Celtic panoramas

Start your adventure in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow which is overflowing with historic landmarks and a vibrant culture. The distinct architecture is reminiscent classic 19th-century fused together with modern early 20th-century dubbed ‘Glasgow Style’. The checkerboard layout makes the city easy to navigate with lively street entertainment around every corner.

You'll always receive a welcome to remember, as the colourful cafes, houses and shops that line Tobermory's picturesque harbour salute your arrival. Located on the craggy Scottish Inner Hebrides, Tobermory serves as the capital of the Isle of Mull. There's a high chance you'll recognise the town’s colourfully-daubed buildings, as their charming exteriors have featured in countless TV shows - most notably in the children’s favourite, Balamory. There's always a new story to discover here – not least the legend that suggests there's a sunken Spanish galleon, brimming with lost gold, sitting just below the waves that roll around the harbour. Learn a little more of the area’s history at the Mull Museum, or head out to enjoy some of the fabulous wildlife watching opportunities on offer on a boat tour. You can spot majestic birds like white tail and golden eagles circling in the skies, or turn your attention to the waves, where friendly dolphins and Minke whales are regular visitors. Treat yourself to a sample of one of the island's finest exports before leaving, as you drop in at the Tobermory Distillery for some whiskey tasting. Established in 1798, it’s one of Scotland's oldest distilleries.

Clare Island is a mountainous island guarding the entrance to Clew Bay located 3.5 miles off the west coast of County Mayo, Ireland. The ferry crossing from Roonagh Pier near Louisburg takes 25 minutes and it’s not unusual to encounter a school of dolphins and or a herd of seals. Clare Island is the largest (5 miles long and 3 miles wide) of the 365 islands in Clew Bay. Famous as the ancestral home of the legendary Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley, the island has a population of about 160 people; economic activities include farming, fishing and tourism with numerous other small businesses also supporting a vibrant community. The island has its own primary school and a post office. Children go to the mainland for post-primary (secondary school) education. A very prominent landmark of the island is the Clare Island Lighthouse, established by John Denis Browne, the 1st Marquess of Sligo, in 1806. After 159 years of faithful service the lighthouse was taken out of service on 28 September 1965, replaced by the modern Achillbeg Island lighthouse on the south side of Achill Island. It has since been refurbished and is now an upmarket guesthouse.

Galway is a city in the West of Ireland in the province of Connacht. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay and is surrounded by County Galway. It is the fourth most populous urban area in the Republic of Ireland and the sixth most populous city in the island of Ireland. It is both a picturesque and lively city with a wonderful avant-garde culture and a fascinating mixture of locally owned speciality shops, often featuring locally made crafts. Indeed local handcrafts are a feature of the entire region including hand knits, pottery, glass, jewellery and woodwork. The city’s hub is 18th-century Eyre Square, a popular meeting spot surrounded by shops, and traditional pubs that often offer live Irish folk music. Nearby, stone-clad cafes, boutiques and art galleries line the winding lanes of the Latin Quarter, which retains portions of the medieval city walls. The city bears the nickname "The City of the Tribes" because "fourteen tribes" of merchant families led the city in its Hiberno-Norman period. The merchants would have seen themselves as Irish gentry and loyal to the King. They later adopted the term as a badge of honour and pride in defiance of the town's Cromwellian occupier.

Killybegs The days start early in Killybegs, as this quiet fishing town rumbles to life, and ships with red and blue paint peeling from their hulls quietly depart, ready for a morning's hard work at sea. Located in a scenic part of County Donegal, Killybegs is Ireland's fishing capital, and the salty breeze and pretty streets serve as a revitalising medicine for visitors. The town is also your gateway to some of the country's most majestic coastal scenery, which is dotted with flashing white lighthouses, keeping watch over invigorating seascapes. Killybegs enjoys a privileged position on the coast of north west of Ireland, close to the spectacular Slieve League - a titanic mountain, which explodes upwards from frothing ocean. Walk as close as you dare to the coastline’s sheer drops, or admire the folding cliffs from the best vantage point, down on the water.

Portrush is adjacent to the stunning North Antrim coastline. Here lies the medieval Dunluce Castle ruins. Perched picturesquely at the edge of a rocky outcropping high above the sea, the castle is dramatically surrounded by terrifyingly steep drops, which the early Christians and Vikings would have considered a very important security feature. The castle and surrounding areas have been frequently used for the filming of “Game of Thrones”. Another attraction reached from Portrush is the Giant’s Causeway -40,000 hexagonal basalt columns that descend in a kind of pathway to the sea. Formed over 50 million years ago, visitors have marvelled at its majesty and mystery for centuries, and UNESCO has recognised this site with World Heritage status.

The Isle of Man, situated in the Irish Sea off the west coast of England, is a mountainous, cliff-fringed island and one of Britain’s most beautiful spots. Measuring just 30 miles by 13 miles, the Isle of Man remains semi-autonomous. With its own postage stamps, laws, currency, and the Court of Tynwald (the world’s oldest democratic parliament), the Isle of Man is rich with history and lore.Inhabited from Neolithic times, the island became a refuge for Irish missionaries after the 5th Century. Norsemen took the island during the 9th Century and sold it to Scotland in 1266. However, since the 14th Century, it has been held by England. Manx, the indigenous Celtic language, is still spoken by a small minority. The Isle of Man has no income tax, which has encouraged many Britains to regard the island as a refuge. Otherwise, it is populated by Gaelic farmers, fishermen, and the famous tailless manx cats. The varied landscape features austere moorlands and wooded glens, interspersed by fine castles, narrow-gauge railways, and scores of standing stones with Celtic crosses. The hilly terrain rises to a height of 2,036 feet at Mount Snaefell, which dominates the center of the island.

Dublin is making a comeback. The decade-long "Celtic Tiger" boom era was quickly followed by the Great Recession, but The Recovery has finally taken a precarious hold. For visitors, this newer and wiser Dublin has become one of western Europe's most popular and delightful urban destinations. Whether or not you're out to enjoy the old or new Dublin, you'll find it a colossally entertaining city, all the more astonishing considering its intimate size.It is ironic and telling that James Joyce chose Dublin as the setting for his famous Ulysses, Dubliners, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man because it was a "center of paralysis" where nothing much ever changed. Which only proves that even the greats get it wrong sometimes. Indeed, if Joyce were to return to his once-genteel hometown today—disappointed with the city's provincial outlook, he left it in 1902 at the age of 20—and take a quasi-Homeric odyssey through the city (as he so famously does in Ulysses), would he even recognize Dublin as his "Dear Dirty Dumpling, foostherfather of fingalls and dotthergills"?For instance, what would he make of Temple Bar—the city's erstwhile down-at-the-heels neighborhood, now crammed with cafés and trendy hotels and suffused with a nonstop, international-party atmosphere? Or the simple sophistication of the open-air restaurants of the tiny Italian Quarter (named Quartier Bloom after his own creation), complete with sultry tango lessons? Or of the hot–cool Irishness, where every aspect of Celtic culture results in sold-out theaters, from Once, the cult indie movie and Broadway hit, to Riverdance, the old Irish mass-jig recast as a Las Vegas extravaganza? Plus, the resurrected Joyce might be stirred by the songs of Hozier, fired up by the sultry acting of Michael Fassbender, and moved by the award-winning novels of Colum McCann. As for Ireland's capital, it's packed with elegant shops and hotels, theaters, galleries, coffeehouses, and a stunning variety of new, creative little restaurants can be found on almost every street in Dublin, transforming the provincial city that suffocated Joyce into a place almost as cosmopolitan as the Paris to which he fled. And the locals are a hell of a lot more fun! Now that the economy has finally turned a corner, Dublin citizens can cast a cool eye over the last 20 crazy years. Some argue that the boomtown transformation of their heretofore-tranquil city has permanently affected its spirit and character. These skeptics (skepticism long being a favorite pastime in the capital city) await the outcome of "Dublin: The Sequel," and their greatest fear is the possibility that the tattered old lady on the Liffey has become a little less unique, a little more like everywhere else.Oh ye of little faith: the rare ole gem that is Dublin is far from buried. The fundamentals—the Georgian elegance of Merrion Square, the Norman drama of Christ Church Cathedral, the foamy pint at an atmospheric pub—are still on hand to gratify. Most of all, there are the locals themselves: the nod and grin when you catch their eye on the street, the eagerness to hear half your life story before they tell you all of theirs, and their paradoxically dark but warm sense of humor. It's expected that 2016 will be an extra-special year in the capital, as centenary celebrations of the fateful 1916 Easter Rising will dominate much of the cultural calendar.