400 Best Sights in Ireland

North of Slane is the 500-foot-high Slane Hill, where St. Patrick proclaimed the arrival of Christianity in 433 by lighting the Paschal fire. From the top you have sweeping views of the Boyne Valley. On a clear day, the panorama stretches from Trim to Drogheda, a vista extending 40 km (25 miles).

As part of the drive to attract more visitors to sample this spectacular section of the Wild Atlantic Way, a €5 million visitor center opened just 3 km (2 miles) from the cliffs at Sliabh Liag (Slieve League in the English spelling) in 2019. Roads were also improved and a new 2½-km (1½-mile) stretch of upland path was put in place to allow walkers better access. Large stones for the path were taken from the scree slopes on the hillside and dropped into place by airlifts. Interpretative panels in the center, called "On the Edge" reflect the area's folklore, spotlighting its rich tapestry of flora, fauna, archaeology, and geology. There are maps of the routes, safety advice, a café, and tourist information point. After your strenuous uphill trek you will have earned a visit to the Rusty Mackerel bar in nearby Teelin where you can enjoy hearty food and drink, including locally caught fish, craft beers, and Silkie Irish whiskey beside the warmth of a glowing turf fire.

A massive stone complex famed for its medieval tomb sculptures, Sligo Abbey is the town's only existing relic of the Middle Ages. Maurice FitzGerald erected the structure for the Dominicans in 1253. After a fire in 1414, it was extensively rebuilt, only to be destroyed again by Cromwell's Puritans under the command of Sir Frederick Hamilton, in 1642. Today the abbey consists of a ruined nave, aisle, transept, and tower. Some fine stonework remains, especially in the 15th-century cloisters. In the cloister east ambulatory, you'll find a love knot, which is said to represent the bond between earthly and spiritual love. Local custom holds that it is a wishing stone so be sure to touch it and make a wish as you pass. The visitor center is the base for 30-minute guided tours, which are included with admission.

Bordered on the east by Church Street, on the west by Blackhall Place, to the north by King Street, and to the south by the Liffey, Smithfield is Dublin's old market area where flowers, fruit, vegetables, and even horses have been sold for generations. Chosen as a flagship for north inner-city renovation during the boom, the area saw a major face-lift—with mixed reactions from the locals. Some of the beautiful cobblestones of its streets have been taken up, refinished, and replaced, and giant masts topped with gaslights used to send 6-foot-high flames over Smithfield Square. Unfortunately, they don't light the gas anymore, and there's the air of a white elephant about the whole thing. But the area is still worth a visit, especially in the early morning, as the wholesale fruit and vegetable sellers still ply their trade in the wonderful 19th-century covered market. It's also home to the Lighthouse cinema and a twice-yearly horse-trading market.

Built in 1584 to protect Spanish ships that were unloading cargoes of wines and brandies at the quays, this impressive stone arch is now the central feature of the newly restored Spanish Parade, a riverside piazza that draws a gathering of buskers and leisure seekers.

Christened the "Stiletto in the Ghetto" by local smart alecks, this needle-like monument is the most exciting thing to happen to Dublin's skyline in decades. The Spire, also known as the Monument of Light, was originally planned as part of the city's millennium celebrations. But Ian Ritchie's spectacular 395-foot-high monument wasn't erected until the beginning of 2003. Seven times taller than the nearby General Post Office, the stainless-steel structure rises from the spot where Nelson's Pillar once stood. Approximately 10 feet in diameter at its base, the softly lighted monument narrows to only 1 foot at its apex—the upper part of the Spire sways gently when the wind blows. The monument's creators envisioned it serving as a beacon for the whole of the city, and it will certainly be the first thing you see as you drive into Dublin from the airport.

Standing on a commanding site overlooking the Slaney, the Gothic Revival structure of St. Aidan's was built in the mid-19th century under the direction of Augustus Welby Pugin, famed architect of the Houses of Parliament in London.

A plain, neo-Romanesque granite exterior, built in 1868, belies the rich Georgian interior of this church, which Isaac Wills designed in 1720. Highlights of the interior include polished-wood balconies, ornate plasterwork, and shelving in the chancel dating from 1723—and still in use for organizing the distribution of food to the parish's poor.

The church's pepper-pot steeple, which has a four-sided clock and is topped with a golden, salmon-shape weather vane, is visible from throughout the city and is the chief reason why St. Anne's is so frequently visited. The Bells of Shandon were immortalized in an atrocious, but popular, 19th-century ballad of that name. Your reward for climbing the 120-foot-tall tower is the chance to ring the bells out over Cork, with the assistance of sheet tune cards---and, of course, the magnificent views over the city. The famous clock tower with its red sandstone and white ashlar finish is a city landmark and supposedly the inspiration for the county's renowned red-and-white sport's colors, while the clock's notoriously unreliable timekeeping gained it the nickname of the "Four Faced Liar." Beside the church, Firkin Crane, Cork's 18th-century butter market, houses two small performance spaces.

On the mainland directly across from North Bull Island is St. Anne's Park, a public green with extensive rose gardens (including many prize hybrids), woodland walks, a farmers' market, and a scrumptious café.

The Church of Ireland St. Brigid's Cathedral is where the eponymous saint founded a religious settlement in the 5th century. The present cathedral, with its stocky tower, is a restored 13th-century structure. It was partially rebuilt around 1686, but restoration work wasn't completed for another 200 years. The stained-glass west window of the cathedral depicts three of Ireland's greatest saints: Brigid, Patrick, and Columba. In pre-Christian times Druids gathered around a sacred oak that stood on the grounds and from which Kildare (Cill Dara), or the "church of the oak," gets its name. Also on the grounds is a restored firepit reclaimed from the time of Brigid, when a fire was kept burning—by a chaste woman—in a female-only temple. Interestingly, Brigid started the place for women, but it was she who asked monks to move here as well.

The best view of Cobh, well worth the uphill stroll, is from St. Colman's Cathedral, an exuberant neo-Gothic granite church designed by the eminent British architect E. W. Pugin in 1869, and completed in 1919. Inside, granite niches portray scenes of the Roman Catholic Church's history in Ireland, beginning with the arrival of St. Patrick. The row of colorful 'Deck of Cards' Houses that lead the way up the hill add a unique backdrop to the cathedral. 

Similar in appearance to St. Kevin's Church at Glendalough and Cormac's Chapel at Cashel, St. Colmcille's House is an 11th-century church on a much older site. It measures about 24 feet square and nearly 40 feet high, with a steeply pitched stone roof. The nearby tourist office can help you get inside and it's well worth it to feel what the ancient monastic life was like.

Four elaborately carved High Crosses stand in the church graveyard; you'll find the stump of a fifth in the marketplace—it was used as a gallows during the 1798 uprising against British rule.

With its 212-foot-high spire St. Eunan's Cathedral is the most outstanding building in Letterkenny, dominating the town, especially when illuminated at night. This striking, ornate Gothic Revival structure was finally finished in 1901, and is the only cathedral in the county. Designed by William Hague of Dublin and built of white Donegal sandstone, the exterior of the building is said to be in perfect classical-rule proportion. Inside, the intricate decorative ceilings and ceramic floor mosaics are the work of Italian artist Signor Amici of Rome. The main and side altars are carved from the finest Italian marble, while the great nave arch depicts, in a series of panels in bas-relief, the lives of St. Eunan and St. Columba in meticulous detail.

On the site that was the entrance to medieval Cork, this compact, three-spire Gothic cathedral, which was completed in 1879, belongs to the Church of Ireland and houses a 3,000-pipe organ. According to tradition, St. Fin Barre established a monastery on this site around AD 650 and is credited with being the founder of Cork. The cathedral was designed by William Burges, one of the greatest of the Victorian art--architects, and everything here, including the church fittings, furnishings, mosaics, ironwork, and stained glass, shows his distinctive "Burgesian Gothic" hand.

Built by the O'Brien clan in the early 13th century, Killaloe Cathedral is the most prominent landmark in the town's streetscape. Inside the cathedral you can see rare carvings including a Kilfenora Cross and the Thorgrim Stone, which has unique runic and ogham inscriptions.

Capture the cathedral's beauty from across the lake in Ballina.

One of the city's finest churches in the classical style, the Jesuit St. Francis Xavier's was begun in 1829, the year of Catholic Emancipation, and was completed three years later. The building is designed in the shape of a Latin cross, with a distinctive Ionic portico and an unusual coffered ceiling. The striking, faux-marble high altarpiece, decorated with lapis lazuli, came from Italy. The church appears in James Joyce's story "Grace."

There were once 11 passages through the city walls, but the 13th-century St. Laurence's Gate is one of the last that remains. With two four-story drum towers, it's one of the most perfect examples in Ireland of a medieval town gate.

Built in 1839, St. Mary's Church has a late-18th-century wood carving of the Crucifixion, the work of a local artist, Edward Smyth. At the time he was the greatest sculptor Ireland had produced since the Middle Ages. On Friday, the Fair Green, beside the church, hosts a bustling outdoor market.

Dublin's principal Catholic cathedral (also known as St. Mary's) is a great place to hear the best Irish male voices: a Palestrina choir, in which the great Irish tenor John McCormack began his career, sings in Latin here every Sunday morning at 11 am. The cathedral, built between 1816 and 1825, has a classical church design—on a suitably epic scale. The church's facade, with a six-Doric-pillared portico, is based on the Temple of Theseus in Athens; the interior is modeled after the Grecian-Doric style of St. Philippe du Roule in Paris. But the building was never granted full cathedral status, nor has the identity of its architect ever been discovered; the only clue to its creation is in the church ledger, which lists a "Mr. P." as the builder.

However macabre, St. Michan's main claim to fame is down in the vaults, where the totally dry atmosphere has preserved several corpses in a remarkable state of mummification. They lie in open caskets. Most of the resident deceased are thought to have been Dublin tradespeople (one was, they say, a religious crusader). Except for its 120-foot-high bell tower, this Anglican church is architecturally undistinguished. The church was built in 1685 on the site of an 11th-century Danish church (Michan was a Danish saint). If preserved corpses are not enough of a draw, you can also find an 18th-century organ, which Handel supposedly played for the first performance of Messiah. Don't forget to check out the Stool of Repentance—the only one still in existence in the city. Parishioners judged to be "open and notoriously naughty livers" used it to do public penance.

Built by the Anglo-Normans in 1320 and enlarged by members of the 14 tribes when they were at their most powerful during the 16th century, the church contains many fine carvings of lions, mermaids, and gargoyles dating from the late Middle Ages, and it's one of the best-preserved medieval churches in Ireland. Columbus prayed here on a visit to Galway in 1477. On Saturday morning a street market, held in the pedestrian way beside the church, attracts dozens of vendors and hundreds of shoppers.

Built, as the name implies, by the Vikings in the mid-11th century, this church has one sole extant remnant: its original door, which has been incorporated into the wall of a meeting hall.

Built between 1835 and 1847, this grand cathedral was designed when the Gothic Revival was at its height. With its buttresses and mosaics lining the chancel and the side chapels, it was modeled on the 15th-century King's College Chapel at Cambridge, England. The fine exterior was built in Newry granite, and the high altar and pulpit are of carved Caen stone.

This church dates from early in the 19th century, but the square tower is from an earlier structure built in 1449. Bishops were enthroned here as early as 1536. The stained-glass window on the western side was the first commission of Edward Burne-Jones, the leading British Pre-Raphaelite.

What was once a center for the training of Catholic priests is now one of Ireland's most important lay universities. The visitor center chronicles the college's history and that of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Stroll through the university gardens—the Path of Saints or the Path of Sinners. At the entrance to St. Patrick's College are the ruins of Maynooth Castle, the ancient seat of the Fitzgerald family. The Fitzgeralds' fortunes changed for the worse when they led the ill-fated rebellion of 1536. The castle keep, which dates from the 13th century, and the great hall are still in decent condition.

Sparkling with its restored granite walls, St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church is a striking Baroque ecclesiastical landmark that many come to see. Built in a completely different style from that generally adopted in Ireland, the church opened on June 29, 1937 (the feast day of the patron saints of St. Peter and St. Paul). Repair work on the impressive interior included redecoration of the vaulted ceiling, walls, floors, and pews. Dominating the skyline for many miles around, the twin campaniles symbolize the saints, while the squat copper dome adds to the overall grace of this much-loved building. Look out for the six fine stained-glass windows from the famed Harry Clarke Studios in Dublin. The tribute window to St. Patrick is a riot of glorious color.

A severe church within an enclosed courtyard, the 18th-century Anglican St. Peter's is rarely open except for Sunday services. It's worth a peek for its setting and for the fine views of the town from the churchyard.

The Gothic Revival Roman Catholic St. Peter's Church houses the preserved head of St. Oliver Plunkett. Primate of all Ireland, he was martyred in 1681 at Tyburn in London; his head was pulled from the execution flames.