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The Island of Ireland boasts some of the finest golf courses in the world. Featuring over 400 courses and home to a third of the world’s links, Ireland is one of golf’s most captivating destinations.

DAY 1 SHANNON TO ENNISTYMON
Cead Mile Failte –Welcome to Ireland. Arrive Shannon Airport and collect your rental car.Drive north to Enniystmon and check into the Falls Hotel where you will overnight for the next two nights.

In the afternoon drive north to the Burren which is a vast, bare, eerie limestone plateau that covers much of County Clare. It is gradually being established as a national park. The limestone is deeply fissured and most of the rivers have gone underground creating an extensive cave system. Four thousand years of farming has largely denuded the country of trees and vegetation but the Burren is noted for the "opposite" contrasts of its flower population with Mediterranean and Alpine species flourishing side by side.

You can stop off at the Cliffs of Moher, which are great dark sandstone cliffs (600ft) that rise sheer from the Atlantic for nearly 5 miles. Screaming sea birds throng the ledges or wheel and swoop about the waves. The best views are from O'Brien's Tower, built in 1853 by Cornelius O'Brien.

Return to the Falls Hotel for overnight.

DAY 2 GOLF AT LAHINCH
Today enjoy your first round of golf in Ireland at Lahinch.

“Lahinch will make the finest and most popular course that I, or I believe anyone else, ever constructed” Dr. Alastair Mackenzie.

Frequently referred to as the St. Andrews of Ireland, Lahinch looks out on the ever changing Atlantic Ocean, and is subject to all her mood swings. However, comparisons between the two famous courses go much further as their respective citizens share a common love and enthusiasm for the game of golf. The two courses at Lahinch were actually first planned by officers of a Scottish Regiment, who considered this rugged and uncompromising countryside of Co. Clare prefect terrain for golf. The original layout for the course was the brainchild of old Tom Morris, himself a four times British Open champion. Subsequent alterations were put in the capable hands of Scottish architect Dr. Alastair MacKenzie, who had also worked on Augusts, Pebble Beach and Cypress Point. The main championship links at Lahinch is justifiably proud of the reputation it has gathered as a stern challenge to even the most gifted of golfers. The notorious Klondyke par five, 5th hole forces the golfer to get over an intimidating dune wall to a ‘blind’ green. Of the twin courses at Lahinch, the Castle Course, presents golfers with a slightly less formidable though equally interesting prospect.

Return to the Falls Hotel for overnight.

DAY 3 CLARE TO KILLARNEY
This morning after a hearty Irish breakfast at the Falls Hotel, travel south to Killarney. En route south you may wish to stop at the village of Adare in Co.Limerick. Snuggled in a wooden and lush countryside setting, Adare is widely regarded as being Ireland’s prettiest and most picturesque village. Situated on the river Maigue, a tributary of the Shannon river, Adare dates back, at least, to the early 13th century. During its long history, Adare, as a strategic location, has been the subject of many conquests, wars and rebellions.

The old town of Adare, which stood on the northern bank of the river Maigue, near the Desmond castle, was destroyed during the 16th century wars. Almost the entire present village was built in the 19th century. The early developments were very haphazard but from about 1820, streets and buildings were laid out according to the, then, Earl of Dunraven’s design. He built houses and rented them, under various agreements, to his tenants, working on his estate lands.

Today, Adare village has a rich wealth of heritage, as well as architectural and scenic beauty. Two groups of, world famous, ornate, thatched cottages line part off the village’s broad main street, punctuated with beautiful stone buildings, medieval monasteries and ruins.

Continue south to Killarney and check into the Riverside Hotel where you will overnight for the next 2 nights. Killarney is one of the busiest tourist towns in Ireland, yet it lies within just a few miles of some of the most stunningly beautiful and isolated countryside in Ireland. For over two hundred and fifty years Killarney has been the base for visitors to South Kerry, an area which boasts more scenic forests, mountains and coast line per square mile than any other region of Ireland. The streets of Killarney are bustling throughout the year without being overcrowded and even in the centre of town you will often catch sight of nearby mountains between a gap in the buildings. To the south of the town is Killarney National Park which is home to mountains, waterfalls, lakes and ancient forests. There are three main lakes the lowest of which is Lough Leane. On the shores of this lake is the historic Muckross Abbey which was founded in 1448 by an Irish Chieftain called Donal McCarthy. Slightly more modern is Muckross House, a magnificent Victorian mansion set in its own intricate gardens which lie on the shores of the Lower and Middle Lakes.Higher up the mountains and you are into the true wilds of Ireland, although still just a few miles away from the bustle of Killarney. These mountains include MacGillycuddy’s Reeks and Carrauntoohil, the highest mountain in Ireland.

DAY 4 GOLF AT BALLYBUNION
“Ballybunion is a course on which many golf architects should live and play before they build golf courses. I consider it a true test of golf.” The legendary Tom Watson described the glorious links course at Ballybunion as “the best in the world”. High praise indeed for this magnificient test of golf which meanders menacingly through massive dunes on the shores of the Atlantic. Ballybunion actually boasts two separate courses. The Old Course ( Par 71, 6593 yards ) and the Cashen Course ( Par 72, 6216 yards ) which was created by golf architect, Robert Trent Jones Senior. The Old Course consistently ranked as one of the world’s top ten courses, features a graveyard by the first tee, which some say is a warning to golfers who breeze through the first five holes only to come face to face with the everchallenging 6th, the fiendish 8th, the par four 11th and the devilishly tricky 15th. Close by, the Cashen Course, with its succession of formidable par fives and breathtaking beauty, amply qualifies as one of the world’s masterpieces.

Return to the Riverside Hotel for overnight.

DAY 5 KILLARNEY TO KINSALE
Depart Killarney and travel via the scenic West Cork Coastline to Kinsale. Stop in the villages of Bantry, Skibereen and onto Clonakility.. While in Bantry you may like to stop at Bantry House and Gardens. Bantry House is the ancestral home of the Earls of Bantry, still lived in by their descendant Egerton Shelswell-White and his family. Since 1946 the house containing its important collection of furniture, tapestries and objects d’art has been open to the public. The structure of the gardens as we know them today dates back to the second Earl of Bantry’s travels. Both he and Mary, his wife, travelled with notebooks and sketchbooks at hand, which helped to transform the small house at home into a “palazzo” comparable to those he had seen on the continent.

Every visitor to Kinsale is captivated by its beautiful setting, with the long waterfront, narrow winding streets and Compass Hill rising sharply behind the town. The old fortifications of Charles Fort and James Fort guard the narrow entrance to Kinsale from the sea. Not surprisingly the town is renowned for its fresh seafood and gourmet cooking, as well as its numerous ‘cozy’ pubs!!! The town’s fame was established years ago as a quaint seaside town with a delicious restaurants and carefully preserved 18th century buildings. The town has poignant memories of the sinking of the liner ‘Lusitania’ in 1915, off the Old Head of Kinsale, and it was in the courthouse the inquest into the incident took place.

Check into the Trident Hotel for overnight.

DAY 6 GOLF AT OLD HEAD OF KINSALE
The Old Head of Kinsale is one of the most remarkable developments ever conceived in the history of golf, an Atlantic promontory that will never be rivalled in terms of drama and beauty. The site is a rugged breathtaking peninsula on the southern coast of Ireland, jutting dramatically out into the Atlantic. It rises hundreds of feet high above dramatic cliffs, surrounded by the ocean on all sides and commanding the most spectacular views from virtually every part. Joe Carr the most celebrated player in the history of Irish amateur golf, has designed the course in conjunction with Ron Kirby, Eddie Hackett and Paddy Merrigan. Carr believes that this, his single gift to golf in Ireland, could not be surpassed.

Overnight again at the Trident Hotel.

DAY 7 DEPART SHANNON AIRPORT
Drive to Shannon Airport for your return flight to the US….Slan Abhaile

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