Itineraries/Destinations

Ireland has a lot to offer for those interested in archeology, history, politics and landscape. Hibernia Travel is dedicated to ensuring that you see the key locations associated with your particular interests. Or you may be interested in seeing many aspects of a particular part of the country, perhaps where some of your ancestors lived and from which they departed to make a new life in America.  So, for instance, you may be interested in the West of Ireland, the province of Connaught comprising the counties of Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Sligo and Leitrim. We would be delighted to take you to a 5,000 year of farm buried under the bog on the western edge of County Mayo, to a museum dedicated to the Great Irish Famine (“An Gorta Mor”, in Irish), and to a castle built by a pirate Gaelic queen who visited with Queen Elizabeth I in London! You could also visit the scene of one of the largest land battles in Irish history at Aughrim in County Galway in 1691, a decisive battle in the Jacobite/Williamite War that sealed the fate of Irish Catholicism for several hundred years.

We currently have two detailed itineraries, one of which (Ireland in the Twentieth Century) will take place in April 2026, in association with CulturED Travel. This 7-day itinerary will explore the tumultuous history of modern Ireland, focussing on events in Dublin and Belfast that set the stage for an independent Ireland in the early part of the 20th century, and the later Troubles that still leave deep divisions in Ireland.

The other itinerary explores more of the Irish countryside and goes back deeper in time, to the prehistory of the Neolithic and the Bronze and Iron Ages.  After a visit to the National Museum in Dublin, we will embark on an adventure to the Boyne Valley to see Newgrange, Loughgrew, and Sliabh Caileach, and then travel west to explore the 5,000 year old farm mentioned above, and the stunning fort of Dun Aonghasa on Inis Mor, the largest of the iconic Arran Islands. And there will be plenty of time along the way to enjoy the many green shades of the Irish countryside, and a “pint of plain”* at the end of the day.

*aka, a pint of Guinness, the importance of which is best described in Flann O’Brien’s poem “A Pint of Plain in Your Only Man”, set to music by Brendan and Fergus Gleeson in this video from the long-running Irish television show “The Late Late Show".