Waterford, Tipperary and Limerick
Fertile, rolling farmland typifies the landscapes of Waterford, Tipperary and Limerick generating prosperity, but offering a fairly bland experience for the visitor. There are, however, a handful of notable exceptions and these, along with some exceptional historic sites, are well worth making time to explore. Arrive in Ireland at Shannon Airport and Limerick city makes a good first stopover; arrive via Rosslare Harbour in the south east of the country and you are likely to pass through County Waterford if you are heading for the scenic splendours of Cork and Kerry, and through all three of the counties if you're making your way to the music of Clare. County Waterford has a great deal more to offer than it is generally given credit for. All along the Waterford coast, rolling green hills spread down to a fine shore of cliffs interspersed with expansive bays and secluded beaches. Inland rich farming country gives way to the desolate, boggy Comeragh and Knockmealdown mountains, offering good opportunities for easy scenic walking. The county even boasts its own tiny Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) community at Ring , one of the best areas on the south coast to hear traditional Irish music. Waterford city is perhaps most famous for the high quality crystal that is made there, but the city's prime draw has to be Waterford Treasures, a superb new museum with a wealth of Viking and medieval artefacts. Straddling Waterford's border with County Tipperary , the Knockmealdown Mountains offer attractive walking opportunities, as do the Galtees , and the landscape reaches its most sumptuous in the velvety slopes of the Glen of Aherlow . Scenery aside, Tipperary's farming towns have little to offer the visitor. At the very heart of the county, though, is a site of outstanding interest - the Rock of Cashel . A spectacular natural formation topped with Christian buildings from virtually every period, it's effectively a primer in the development of Irish ecclesiastical architecture. The historic sites at Cahir and Carrick-on-Suir are also well worth taking in. In Limerick you've arrived in the west of Ireland, but the county still has relatively little to tempt you. Industrial and depressed, Limerick city has a luckless reputation. Nonetheless, recent efforts to regenerate the city do seem to be teasing out strands of elegance and interest in its weather-worn Georgian streets and there's a renewed vibrancy to its cultural life. More importantly, Limerick is home to the Hunt Museum , arguably Ireland's most important collection outside Dublin, and the town is notable too as the setting for the international bestselling novel, Angela's Ashes . Inland, the rich pasture of Tipperary continues into County Limerick, and perhaps its greatest attraction is the exceptional number of medieval castles and towers that dot the landscape; immaculately preserved Castle Matrix in the west is one of the finest in the country. There's also an extremely important Neolithic site at Lough Gur , in the heart of the county, and the famously quaint village of Adare . In the end, though, Limerick is somewhere you go through to get to counties Clare and Kerry.
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