Ten days is the trip for people who don't want to rush Ireland. It follows the same south and west as the shorter tours, at the same unhurried pace, then keeps going where most itineraries stop, north into Sligo and Donegal, the emptiest and most dramatic corner of the country. This is a sample of how it usually runs, not a fixed package. Tell us what you want from the extra days and we build the route around you.
Tour Itinerary
DAY 1
Dublin to Killarney, through Kilkenny and Cashel
Day 1: Highlights
We collect you in Dublin and start south in good time, with a full day’s drive down to Killarney and some worthwhile stops to break it. The first stop is Kilkenny, a walkable medieval city on the River Nore. Kilkenny Castle stands over the river in its own parkland, restored inside and worth the time; a few streets away, St Canice’s Cathedral keeps a round tower you can still climb for a view across the rooftops. From there the road runs to the Rock of Cashel, a cluster of medieval towers and chapels on a limestone outcrop that rises straight out of the plain and holds your eye long before you reach it. You arrive in Killarney for the evening.
DAY 2
The Ring of Kerry
Day 2: Highlights
A full day looping the Iveragh Peninsula, and one of those drives where the view keeps changing character around every headland. We shape the stops to you. The Kerry Bog Village shows how families once lived off the bogland; the causeway to Valentia Island leads out to Geokaun Mountain, the Fogher Cliffs and the harbour of Portmagee, the Geokaun climb being one for our smaller vehicles rather than the larger bus; and the Kerry Cliffs, among the highest sea cliffs in the country, look out at the Skellig Islands on a clear day. Nearer Killarney the road passes Torc Waterfall and the much-photographed viewpoints at Ladies View and Molls Gap. If a full loop feels like a lot of road, a shorter circuit near Killarney takes in Ross Castle on the lakeshore and the Muckross estate.
DAY 3
Dingle Peninsula
Day 3: Highlights
Dingle is the day a lot of people end up remembering most. The Slea Head Drive traces the edge of the peninsula past ancient beehive stone huts and the Gallarus Oratory, a small drystone church that has kept the rain out for a thousand years, out toward the most westerly point of the Irish mainland, where the next stop is America. Dingle town, a working harbour of painted shopfronts and music pubs, is worth an hour on foot before the drive back, and there’s the option of a harbour boat trip or, in spring, feeding a baby lamb on a local farm if that appeals.
DAY 4
Killarney to Galway
Day 4: Highlights
A day heading north toward the west coast, with more choice in it than the drive suggests. You might break in Adare, one of the prettiest villages in the country, a row of thatched cottages beside a medieval friary, and through County Clare the day can take in the Cliffs of Moher, the limestone Burren, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, the music village of Doolin or a working sheepdog demonstration, as many as the day allows. You reach Galway for the evening, where the Atlantic half of the trip begins.
DAY 5
Connemara
Day 5: Highlights
Galway is your base for two nights, and day five heads into Connemara, the wildest stretch of the west. Kylemore Abbey is the centrepiece, a Victorian country house turned Benedictine abbey sitting mirrored in the lake at its feet, with walled gardens to walk in season. The day runs out to Killary Fjord, Ireland’s only true fjord, a long arm of sea reaching deep between the mountains, with a boat cruise an option if you’d like time on the water. The drive back threads the Inagh Valley, a quiet road pinned between the Maumturk mountains and the Twelve Bens.
DAY 6
Galway to Westport
Day 6: Highlights
The road north runs first through Cong, the estate village on Lough Corrib best known as the setting for the film The Quiet Man, worth a slow wander. Beyond it the Doolough Valley opens out, one of the most striking mountain drives in the country, a dark still lake held between bare slopes with barely another car in sight. The day ends in Westport, a rare planned town laid out around a tree-lined mall and known for its lively pub-and-music scene, where you’ll be based for two nights.
DAY 7
Achill Island
Day 7: Highlights
A day out to Achill, Ireland’s largest island, joined to the mainland by a bridge. The morning can start, if you like, with a short run out to Murrisk, where Croagh Patrick rises straight from the shore of Clew Bay, the cone-shaped pilgrim mountain that thousands still climb, some barefoot, one Sunday each summer. From there the road turns north through Newport and Mulranny, the gateway village, and opens onto Achill’s sea cliffs, blue-flag beaches and the abandoned village on the slopes of Slievemore.
DAY 8
Westport to Donegal, along the Sligo coast
Day 8: Highlights
North of Mayo the crowds thin out for good. The coast road takes in Mullaghmore, a horseshoe harbour with Classiebawn Castle standing on the headland behind it, and, around Sligo, the country W.B. Yeats loved and is buried in, under the flat table of Benbulben mountain. The thin white drop of Glencar Waterfall is close by if you’d like to stretch your legs. Rather than stop in Sligo, the day carries on into Donegal town, and you’ll feel the landscape getting wilder and lonelier the further north you go.
DAY 9
Donegal
Day 9: Highlights
A full day in Donegal, the wildest county in the country. Donegal town sits around its old castle and a quiet harbour, but the day’s real draw is Slieve League, whose sea cliffs rise close to 2,000 feet straight out of the Atlantic, among the highest in Europe. Unlike the busier Cliffs of Moher, they’re often almost empty, just you, the wind and a very long way down. It’s a place that tends to leave people quiet for a while.
DAY 10
Home, at your own pace
Day 10: Highlights
The northwest is a fair way from the main airports, so the last day is built entirely around your flight, whether that’s a slow final morning before the drive south or an earlier start with time to spare. We sort the timing so the end of the trip doesn’t turn into a scramble.
Good To Know
MULTI-DAY TOUR
Why Choose Us
From Our Guests
What Our Passengers Say
© Brendan Irish Tours | Direct Booking Growth By Thin Slice Digital.