400 Best Sights in Ireland

Westport House and Country Park, a stately home built on the site of an earlier castle (believed to have been the home of the 16th-century warrior queen, Grace O'Malley) is the town's most famous landmark. Set right on the shores of a lake, the house remained the property of the Browne family from the 17th century until recent years, when a local businessman purchased it. Architect Richard Cassels (who also designed Powerscourt in County Wicklow and the Irish government's nerve center, Leinster House) masterminded the design of the house, which was constructed in 1730 and added to in 1778, and then finally completed in 1788 by architect James Wyatt with a lavish budget from the Browne's slave trading history with Jamaica. The rectangular, three-story house is furnished with late-Georgian and Victorian pieces. Family portraits by Opie and Reynolds, a huge collection of old Irish silver and old Waterford glass, plus an opulent group of paintings—including The Holy Family by Rubens—are on display. A word of caution: Westport isn't your usual staid country house. The old dungeons now house interactive games, and the grounds have given way to an amusement park for children and an adventure center offering zip rides, laser combat games, and archery. In fact, the lake is now littered with swan-shape "pedaloes," boats that may be fun for families but help destroy the perfect Georgian grace of the setting. If these elements don't sound like a draw, arrive early, when it's less likely to be busy. There is also a 1½-km (1-mile) riverside walk, a tree trail, a gift shop, and a coffee shop.

Once the scene of bull baiting, a cruel medieval sport that was popular among the Norman nobility, this arena was sad witness to other bloody crimes. In 1649, Cromwell's soldiers massacred 300 panic-stricken townspeople who had gathered here to pray as the army stormed their town. The memory of this heartless leader has remained a dark folk legacy for centuries and is only now beginning to fade.

Wexford's grand and hoary landmark, the Theatre Royal, has been entirely rebuilt to serve as the Wexford Opera Theatre for the world-famous Wexford Opera Festival, held here during the last two weeks of October and the beginning of November. The strikingly modern, Keith Williams–designed building is custom-built for opera and offers fabulous views out over Mt. Lenister to the northwest and Tuskar Rock lighthouse to the southeast. The surprisingly large main auditorium seats 749 with a smaller second space for 172. Year-round, touring companies and local productions are also seen at these venues.

A nature lover's paradise, Wexford Wildlife Reserve is just a short walk across the bridge from the main part of town. It shelters a third of the world's Greenland white-fronted geese. As many as 10,000 of them spend their winters on the mudflats (known locally as "slobs"), which also draw ducks, swans, and other waterfowl. Observation hides are provided for bird-watchers, and an audiovisual show and exhibitions are available at the visitor center.

The town's most appealing area is Wicklow Harbour. Take South Quay down to the pier; Bridge Street leads you to a bridge across the River Vartry leading to a second, smaller pier at the northern end of the harbor. From this end, follow the shingle beach, which stretches for 5 km (3 miles); behind the beach is the Broad Lough, a lagoon noted for its wildfowl.

The Yeats Society made major updates to its imposing building on Hyde Bridge in 2018, reinventing the displays for a fresh new experience all carried out in time for the 60th-anniversary celebrations the following year. A stylish permanent exhibition, Yeats and the Western World, honors the poet, providing an insight into the influence that both the Irish West and North America played in W. B. Yeats's life and work. The poet visited Canada and the United States on five occasions, lunching with President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington and speaking to members of the Press Club, Authors' Club, and the Arts Club. The exhibition also features a mock-up of an Edwardian drawing room, including the desk owned by the Yeatses' sister Lily.

In 2019, the Society was gifted a significant acquisition of a previously unseen color film of Yeats's funeral in Sligo in 1948. Although the poet died in France in January 1939, his remains were repatriated nearly a decade later to their final resting place in Drumcliff churchyard. The amateur footage, filmed by musician Jimmy Garvey, who never published it, was discovered in a box and passed to his nephew who donated it to the Society. The three-minute film shows local dignitaries, clergymen, and members of the Yeats family (including W. B.'s brother Jack) at Drumcliff and is now a permanent and treasured part of the exhibition.

The society appointed Dan Mulhall, Irish ambassador to the United States, as its new honorary president in 2019. He has had a lifelong love of Yeats's poetry and has spoken at the summer school on several occasions. The building remains an active hub for lectures, poetry readings, discussion, and literary events, and is home to the Yeats International Summer School conducted here every August since 1959. On the first floor, a gallery hosts a rotating exhibition of contemporary art. Research scholars can explore the Yeats Reference Library, which has more than 3,000 titles. While the ground floor café is currently shut, the Yeats Building is within walking distance of cafés, pubs, and restaurants.

On a ridge overlooking Trim Castle, the Yellow Steeple was built in 1368 and is a remnant of the Augustinian abbey of St. Mary's. Founded in the 13th century, it was the site of a great medieval pilgrimage to a statue of the Blessed Virgin. Much of the tower was deliberately destroyed in 1649 to prevent its falling into Cromwell's hands, and today only the striking 125-foot-high east wall remains.

Trinity College's starkly modern Arts and Social Sciences Building, with an entrance on Nassau Street, houses the Douglas Hyde Gallery, which concentrates on contemporary art exhibitions and has its own bookstore. Also in the building, down some steps from the gallery, is a snack bar serving coffee, tea, and sandwiches, where students willing to chat about life in the old college frequently gather.

At the entrance to the Gap of Dunloe, Kate Kearney's Cottage is a good place to rent a jaunting car or pony. Kate was a famous beauty who sold illegal poitín (moonshine) from her home, contributing greatly, one suspects, to travelers' enthusiasm for the scenery. Appropriately enough, Kearney's is now a pub and restaurant, and a good place to pause for an Irish coffee.

The Gap of Dunloe's southern end, 7 km (4½ miles) west of Killarney, is marked by Lord Brandon's Cottage, a 19th-century hunting lodge that is now a basic tea shop serving soup and sandwiches. From here, a path leads to the edge of Upper Lake, where you can journey onward by rowboat (a traditional wooden boat with a motor)—but only if you have booked it in advance. It's an old tradition for the boatman to carry a bugle and illustrate the echoes. The boat passes under Brickeen Bridge and into Middle Lake, where 30 islands are steeped in legends, many of which your boatman is likely to recount. Look out for caves on the left-hand side on this narrow stretch of water.