Ireland

Understand

History

Until 13,000 BCE Ireland and Great Britain were covered by a single ice sheet. Mountains which were already very old and weathered were further ground down into rounded hills with scenic U-shaped valleys. Glacial debris piled up at the edge of the ice, forming ridges which blocked river outflow: lakes backed up which infilled into wetland then peat bog, and Ireland's soggy lowlands emerged. European species driven out by the Ice Age, including humans, now returned across the ice bridge - the snakes didn't care to, and unlike the rabbits no-one saw fit to re-introduce them. The hunting of a bear in 10,500 BCE shows that Ireland by then had hunter-gatherer inhabitants, and the earliest "village" is from 7000 BCE. Some time before 4000 BCE a Neolithic culture emerged with settled agriculture - some of their field systems have been preserved beneath peat bog. Their wooden or wattle-and-daub secular structures have not survived, but what endures is their remarkable ritual landscape of great stone monuments with precise astronomical alignments. At Brú na Bóinne the midwinter sunrise briefly shines upon the inscriptions deep in an underground funeral chamber, but it's simply the best known of many such monuments. The Bronze Age from 2500 BCE brought wedge tombs, hill forts and metal weaponry, but its finest legacy is the intricate working of gold into jewellery, on display in the National Museum in Dublin. Several fabulous hoards were sacrifices, deliberately lost within the bogs which in that era were rising and engulfing the land. If this was intended to propitiate the gods of climate change, it didn't work, and poor climate, ritual bog causeways and gold sacrifices continued into the Iron Age from 800 BCE. For "iron" read "steel", forged into much stronger weapons and agricultural implements - you could plough new ground or fell timber or set about your neighbours to better effect, and this sparked population shifts across Europe. A Celtic language and cultur

Getting there

Visa requirements

Citizens of EU and EEA countries and Switzerland only require a valid national identity card or passport and don't need a visa. In most cases, they hold unlimited rights to employment and residence in Ireland. Citizens of the "Common Travel Area" (CTA) in theory don't even need a passport to enter Ireland, but in practice they must show one to board a flight or ferry; there are no routine checks on the land border. The CTA is Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man, and the arrangements are reciprocal. Citizens of other countries don't escape their obligations by entering via the UK and crossing the unguarded land border — you must still be eligible to enter Ireland, same as if you'd flown in direct, including having an Irish visa if required for your nationality. British Citizens may live and work freely in Ireland. Citizens of many countries may enter without a visa for visits up to 90 days. As of Oct 2020, these countries are Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominica, El Salvador, Eswatini, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong SAR, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Lesotho, Macao SAR, Malawi, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Nauru, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, the Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Tuvalu, the United States, Uruguay, Vanuatu, the Vatican City and Venezuela. This also applies to holders of British National (Overseas) passports. The period of admission is determined by the Immigration Officer at the port of entry, but can be extended up to the full 90 days if required. Foreigners who enter without a visa can also extend this stay after entry, but within the initial period of admission and wit

Getting around

By car

Think: do you need one? If you'll be primarily in the cities, probably not, and you should actively avoid using a car in Dublin. To see the city then tour the country, ride into Dublin on the bus then return to the airport later to pick up a car. But out in the countryside there's limited public transport and lashings of rain, so yes you do need one, especially with small children or piles of sports gear. Many visitors bring their own car by ferry. For rental, the airports have the best selection – book ahead for the best deals and to ensure availability of their limited fleets. There's healthy price competition, but one-way rentals are expensive. You also need to check their rental requirements: these are typically to hold a full licence for at least 2 years, and to have no current "red flag" endorsements. There is no minimum age but the weasel words are "eligibility to hold a licence" for at least 8 years, and drivers over 75 face additional checks. The big cities and ferry ports have rental offices but surprisingly few. Good luck trying to hire a car in, say, Tipperary, but what you might find is a taxi driver to take you round the local sights for a few hours, while blarneying about how his grandmother played Gaelic football for the county back in the day. Motorhomes can also be rented at Dublin airport, Cork and Limerick, though most tourers bring their own. You need to factor in extra ferry charges, narrow twisty roads, and availability of sites, which are often closed Oct-March. Many inland places are short on sites because their population heads to the coast, while those on the coast may be for long-term leases or static units with nothing for short-stay tourers and campers. See Camping Ireland and individual city pages for sites. Overnight wayside parking is generally prohibited, and you'll be fined and moved on by the police. For taxis see individual cities, but there's a national rate. They're required to use the meter and issue a receipt, but

See

Scenery in Ireland is the stuff of knights' tales. It's best where you meet a contrast: a stern crag rearing up from green fields, or a plateau ending in sea-cliffs. Ireland's mountains are old and long-weathered so they're of no great height – the highest MacGillycuddy's Reeks only reach 1038 m but rise abruptly behind the lake at Killarney. The Atlantic coast has a series of dramatic peninsulas, with the best-known at Mizen Head in Cork, Ring of Kerry, Loop Head in Clare and Connemara. Several in Mayo and Donegal are blighted by an eczema of second-home cottages, but the upland views are improving as commercial conifer forests are re-wilded with mixed native woodland. Prehistoric Ireland: Brú na Bóinne in Meath is the best known, built around 3000 BC. Trouble is, it's mobbed with tourists, with very limited access slots, and you lose the atmosphere. But Ireland is studded with equally fascinating sites, often in out-of-the-way places so they were never built over or the stone re-used