Tours of Castles & Monasteries in Ireland

Cuilcagh Tours

• The Medieval City of Kilkenny Tour is a one-day guided walking tour of Kilkenny, in Western Ireland's Galway County. You will visit the Kilkenny Castle, the Black Abbey and St. Canice's Cathedral. Your commentary tour begins on a luxury coach from the airport or ferry and ends with an evening meal.

  Cuilcagh Tours
  19 Pairc an Duin
  Swellan Lower, Cavan
  Ireland
  011-35-30864-008753
  cuilcaghtours.com/1-day-tours-page25998.html

Brendan

• The week-long Brendan Glimpse of Ireland tour will take you to Galway's St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Famine Museum of the Great Irish Famine of the 1840's, and Kylemore Abbey, which has been occupied by the Benedictine community of nuns since 1920. You also will visit the Galway Cathedral and meet a farming family at Rathbaun Farm, performing their daily chores. And you will see the spectacular Cliffs of Moher, soaring more than 700 feet over the Atlantic in Western Ireland's County Clare, with an optional medieval castle banquet at the end of the day. You will end your tour with a visit to Adare, a quaint Irish village renowned for its thatched roofs and stone walls. If you choose, you also can kiss the blarney stone at Blarney Castle in County Cork, or shop in Waterford, a southern city word-famous for the crystal glassware produced there.

  Brendan
  21625 Prairie Street
  Chatsworth, California
  818-428-6000
  brendanvacations.com/tour.aspx?1251

Elderhostel, Inc.

• One of the most elaborate commercial tours available is called "Perspectives on Ireland - North and South," which starts in Dublin and includes 11 nights in the island nation. On day one, you will visit Dublin Castle, where you will view St. Patrick's Hall, the Throne Room and State Apartments, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Finish the evening with a pub walk. You will see Dublin's Trinity College and the Book of Kells, a medieval illuminated manuscript, and two chambers of the Irish Parliament. On day four, you will view the Glendalough Monastery ruins by the Lower Lake. Visit the historic city of Armagh in Northern Ireland (also known as St. Patrick's City), where you will find two opposing St. Patrick's Cathedrals, one Catholic and one Protestant, dating back to medieval times. Near Ireland's North Coast, at Antrim, you will visit Dunluce Castle.

  Elderhostel, Inc.
  11 Avenue de Lafayette
  Boston MA 02111
  800-454-5768
  exploritas.org/programs/pd_Itinerary.asp?DId=1-4VEGQP