I spent a very pleasant few days in County Tipperary in June (09). Tipperary is divided into Tipperary North (where the local car registration is TN) and Tipperary South (where the car registration is TS). It is in the province of Munster and has good road and rail links from Dublin. (Approximately less than 2 hours drive from Dublin).
The county is in the central region, bordering counties Waterford to the south, Kilkenny, Laois and Offaly to the east, Galway to the north and Cork, Limerick and Clare to the west.
As my wife was attending a four day course at the Tipperary Institute in Thurles, North Tipperary, we needed to find dog friendly accommodation. There are several hotels in Ireland that are pet friendly, but researching this online, most seem to be in the west of Ireland. We stayed in one of these last June at Renvyle in Connemara. In the end, I found Ashleypark House, located near Nenagh through a website that listed pet friendly B&B accommodation.
Although they have a very informative website full of information and great photos, I used the old fashioned way of contacting them – phone to sort out our reservation. They have a small apartment adjoining the property and a renovated gardeners cottage that can be rented for self catering or a combination of self catering and meals in the main house.
We drove from Dublin on a hot sunny Thursday afternoon using the new toll system on the M50, then through the N4, M4 and M6 and through Tullamore, famous for Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey. We found the house after asking a couple of locals, although it was well signposted off the N52 road and the directions from the AA route planner were good.
Ashleypark House is set in 76 acres of woods, formal gardens and a lake and with two entrances, both with entrance cabins, it has a long drive of approximately 1km. It is an 18th century farmhouse that has been restored by its current owners. It’s full of character and, as well as offering bed and breakfast, there are excellent four-course dinners with wine.
The first night we were in a back room that opened onto a grassy patio that is home to peacocks and roosters. Since it doesn’t get dark until almost eleven this time of year and dawns shortly after 3, these birds don’t sleep much and are calling from just after 3:30 and are noisy. Sean, the exceptionally active 80+ year old resident who owns the house, suggested we move to a room at the front of the house which has great views over the lake and is much quieter. This was the room that President Mary McAleese stayed in a few years ago. What an honor for our Irish-born dog to sleep in the same room the President had slept in!
The house was very good value for money and was around £100 per person per day for the bed (with ensuite), full Irish breakfast, a four course dinner with coffee or tea and this included the wine. Wine prices ranged from €22 to €30 a bottle on average (and we found a very good red at €25 a bottle).
Every day I had to take my wife to Thurles (about 25 miles or more) and back for a full Irish breakfast and then a tour with my mother in law who had come with us and Joss the dog. On day one we decided to explore the local area: Tipperary Lakeside in the Lough Derg district of Shannon. Lough Derg is the largest loch on the River Shannon. Although there is no ring road along the lake, you can drive to the various towns around it. Enjoying a visit to the newly built ‘Thatched Cottage’ pub in Ballycommon, as well as a factory store, was a great day out. The area was full of newly built houses, many large estates with electric gates, illustrating the wealth of Ireland in recent years.
The second day we went shopping in Nenagh. Nenagh is a very prosperous looking Irish town. There seemed to be only one store that had closed and the city has a center to trace its ancestry, a cinema, a modern shopping complex outside of the city and many traditional stores in the city. There are a couple of shops that years ago would have been described as “clothers”. These establishments are located on 2/3 floors and offer men’s and women’s clothing, furniture, furnishings, etc. One was the Gough O’Keefe and Naughton drapery store and each store was well stocked and busy.
After the shopping trip we moved to Limerick, driving into the city from the outskirts is now akin to any major Irish city where the out-of-town malls are packed with UK retailers. The city is not large and unfortunately has a reputation in recent years for gangland activity. These appear to be family members of one gang who attack members of other gangs. This should not discourage visitors to the city which has many pretty streets and great scenery.
We crossed the River Shannon again, moved to Co Clare and stopped at Bunratty Castle. This beautiful old castle with its adjoining “folk village” is well worth a visit. I had been then about twenty years before, so this time I didn’t go around the village. Medieval banquets are held in the castle. Bunratty now has a bypass but it has been well designed and you certainly won’t miss the bypass of the main N18. Limerick and Bunratty are a short drive from Shannon Airport.
It is a very popular location for holidaymakers with a large development of self-catering holiday homes run by the company “Dream Ireland” who feature many of their properties on the jmlvillas.com website. We parked outside Durty Nelly’s, one of Ireland’s most famous pubs.
After a coffee in the spacious complex of craft shops we moved onto the smaller roads following the signs for sixmilebridge. This is a quaint little town and has a pub by a stream that has a miniature version of the pub next door called the “Duck Inn”. Following the recent UK Parliament spending saga when an MP was claiming costs related to his houseboat on Duck Island, I couldn’t resist taking a couple of photos of this floating ‘duck pub’ .
We then follow the signs to Knappogue Castle. I remember going there one summer when I visited Ireland with relatives over thirty years ago for a medieval banquet. The most popular one, even in Bunratty, was fully booked so we went to Knappogue which is not so much on the tourist trail. That Saturday in June it was deserted, the weather had turned to rain by then, but the notices said they still do these banquets and wedding receptions there.
The next objective was to drive to Thurles via Limerick and not take the road to Nenagh which would be out of the way. You needed a map with the villages you would be passing through as the route was deliberately not signposted towards Thurles until you were about 30km away. Although it was raining, it was a great drive through these quaint villages, most of which have a shop, pub and church. Like the day before, many new houses have been built in recent years and the properties, old and new, are in very good condition. The owners would no doubt be working in Limerick.
Wherever he went, whether in the remote countryside, a town or a city, there were hundreds of poster photos of candidates for the Irish local elections and the European Parliament elections that were held in Ireland on Friday. Visiting Ireland again a couple of weeks after the event, something was missing with all the bare lampposts and telegraph poles where these posters had been. It was like when the Christmas decorations have to come down on the night of the twelve with just a sign slipping through the moving net.
Before arriving at Tipperary High School we toured Thurles itself, although it was raining you got a very good idea of the city. This city is a very prosperous place full of shops, pubs and restaurants.
Sunday was the last day of the tour and as we were in Tipperary we couldn’t miss out on visiting Tipperary. The day was warm and sunny again, turning off the familiar route from Nenagh to Thurles, we drove down a bumpy road which at one point became a single lane with grass in the middle, quite similar in width to country house properties like Ashleypark House. . The worrying factor was that there weren’t many passing places and fortunately no other traffic was coming from the opposite direction.
The car was running low on gas, and none of the quaint towns had gas stations. We reached the outskirts of Tipperary without incident and freshened up the car’s tank.
Tipperary was very similar to Thurles, Nenagh and the other local towns. After looking around we moved on to Thurles again this time following the route through Cashel which is one of Ireland’s most spectacular tourist attractions and one of the most visited. It is home to the iconic Rock of Cashel.
Monday was the day to leave Ashleypark House, such a peaceful place. There is a paddle boat available for guest use on the lake and many rides and the bonus is that they accept dogs.
There are so many people traveling with dogs to Ireland that it seems very strange that there are not more establishments that are pet friendly. Perhaps the economy has been doing so well for so long that they have had full occupancy without the need to encourage people with pets. Now that tourism levels are going to be lower and fewer visitors from Britain due to high ferry costs on the Irish Sea routes (as opposed to going to France) and sterling’s weakness against the euro, hotels will have to analyze their market and the restrictions. impose.
Ashleypark House is featured with ‘Hidden Ireland’ here are 30 similar types of accommodation in places in Ireland. Other than Ashleypark House, only one other house was advertised as allowing pets, and in that case it said “Kennels and Stables Available.” It is a great shame that others are not pet friendly as we will be looking for another area to visit next year.
It seems that prices in general will have to be reviewed to attract more customers. I discovered the other day in a hotel in Malahide, near Dublin, that a pint of Kilkenny lager was EUR 4.90 and this is higher than the same brand in the south of France. A pint of beer at my local pub in England will set you back around £3.00, so they need to consider costs to attract the significant tourist industry.
Speaking of Dublin, we drove back via Roscrea and the N7 before negotiating the M50 toll again, this time paying the fare at the local Spar shop rather than online.
After visiting Ireland for the last 35 years it was great to go to Tipperary for the first time and was able to cover a lot of the county, be it Tipperary North! It’s a very prosperous place to visit and you get a great welcome and the prices seem to be much, much better than Dublin.