DayTrippers: Do our tourist attractions offer a good deal? In a weekly series starting today, Irish Times writers assess them
Muckross House, Killarney, Co Kerry.
www.muckross-house.ie, tel: 064-31440
Highs: The location in Killarney National Park is stunning. But apart from that, the sheer variety of things going on at Muckross House is an eye-opener. In addition to the house and
gardens, craft shop and restaurant, it also contains a fully operational bookbindery, a research library, craft workshops and a pottery business. Muckross
Traditional Farms, across the road, is a re-creation of the Irish farm environment of the 1930s; a family ticket for both attractions is good value at €22.50.
Lows: the signs for Muckross House on the short drive out from Killarney are so misleading that I turned by mistake into two "car" parks, both of which turned out to be jaunting-car parks. I wasn't the only one. The pressure to hire a jaunting-car is a little intense.
Restaurant: File under "highs". The view from the glass-walled Garden Restaurant includes the looming bulk of Torc and Mangerton mountains. The food isn't bad either.
Visitors' verdicts: "We've spent nearly a whole day here - it's really fascinating, and great value." - Richard from Sydney, Australia, visiting with his wife and two children.
Unmissable: The tour of the house takes less than an hour and has plenty of the sort of detail you'd never find in a guide-book.
What would have made it better: The presence on the tour of Supernanny to control unruly children who are ignored by their parents.
Open: Daily all year except Christmas, 9am to 6pm.
Admission: Adult €5.75, child €2.35, senior citizen €4.50, family €14.50
Star rating: *****
Arminta Wallace
Greenan Farm, Museums and Maze, nr Rathdrum, Co Wicklow
www.greenanmaze.com, tel: 0404-46000
Highs: With two mazes, two museums and a nature walk incorporating a sculpture trail, the Wheeler family farm is a full day's fun. The original farmhouse is now a museum of farm life, with a bottle collection and a display. The old barn is home to a collection of machinery and mangles, tools and traps.
Lows: Once you complete the challenge of finding the farm, you must get a map with your tickets. Otherwise, it's not immediately obvious that the nature trail goes in a U from the coffee shop to the farmyard, and that the Dragonfly Walk is a spur off this.
Restaurant: The coffee shop, in a converted cottage, offers exactly what it says on the blackboard: "home baked goodies and tasty lunches", all reasonably priced.
Visitors' verdicts: Each time we met Tara Murray from Greystones, Co Wicklow, with her three young sons, she was more delighted with the farm, finding it "very quaint and different". "The best things were the mazes and the sandpits" - Callum Duffy (10), from Dunleer, Co Louth. His cousin, Dylan Doyle (nine) from Annacurra, Co Wicklow, said he'd like a bit more to amuse his age group such as "a park with swings and big trees to climb".
Unmissable: Ironic, this, as it's easy to miss. But the best feeling is when you discover the grassy calm centre of the maze, all you then have to do is find your way out.
What would have made it better? Greenan doesn't have a wide variety of animals, and they aren't very accessible. That said, along with sheep, hens and geese, there's a friendly donkey and a patient horse to pet, and the cockerel crows regularly enough to cause a certain two-and-three-quarter-year-old great delight. "Cotadoolelldooo!"
Open: 10am-6pm Mon-Sun (Aug); Sun only (Sept).
Admission: Adult €8, child (over three) €6, family ticket (two adults and two children) €24, season ticket available.
Star rating: ****
Joyce Hickey
Book of Kells, Trinity College Dublin
www.tcd.ie
Highs: It's not every day you get to look at a book crafted by monks in c.800AD, which is why this illuminated manuscript depicting the four gospels is one of our most visited tourist attractions. While there are plenty of other displays and ancient manuscripts on view, the highlight is the book itself. After learning about the painstaking methods employed by the monks to create it, it's difficult not to be impressed.
Lows: The Turning Darkness Into Light exhibition, which leads the way to the Book of Kells, is informative but the layout is a bit cramped. Summer queues for admission can be long, so factor that into your visit.
Restaurant: Cafe fare is available at the Buttery and the Pavilion on the Trinity campus but there's no restaurant attached to the Old Library building where the Book of Kells is displayed.
Visitors' verdicts: "Amazing," said Bill from Pennsylvania. "I didn't really know what to expect but I was blown away. It's incredible to think of those monks toiling away on such a beautiful work of art."
Unmissable: The library in the Long Room, which holds about 200,000 volumes, is like something out of a Harry Potter book. Many tourists ignore the notices requesting silence though, which takes away from the experience.
What would have made it better: Toilets within the building and more thought put into the layout of the Turning Darkness Into Light exhibition. The display area around the Book of Kells itself could also do with a redesign - it can get very crowded around the precious book.
Open: Mon-Sat, 9.30am-5pm; Sun 9.30am-4.30pm
Admission: Adult €8, child (under 12) free, student/senior citizen €7, family ticket (two adults plus up to four children) €16
Star rating: ****
Róisín Ingle
Galway City Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway Website: none at present
Highs: The new Musaeum Cathrach na Gaillimhe by the old city wall and Spanish Arch was some time in gestation, and was mistaken by some visitors for an art gallery during the recent festival fortnight. It is currently exhibiting the Bank of Ireland's collection of 55 works by important Irish artists, entitled On Reflection.
Its first temporary museum exhibition is Fragments of a City, involving medieval and post-medieval stone carvings.
However, even if Oisin Kelly or Camille Souter don't do it for you, it is worth visiting for its architecture alone. All light-inducing glass and bright white wall space, it frames 180-degree views of Galway Bay, the Burren to the south, and the Corrib river rushing in from the northern reaches.
Lows: Its presence almost softens the impact of the controversial Portmore building beside it.
Restaurant: there is a reasonably-sized coffee shop, child-friendly, with glimpses of Spanish Arch and the river.
Tourists' verdicts: "Is it awful to say this? I almost forgot all about the exhibits when I caught that glorious view of the city skylines from a second floor alcove" - Elizabeth Murphy, Boston.
"The signs are a bit high for me to read" - Tomás McCormack (seven), Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Unmissable: The Bank of Ireland exhibition, until September 24th; and the views.
What would have made it better: As it's a new building, it might be unfair to be too specific at this stage. No doubt interactive exhibits for younger visitors are being considered?
Open: Mon-Sat 10am to 5pm
Admission: free until November review
Star rating: ****
Lorna Siggins
Glenveagh National Park, Co Donegal
www.npws.ie, tel: 074 9137090
Highs: The scenery is glorious. Wild, stark and clean, with mountains, lakes and a ridiculously picturesque lakeside castle. Lots of lovely self-guided walks you could take a picnic on. Atmospheric walled gardens, and an eerie lakeside man-made swimming pool, now full of lilies. The castle is still decorated as it was when the last private owner, Henry McIlhenny (who presented the estate to the State in 1981) lived here. It's fantastically high-class bad-taste, with antlers poking out of everything and paintings of bleeding dead stags everywhere.
Lows: Apparently, the biting midges are infamous, although luckily I neither saw - nor felt - any on my visit.
Restaurant: The visitor-centre cafe was closed temporarily when I was there. The tea room at the castle displayed no prices, which meant I was in for a nasty shock at the till. There was a good array of home baking, but anything savoury looked unappetising. I paid €3.80 for a horrible, dry "tuna and sweetcorn" sandwich, which contained not a scrape of mayonnaise and precisely three kernels of corn. No children's menu.
Tourists' verdicts: "The walled gardens and rhododendrons are beautiful" - Pauline from Tahiti. "I loved the pink round bedroom in the castle, because if you lived there, your mum wouldn't be able to tell you to go and stand in the bold corner" - Holly (seven) from Bangor, Co Down.
Unmissable: Wandering around the gardens under your own steam.
What would have made it better: Being told at the visitors' centre, when you buy your ticket for the castle tour, that you should go there asap to book a place on a tour (max 20 people), rather than wander round the gardens first.
I ended up waiting two hours to get on a tour, as they were booked up with groups.
Open: Park open all year. Castle and visitor centre open February-November, 10am-6pm.
Admission to castle: Adult €3, child €1.50, senior citizen €2, family €7. Shuttle buses to castle €2 per adult €1 per child (or an easy 30-minute walk). Admission to the park is free.
Star rating: ****
Rosita Boland