise from Liscannor or Doolin.
For music, Lisdoonvarna has pubs going full throttle most nights of the week, and in summer there’s Willie Clancy Music School in Miltown Malbay, should you wish to get to grips with the intricacies of fiddle playing or pipe making. As Christy Moore so memorably put it: “If it’s music you want, sure go to Clare.”
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