Bia agus Deoch · Food and Drink
From wild Atlantic chowder to a perfectly kept pint, from Connemara hill walks to the cliffs that end the world — this is what Ireland does best.
Ireland's food and landscapes have never been better. The left column covers the places worth going — by region, honestly ranked, with the detail that actually helps you plan. The right covers what to eat and drink — the dishes, the pubs, the markets and the meals you'll still be talking about. Both columns are written to read, not skim.
The places
Eighteen years of visiting every county. These are the places that deliver.
The Long Room library is one of the most beautiful rooms in Europe — barrel-vaulted, lined with 200,000 leather-bound books, hushed as a cathedral. The Book of Kells itself is extraordinary up close: ninth-century illumination so intricate it seems impossible. Book online; the queues without a ticket are genuinely punishing in summer.
Visit the library first thing — it's less crowded before 10am, and the light through the windows is better.
Forty minutes from Dublin's city centre by car, the Wicklow Mountains feel like another country entirely. Glendalough — a sixth-century monastic settlement beside two glacial lakes — is the headline, and rightly so. But Powerscourt Waterfall, the Sally Gap road and the Wicklow Way walking trail are all worth equal attention. A full day will not feel enough.
Drive the R115 Military Road through the heart of the mountains — it's one of Ireland's great drives and few tourists find it.
Newgrange is older than Stonehenge, older than the pyramids. At winter solstice, a shaft of sunlight enters the chamber through a roofbox and illuminates the interior — an engineering achievement from 3200 BC. Even if you can't get inside (the lottery for winter solstice access is heavily oversubscribed), the passage tomb at Knowth has extraordinary kerbstone carvings and is less visited than it deserves.
Book guided entry to Newgrange weeks in advance — you cannot enter unaccompanied, and tours sell out.
214 metres of sheer rock dropping into the Atlantic. Controversial to say on an Ireland travel site, but: they're worth it, despite the crowds. The cliff walk south from the visitor centre towards Hag's Head — away from the mass of tourists — is one of the most dramatic walks in Ireland. Go early morning or late afternoon; the light is better and the coach parties are absent.
Walk north beyond the tower for the best view back across the full face of the cliffs. Most people don't bother — their loss.
The Twelve Bens mountain range, blanket bog stretching to the Atlantic, the ghost villages of An Spidéal and Clifden — Connemara is arguably the most dramatic landscape in Ireland. The Diamond Hill loop from the national park visitor centre at Letterfrack takes two to three hours and delivers views that have no equal on the island. In good light, it's unforgettable.
Connemara's weather is famously changeable — layer up even in July, and bring waterproofs even if the forecast looks clear.
Skellig Michael is a rock pinnacle eight miles off the Kerry coast, rising 218 metres straight from the Atlantic. On its summit, sixth-century monks built a monastery of dry-stone beehive huts that survived a thousand years. The 618 ancient steps up are steep and exposed. The gannetry and puffin colony on Little Skellig is one of the great wildlife spectacles in Europe. This is as wild and remote as Ireland gets.
Boat trips from Portmagee and Ballinskelligs book out months in advance. Sea conditions cancel trips regularly — build flexibility into your Kerry itinerary.
The Dingle Peninsula packs more into 48 kilometres than most counties manage in their entirety: the Slea Head Drive past Iron Age forts and beehive huts, Dingle town's pubs and fresh fish, the bilingual signage of the Gaeltacht, and views on a clear day across to the Blasket Islands. It's smaller and less visited than the Ring of Kerry, which is entirely in its favour.
Dingle town has some of the best seafood in Ireland — the fish comes off the boats in the morning and is on your plate by lunchtime.
40,000 interlocking basalt columns, formed by volcanic activity 60 million years ago — and looking exactly as if they were designed by something far older. The Causeway itself is extraordinary but crowded; the cliff path east towards Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge rewards the effort with the columns seen from above and extraordinary coastal views. Allow three to four hours for the full walk.
The NTS visitor centre car park is expensive and fills quickly. Park in Bushmills village and walk the 2km path — it adds half an hour and subtracts the worst of the crowds.
Belfast has transformed. The Cathedral Quarter — centred on Commercial Court and the MAC arts centre — is one of Britain and Ireland's most interesting city neighbourhoods: independent restaurants, muralist laneways, Victorian pubs that survived the Troubles, and a creative energy that feels genuine. The Titanic Belfast museum in the Titanic Quarter is genuinely world-class and worth a half day. The Black Taxi Tours of the political murals in West Belfast are unforgettable and deeply moving.
Belfast is very walkable. Download the Visit Belfast walking map and set aside a full day for the city before heading to the coast.
At 601 metres, Slieve League is among the highest sea cliffs in Europe — nearly three times the height of the Cliffs of Moher — and receives a fraction of the visitors. The two-hour return walk from the car park at Bunglass gives increasingly vertiginous views over the Atlantic. On a clear evening, the light on the cliffs turns them copper and gold. This is the Ireland that doesn't appear on postcards.
The road to Bunglass is very narrow — pass places are required. Don't attempt in a large vehicle without checking conditions first.
A Victorian castle on the shores of Lough Veagh, surrounded by 16,000 hectares of blanket bog, mountain, and ancient oak woodland. Red deer roam in herds; golden eagles — reintroduced after a century of absence — hunt above the ridgelines. The gardens around the castle, designed to an Italianate plan in the most unlikely Atlantic climate, are extraordinary. It's Ireland's most underrated national park.
The shuttle bus from the visitor centre to the castle is included in admission — the walk beside the lough is also beautiful if you have time.
The food & drink
Irish food has never been better. Here's how to eat well wherever you are.
Rashers (back bacon, not streaky), sausages, black and white pudding, fried egg, grilled tomato, mushrooms, and soda bread or toast. At a good B&B, it arrives at the table without being asked, and it is transformative. At a motorway service station, it is a health warning. The quality of a B&B's full Irish is the single best indicator of the quality of the B&B.
Where to find it: Every B&B in Ireland. The best are in Kerry farmhouses, Cork guesthouses, and Connemara family-run hotels.
Made with bicarbonate of soda rather than yeast — the acid in buttermilk does the work. Dense, slightly tangy, with a crust that shatters. Eaten warm from the oven with good Irish butter, it is one of the finest things you can eat in this country. Brown soda bread is more complex in flavour; white is lighter and works better with smoked salmon. Both are correct.
Best versions: Ballymaloe House (Cork), any farmhouse B&B, and almost every bakery in the country makes a decent one.
"The Irish breakfast is not a meal. It is a statement of intent about the day ahead."
— An observation made at 9am somewhere in KerryGalway Bay oysters have an international reputation that is entirely earned. Served native (September–April, wild, intensely flavoured) or Pacific (year-round, milder, creamier), they are best eaten with a squeeze of lemon and a glass of Guinness — the traditional pairing, and for good reason. The Galway International Oyster Festival every September is the best food event in Ireland.
Best spots: Moran's on the Weir, Kilcolgan (legendary); Clarinbridge village; Ballyloughaun, Oranmore; and directly from Connemara Oyster Farm, Pearse Street, Galway.
Every pub and café on the west coast serves a version. The best are cream-based, loaded with smoked haddock, mussels, prawns and whatever came off the boat that morning, and arrive with a doorstep of brown soda bread to mop the bowl. On a cold afternoon after a coastal walk, it is the platonic ideal of comfort food. Quality varies enormously — ask locals rather than guidebooks.
Best spots: Hooked Restaurant, Dingle; The Chart House, Dingle; Manning's Emporium, Ballylickey, West Cork; Inis Meáin Restaurant, Aran Islands.
Irish smoked salmon — particularly the Atlantic wild-caught variety from the west — is among the best in the world. Cold-smoked over oak, sliced thin, served on brown bread with a scrape of butter and a squeeze of lemon. Burren Smokehouse in Lisdoonvarna (Clare), Connemara Smokehouse in Ballyconneely, and Belvelly Smokehouse in Cork are the names to know. Many ship to the UK and Europe if you want to bring some home.
To take home: Burren Smokehouse (burrensmokehouse.ie), Connemara Smokehouse, or any good food market across the island.
Mutton or lamb, potatoes, carrots and onion. Long-cooked, deeply savoury. The real version has no tomato, no herbs beyond parsley, and is served with soda bread.
Dublin's own dish — sausages and rashers slow-cooked with potato and onion in a broth. Unfashionable and wonderful. Served at Leo Burdock's and traditional Dublin chippers.
A sweet yeasted loaf studded with raisins and sultanas, steeped overnight in cold tea. Eaten toasted with butter at Halloween, but available year-round in every bakery.
Mashed potato blended with kale or cabbage and an alarming quantity of butter. A side dish that frequently outperforms whatever it is served beside.
The great truth about Guinness is that it is a different drink in Ireland. The reason is debated — freshness, water, air pressure, glass temperature, the way the barman pours — but it is undeniably better than elsewhere. A good pint has a dense, creamy head that holds its shape, a body that is almost black, and a bittersweet finish. It should be poured in two stages and you should wait for it. Never accept a rushed pint.
Where to drink it: Mulligan's, Poolbeg Street, Dublin (the benchmark); John Kavanagh's, Glasnevin (the grave diggers' pub); any pub in Galway not on the main tourist strip.
The Irish whiskey revival has been extraordinary — from a handful of operating distilleries in the 1990s to over forty today. Triple-distilled (unlike Scotch, which is twice distilled), Irish whiskey is characteristically smooth and approachable. Jameson is the global ambassador but there is a world beyond it: Redbreast 12 (pot still, rich and spiced), Green Spot (pure pot still, limited), Teeling (Dublin distillery, bright and fruity), and the remarkable Dingle Single Malt.
To visit: Teeling Distillery, Dublin (the Liberties); Dingle Distillery; Jameson Distillery Bow St, Dublin — all offer excellent tours and tastings.
A trad session — fiddle, bodhrán, tin whistle, uilleann pipes — is not a performance. Musicians sit in a circle, play tunes they all know, and visitors are present in the room rather than in an audience. Doolin in Clare is the most famous trad location but has been overwhelmed by its own reputation. Better: O'Connor's in Doolin (where the music is still good), Tigh Coili in Galway city, Cobblestone in Smithfield Dublin, and Matt Molloy's in Westport, owned by the Chieftains' flute player.
Best sessions: Cobblestone, Smithfield, Dublin; Tigh Coili, Galway; Matt Molloy's, Westport; Gus O'Connor's, Doolin.
The finest covered food market in Ireland — possibly in these islands. Trading since 1788, the English Market is Cork's culinary heart: Gubbeen cheese and charcuterie, Toonsbridge mozzarella, fresh fish from the Atlantic brought to the counter at dawn, tripe and drisheen (Cork's distinctive offal sausage — acquired taste, worth acquiring), artisan bakeries, and Kay O'Connell's fish stall, where the city comes for its lobster. Go hungry. Go on a weekday if you can.
Don't miss: O'Flynn's Sausages; Toonsbridge Dairy; Farmgate Café upstairs for lunch overlooking the market floor.
Perched on a mezzanine above the English Market, Farmgate sources everything from the stalls below — whatever is best that morning goes on the menu. It is one of the most honest, seasonally responsive restaurants in Ireland: Cork tripe and drisheen for the brave, roast leg of lamb for the sensible, and a soup made from whatever came through the door today. This is Cork doing what Cork does best — taking very good raw ingredients and not over-complicating them.
Myrtle Allen opened Ballymaloe as a restaurant in 1964, serving food from the farm and the sea around her. The Ballymaloe Cookery School, run by Darina Allen since the 1980s, has trained a generation of Irish chefs and done more to shape Irish food culture than any single institution. The restaurant at the house still serves food grown within a mile of the table. Staying there overnight is one of the great Irish experiences.
Book ahead: The restaurant fills weeks in advance in summer. Weekend residential courses at the cookery school are life-changing — worth planning a trip around.
Ireland's artisan cheese movement — small-scale, farmhouse, most of it made with raw milk — is one of the country's best-kept secrets outside specialist food circles. Gubbeen (a semi-soft washed-rind from West Cork), Cashel Blue (Ireland's finest blue, from Tipperary), Cooleeney (Camembert-style, Tipperary), and Durrus (washed-rind, deeply complex) are the names to know. Any good food market or cheese counter will have most of them.
Best selection: Sheridan's Cheesemongers, Galway and Dublin — Ireland's finest specialist shop, with a counter that constitutes a full education.
Irish butter is genuinely different. The long Atlantic grass-growing season means Irish dairy cows are pasture-fed for more of the year than almost any other country, which produces milk with a higher beta-carotene content — giving the butter its distinctive golden colour and richer flavour. Kerrygold is the global name, but in Ireland, local creamery butter from Dairygold, Carbery and smaller producers is better still. Eaten on warm soda bread with a pinch of sea salt, it needs no further explanation.