13 Best Sights in The Southwest, Ireland

Fully refurbished and extended with high-spec interactive gadgetry and new displays and a first-rate café, this museum is a worthy stop to discover life on the Blasket Islands (An Bhlascaoid Mhóir), which are among Ireland's most extraordinary islands. The largest visible from Ceann Sléibhe is the Great Blasket, inhabited until 1953. The Blasket islanders were great storytellers and were encouraged by Irish scholars to write their memoirs. The Blasket Centre explains the heritage of these islanders and celebrates their use of the Irish language with videos and exhibitions. The new viewing platform (free) alone makes this center an essential part of the Dingle itinerary.  

The Ring of Kerry has very few historic country houses, so many visitors here enjoy making a special excursion to Derrynane House. Famed as the home of Daniel O'Connell ("The Liberator," 1775–1847), the man who fought for liberal reform and easing of the often cruel penal laws imposed by England on Roman Catholics and those involved in the slave "industry" (his surname appears on major street names in most of Ireland's cities). He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation (the granting of full rights of citizenship to Catholics), which became a reality in 1829. The house's south and east wings—which O'Connell himself remodeled—are decorated with original furniture and fittings. Take a self-guided tour: every piece has a genuine connection to O'Connell. The 300-acre estate of Derrynane House is freely accessible and has trails (including a woodland fairy trail) running through mature woodland, bordering on rocky outcrops that lead to wide sandy beaches and dunes. At low tide, you can walk to Abbey Island offshore. Look out for the chariot built by his supporters to draw him through Dublin streets upon his release from jail in 1844 for his efforts to repeal the union with England.

Signposting is poor.

Signposted from the main road, and accessed via a dramatic corkscrew walkway, Dún Chaoin pier is surrounded by cliffs of colored Silurian rock, more than 400 million years old and rich in fossils. Down at the pier you can see naomhóga (open fishing boats traditionally made of animal hide stretched over wooden lathes and tarred) stored upside down. Traditionally, three or four men walk these currachs out to the sea, holding them over their heads. Similar boats are used in the Aran Islands, and when properly handled they're extraordinarily seaworthy. Five minutes south on the R559  don't miss an opportunity to visit staggeringly beautiful (but lethal for swimming) Coumeenoole Beach at the foot of a curving stepway. It also featured in Ryan's Daughter in 1970. 

Massive, glacial rocks form the sides of this narrow mountain pass that stretches for 6½ km (4 miles) between MacGillicuddy's Reeks and the Purple Mountains. The Gap is a natural auditorium where sound waves can bounce from stone to return---creating almost an echo chamber, which can be fun to test out with a shout. Five small lakes are strung out beside the road. Cars are banned from the Gap, but in summer the first 3 km (2 miles) are busy with horse and foot traffic, much of which turns back at the halfway point. The entrance to the Gap is 10 km (7 miles) west of Killarney at Beaufort on the N72 Killorglin Road. If you drive or are on a tour bus, stop here and either hire a pony and trap or opt to walk. One advantage to an organized tour—and a popular option—is that, without the need to get back to your car, you can amble through the parkland as far as Lord Brandon's Cottage, then get a prebooked boat back to Killarney town.

First built by the Normans in the early 1200s, King John's Castle still bears traces on its north side of a 1691 bombardment. If you climb the drum towers (the oldest section), you'll have a spectacular view of the city and the Shannon. Inside, an audiovisual show illustrates the history of Limerick and Ireland; an archaeology center has three excavated, pre-Norman houses to explore; and interactive exhibitions include scale models of Limerick from its founding in AD 922.

This famed viewpoint, with a stunning panorama of the three lakes and the surrounding mountains, is especially glorious on a sunny day, but worth a visit in any weather. The name goes back to 1861, when Queen Victoria was a guest at Muckross House. Upon seeing the view, her ladies-in-waiting were said to have been dumbfounded by its beauty. You may find yourself speechless, too, so be sure to bring your camera.

The visitor center is a thatched replica of a Neolithic hut and it has excellent prehistoric exhibits and a small museum that displays Neolithic pieces and replicas of Bronze Age finds in the Lough Gur area (originals are displayed in Dublin’s National Museum). The center gives context to the fascinating historical merit of the ancient settlements in the surrounding area. Of most significance is Grange, a magnificent 4,000-year-old circular enclosure made up of 113 upright stones. It’s the largest prehistoric circle of its kind in Ireland and worth the detour from Limerick City. It's a 3-km (2-mile) walk from the heritage center with free roadside parking and access to the site.

Overlooking the beach is the pottery studio of one of Ireland's leading ceramic artists. Louis Mulcahy produces large pots and urns that are both decorative and functional. You can watch the work in progress and buy items at workshop prices. There's also a coffee shop.

This ivy-clad Victorian manor is located next door to Killarney National Park Visitor Center. Upstairs, elegantly furnished rooms are stuffed with, in typical Victorian fashion, rugs, animal wall mounts, and idiosyncratic decorative furnishing and, of course---china---which was commissioned for England's Queen Victoria's visit back in 1861. Paintings are original---and include the works of John Butler Yeats (father of artist Jack and poet William) and John Singer Sargent. The upstairs lifestyle of the landed gentry in the 1800s contrasts with the conditions of servants employed in the basement of Muckross House. 

The magnificent informal grounds are noted for their rhododendrons and azaleas, the water garden, and the outstanding limestone rock garden. In the park beside the house, the Muckross Traditional Farms include reconstructed farm buildings and outbuildings, a blacksmith's forge, a carpenter's workshop, and a selection of farm animals. It's a reminder of the way things were done on the farm before electricity and the mechanization of farming. Meet and chat with the farmers and their wives as they go about their work. You'll also find folk displays where potters, bookbinders, and weavers demonstrate their crafts. The visitor center has a shop and a restaurant.

The masterpiece of the Skellig Islands is the phenomenal UNESCO World Heritage site of Skellig Michael, with its amazing remains of a 7th- to 12th-century village of monastic beehive dwellings that were home to early Christian monks. In spite of a thousand years of battering by Atlantic storms, the church, oratory, and living cells are surprisingly well preserved. The site is reached by climbing more than 600 increasingly precipitous steps, offering vertigo-inducing views. The Skelligs boat trip includes 1½ hours on Skellig Michael. Despite the publicity following the island's pivotal appearance in the two most recent Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, access to this fragile site is still limited to 180 visitors a day, so book in advance (booking opens in early spring) and hope for good weather. Because of the choppy seas, stiff climb, and lack of facilities, the trip is not recommended for small children or those with mobility issues.

St. Mary's Cathedral is the city's oldest building in daily use. It was founded in 1168 on the site of an elaborate palace, some of which can still be seen today, such as the elaborately carved Romanesque-style door that was once the entrance to original building. Inside, the black-oak carved misericords in the choir stalls are unique to Ireland and are from this period, while the alter in the Lady' Chapel is 13 foot long, and it is the cathedral's original pre-Reformation (from when the church was a Catholic place of worship) masterpiece. Oliver Cromwell's troops had dumped it, but it resurfaced in the 1960s in remarkably good shape. Donal Mór O'Brien, the last king of Munster and the man who constructed the cathedral, is believed to be buried in St Mary's; a stunning carved sculpture of O'Brien prince stands on the grounds.

Other notable features include cannon balls that have remained since the siege of Limerick by the Williamites in 1691, exquisite stained glass windows and a leper's squint - a slot where the sick could hear mass and receive communion. The bells of the cathedral's bells have cast a spellbinding melody across the city for decades. Bear in mind this is a fully functioning church with daily Church of Ireland services throughout the week.      

One of Ireland's oldest and biggest---and arguably best---markets, with a fine collection of artisanal food producers, many direct from the rich pastures in County Limerick's Golden Vale. Cheese, breads, pastries, meat, along with fresh fruit and vegetable traders and sushi and garnish producers, sell their wares beneath a sturdy, all-weather canvas roof with a café upstairs in a mezzanine. Boho vintage clothing retailers and restaurants operate around the perimeter. The market takes place over the weekend, although Saturday morning is the time to see local citizens arrive in droves. For a sweet break, head around the corner to Cruise's Street for a selection of bakeries selling fresh cream cakes, pies, and coffee.    

Along the perimeter of the Iveragh Peninsula, the dramatic coastal road from Kenmare to Killorglin known as the Ring of Kerry is probably Ireland's single most popular tourist route. Stunning mountain and coastal views are around almost every turn. The only drawback: on a sunny day, it seems like half the nation's visitors are traveling along this two-lane road, driving, packed into buses, riding bikes, or backpacking. The route is narrow and curvy, and the local sheep think nothing of using it for a nap; take it slowly. Tour buses tend to start in Killarney and ply the Ring counterclockwise, so consider jumping ahead and starting in Killorglin or following the route clockwise, starting in Kenmare (although this means you risk meeting tour buses head-on on narrow roads). Either way, bear in mind that most of the buses leave Killarney between 9 and 10 am. The trip covers 179 km (111 miles) on N70 (and briefly R562 and N71) if you start and finish in Killarney. The journey will be 40 km (25 miles) shorter if you only venture between Kenmare and Killorglin. Because rain blocks views across the water to the Beara Peninsula in the east and the Dingle Peninsula in the west, hope for sunshine. It makes all the difference.