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Dublin to Rock of Cashel Cork City and Blarney Castle Guided Tour
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From €79 per person
This is one of the most popular day trips from Dublin, and once you see the itinerary it’s easy to understand why. In a single long day you’ll take in three of the south of Ireland’s most visited spots - the Rock of Cashel in Tipperary, Cork city, and Blarney Castle - with admission fees to all three covered in the price.
The coach departs Dublin at 08:00 and heads south through the midlands, passing through the Golden Vale, the richest farmland in the country. It’s a good stretch of road to sit back and watch Ireland go by.
Your first stop is the Rock of Cashel - one of the most atmospheric ruins in Ireland. This hilltop fortress in Co. Tipperary was the seat of the Kings of Munster for centuries before they handed it to the Catholic Church around 1,000 years ago. Celtic crosses, a round tower, a Romanesque chapel, and sweeping views over the Tipperary plain - it’s genuinely hard to leave.
Cork gives you 90 minutes to explore Ireland’s second city at your own pace. The English Market (dating to 1788) is the obvious first stop - a covered food market that’s been feeding Corkonians for over two centuries and welcomed Queen Elizabeth II on her State Visit in 2011. Cork is known as the Rebel City for its role in the War of Independence, and it wears that history with pride.
The final stop is Blarney Castle, where you can kiss the famous Blarney Stone on the castle battlements and claim your seven years of eloquent speech. After that, there’s time to explore the estate gardens, the Witches Cave in the grounds, and the Blarney Woollen Mills craft shop. The tour arrives back in Dublin around 20:00.
Meeting point: Bus collects from the corner (outside) of 5 Beresford Place and Gardiner Street Lower, Dublin.
At the Rock of Cashel: The tour arrives with the morning crowd, so use every minute of your 60 minutes. Walk up from the car park on foot - the approach on foot, watching the walls rise above you, is part of how the place works. Inside, don’t miss Cormac’s Chapel (consecrated 1134), the oldest Romanesque church in Ireland with the only surviving Romanesque frescoes on the island, only discovered when limewash was removed in the 1980s. The carvings on the tympanum have no equal anywhere in Ireland.
Through the Golden Vale: The coach travels the N74 corridor through some of the richest farmland in Ireland on the way to and from the Rock. The village of Golden sits 8km west of Cashel in this same stretch, where the River Suir runs flat through the fields. Two kilometres south of the village, Athassel Priory sits free in a field - four acres of Augustinian ruins from around 1200, the largest medieval priory footprint in Ireland, and nobody else there. You won’t stop on this tour, but it’s worth knowing about if you’re ever back in Tipperary with time to spend.
In Cork city: With 90 minutes you can do the English Market properly and still have time to wander. The market dates to 1788 and is the real article - local producers, proper food, no performance. If you want a bite, that’s the place to do it since food and drinks aren’t covered on this tour.
At Blarney Castle: You get two hours here, which is enough to do everything. The queue for the Stone moves faster than you’d expect with a group - lean back, kiss it, move on. The Rock Close gardens behind the castle are where the real atmosphere is: Victorian-era rock gardens dressed up with druidic names, the Wishing Steps, the Witch’s Kitchen. Most people rush through them. Don’t. After the grounds, the Blarney Stone pub or the Barley Stone on the village square are better options for a drink than the Blarney Woollen Mills, which is efficient but designed to extract money.
Timing the day: Twelve hours is a long day and you cover serious ground. Bring snacks and water for the coach stretches. The coach has USB charging, which matters on a day this long.