England, Edinburgh and Ireland tour summary
We're taking you on a tour of England, Scotland and Ireland, a short summary of the trip you would enjoy. Click on the times to jump to each place: Intro 00:01 London 1:43 - Bath 2:44 - Cotswolds 3:37 - York 4:21 - Lake District 5:35 - Edinburgh 6:42 - Ireland intro 8:27 - summary 9:42 -to Dingle 10:08 - Dingle-Killarney 11:01 -Kinsale 12:00 - Dublin 12:12
Starting in London, best of all, then to Bath on a very easy train ride. Bath has a human scale with quiet pedestrian lanes lined with shops and galleries ideal for strolling.
York is one of the most historic cities in England. We will be showing you the great old buildings, some street entertainment – presenting you a summary with more details in other programs in our series.
Lake District is a very popular holiday destination, famous for, forests, mountains, quaint villages and lakes designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2017. Four of the top activities are exploring the towns, taking boat rides, do a little nature walking, and take a driving tour of the region to see the other nearby lakes and quaint villages.
In Scotland, Edinburgh’s Old Town has retained many of its original buildings and the 18th century New Town is also well-preserved, both still functioning as a great examples of healthy urban neighborhoods.
Ireland is a small country blessed with the rich variety of wonderful sites, most famous for its green rolling hills, history, friendly people, and Guinness. Our three main destinations will be Dingle, Galway and of course Dublin, capital of the country, a great center of culture, learning and nightlife. We'll bring you inside prehistoric stone structures in Dingle. We'll take a trip out to the Aran Islands by ferry, a remote place with a great many archaeological sites, traditional culture and spectacular sea cliffs. We will be visiting small villages along the way: Clifden, Killarney then Kinsale, a southern town with colorful buildings and an ancient stone fort. Dublin is a wonderful city, but don't make the mistake when you're visiting Ireland of only going to Dublin – there's so much more to see.
Our Ireland tour details were arranged by
Killarney, Ireland
Driving from Dingle down to Killarney, where we walk the main streets and take a horse carriage ride passing one of the lakes of Killarney. Then on driving towards Kinsale in the south of Ireland. It's one of the prettiest parts of the country.
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Killarney is most famous for its three lakes, and the town itself is quite attractive. Killarney is the nation's most popular destination after Dublin. People are drawn here primarily for the natural beauties around in the National Park, but the town itself has developed into a major tourist magnet.
There are quite a few shops packed into a small area. Those main streets outlined in blue add up to only about 1/2 a mile so it's quite easy to walk through the center up and down both sides of the street.
One of the most popular activities here is riding in the horse carriage with some commentary by your local driver.
Killarney does have nice wide sidewalks in the downtown area with trees and some benches, and the shops each seem to be unique. It's not like going to a big shopping mall. This place has a lot of character. The center of town, marked in the red circle is the crossroads of busy streets: High Street Main and New. Cars drive down the streets, so there's no pedestrian zone as such, but the sidewalks are nice and wide, it's easy to take a comfortable stroll.
Connemara, Sky Road, Kylemore Abbey, Ireland
Connemara, Ireland features the Sky Road scenic drive and Kylemore Abbey, set amid beautiful green hills lined with stone walls in the west of Ireland. It is a region of coastal views, rolling farmlands, open meadows, winding country roads, and the big attraction, Kylemore Abbey, which is one of Ireland’s great castles that was a former private estate, then a girl’s school operated by Benedictine nuns.
Kylemore Abbey has become the most popular visitor attraction in the west of Ireland, famous for its beautiful mansion on the lake and extensive gardens all around -- certainly one of the most beautiful sites you’ll ever see.
The Abbey is easily reached on a day-trip from Galway city, which makes an ideal home base for exploring the majestic beauties of this area. You’ll find that Galway is a great town for strolling along its pedestrian main street with many shops and restaurants, including numerous pubs with live Irish music on offer. There are many fine hotels in Galway in a variety of price ranges to give you a good place to rest.
It’s just a quick look at Galway for now, which we show more of in our other Irish movies, then we’ll take you on a spectacular drive through Connemara and around the famous Sky Road, with some of the best views in Ireland, on our way to Kylemore Abbey, the main star of this show.
You’ll see that getting there is half the fun, driving north from Galway through the scenic grandeur of Connemara, passing through the villages of Moycullen and Oughterard, then stopping at Ballynahinch Castle Hotel.
That Sky Road scenic loop follows the famous coastal route west of the town of Clifden, with miles of stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean and shoreline communities. We did quite a bit of stopping and getting out of the van while driving through Connemara to enjoy the landscape, take a good look at and snap some pictures, and stop for some shopping at a traditional Irish gift shop.
Kylemore Abbey is one of the great highlights of Ireland. It was a former private mansion. And then it was a Benedictine Abbey, and became a private school for girls, and now it’s a major tourist attraction as you can see because it's so beautiful here on the lake. There is also a large flower garden, two places to eat, and lovely walking paths to explore the extensive grounds and stroll along the lakeshore. It really is a wonderful spot to see in Ireland.
Probably the best part of the visit is simply looking at the Abbey across the beautiful lake. But you also get to go inside and tour the former mansion, and explore the surrounding property.
The Catholic girl school was operated by Benedictine nuns and it was open from 1923 until it closed in 2010. There's still an order of Benedictine nuns who live here and operate the facilities. We had a chance to speak with Sister Magdalena, one of the nuns who tells us about the Abbey.
You could walk from the Abbey to the gardens, but it is about half a mile. And so they provide a shuttle bus to bring you from the Abbey over to the garden. You can walk around and then take the bus back again.
As described on their excellent website, the Victorian Walled Garden is an oasis of splendor in the wild Connemara Countryside. First developed in the early days of the Castle during the late 1800s it once boasted 21 heated glass houses and a work force of 40 gardeners. One of the last walled gardens built during the Victorian period in Ireland.
In earlier years the garden fell into decline and became completely overgrown, with brambles and trees hiding all traces of it’s former glory. The Benedictine nuns began an extensive program of restoration in 1995 and in the year 2000 the Garden was opened to the public. The Garden is divided in two by a beautiful mountain stream that runs through a small shaded fernery, an important feature of any Victorian Garden.
We then finish with a music video showing more of the scenic landscapes of Connemara and the Sky Road.
Dingle Peninsula, Ireland
We are at the western edge of Europe visiting Dingle on the Atlantic coast of Ireland. We are taking a drive out into the countryside to the Slea Head panoramic loop with marvelous scenery, lots of green hills, sheep, stone walls and archaeological sites. This is some of the best scenery in Ireland if not the world.
Dingle is out on the peninsula a little bit hard to get to and yet it's one of the nicest places in Ireland - it's got the urban charm of the town but it's a small town, and has beautiful natural countryside we explore in this episode.
Most visitors find the real attraction is the surrounding areas with the beautiful countryside and the historic sites, with a few minute’s drive you’re at the edge of town and in the countryside almost immediately. Driving from Dingle out around the peninsula and back again is just about 25 miles so you can easily do it in half a day while stopping to look at the sites. We're lucky that some of Ireland's prehistory is still quite visible with stone structures that have survived for thousands of years. The :beehive hut” stone domes site was occupied until about 1200 A.D. by which time it had evolved into a farmstead for an extended family with the habitation site and with the corrals and room for livestock farm buildings and storage places.
Dingle town & peninsula, Ireland
We've been exploring the West Coast of Ireland and now we’re heading for Dingle which some people would say is the finest destination in the country. Dingle is a lush green peninsula extending out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Entering the Dingle Peninsula and passing through villages of Blennerville, Camp and Annascaul.
We stop by the roadside for a lovely view looking down towards the coast and across the green fields.
Next stop, Dingle, our home base for the next couple days. The town is one of Ireland's best with excellent hotels, of course many pubs, and in recent years, Dingle has become one of the gourmet capitals of the country with many fine restaurants. We will be taking you inside a couple of them. The drive in gave us a nice overview and will be taking you on several walks through town.
Most visitors find the real attraction is the surrounding areas with the beautiful countryside and the historic sites. With a few minute’s drive, you are at the edge of town and beyond that, you're in the countryside almost immediately.
So we hop in our van and do a tour of the peninsula. It's not unusual to run into some rain when you're out here in the far tip of Europe, in the Atlantic Ocean. And we had some rain this morning, but it cleared up a little bit during the day.
Dingle is a peninsula sticking into the sea at the western edge of Europe, set amid wild green scenery surrounded by the ocean.
One of the main historic sites you'll see is Dunbeg Fort. It's quite typical of the Celtic fortresses of the Iron Age in Ireland. It's built right up against the edge of a cliff, so it's easy to defend itself with the big walls on one side and the sea cliff on the other.
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Dublin, Ireland, walking tour
Ireland is best known as a land of quaint villages, friendly people and wild natural beauty but there is another side to this emerald isle -- the urban charms of Dublin.
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This convivial capital is truly a fascinating place with warm, sociable people, lovely architecture, excellent museums, great pubs, varied restaurants, endless entertainment and the most popular attraction, Guinness, in the pubs and at their storehouse display.
We'll start out with three main areas south of the river Liffey: Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green and Temple bar. And then up to pedestrian shopping street, and of course out to the Guinness Storehouse.
Trinity College is one of the world’s great schools and a leading attraction, with more than half a million visitors each year. People come to see the graceful campus with its wonderful collection of historic buildings and gardens arranged in a harmonious setting spanning 35 acres.
We'll see Temple Bar, Dublin's most popular gathering spot. Temple Bar is the nightlife center of town, a great place for a stroll, perhaps have a pint and catch some traditional music.
Beer-lovers must visit the Guinness Storehouse where you can learn all about the brewing of that wonderful dark stout and enjoy some fresh samples. It is the country's most popular tourist attraction with 1.5 million annual visitors. The actual brewery is one block over, and is off-limits to visitors, but this impressive showcase presents very entertaining, high-tech multimedia displays that tell the whole story in a fun way.
Go where Ireland takes you: Kilkenny
Kinsale, Ireland and the Rock of Cashel
Kinsale in the south of Ireland is a coastal village famous for its brightly colored shops, gourmet restaurants and significant history.
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Mostly you’ll find that it’s the perfect small town to walk around in. Did we mention pubs yet? Oh yes, you’ll find lots of Irish music in the pubs of Kinsale. It is a small town with a friendly atmosphere. It’s the kind of place where you just want to hang out and relax.
Kinsale has become one of Ireland's most popular visitor destinations, and yet it is somewhat remote.
It's not very crowded except for a couple of months in the summertime when it does get rather busy.
The rest of the year it's a little bit more quiet and peaceful than the other major Irish destinations, because it's on the far southern shore away from the main intercity highways. Coming in through the little downtown, we’re soon driving along the marina as we get to our hotel, the Actons, nicely located just a short walk from the town center.
One of the defining characteristics and most pleasant aaspects of the city is that it's right on the water. There's a big natural harbor that played a large role in its history and economy, which has involved fishing and trading with Europe, and some important military battles because of its strategic location. More on that later.
The town consists of well-preserved historic buildings because during the twentieth century this area was in economic decline. Nothing much happened here, there was very little development. And so the old buildings from centuries ago are still standing. It's one of those delightful historical sequences where a town was booming in the 1600s and 1700, 1800s with many attractive shops and homes built in a nicely organized village center, then went into decline, left alone for a hundred years, and now it's been rediscovered. The buildings are all renovated and painted in a lively variety of colors.
In the last forty years, Kinsale has really blossomed and has bounced back today as a very attractive destination, with sThe largest public gathering place is Market Square, which has the only pedestrian streets in town.
Galway, Ireland - busy streets and musical pubs
Galway, Ireland is one of the world's friendliest cities and a wonderful place to visit. Irish music in the pubs starts at 19:06
We bring you into the heart of town walking along the pedestrian lane, then drive around, and end up in the pubs listening to Irish music.
Ireland-Bunratty, Adair, Ennis
Ireland-Bunratty, Adair, Ennis