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From Dublin: 2-Day Cork, Blarney Castle & Ring of Kerry Tour
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From €509 per person
This two-day tour takes you from Dublin all the way to the south-west of Ireland and back, covering some of the most scenically varied ground the country has to offer.
Day 1: Check in at Dublin Heuston (Customer Service Desk) for the 7:00am InterCity train to Cork, with breakfast available on board. You’ll transfer by road to Blarney Castle to kiss the famous stone, then have time for lunch and some shopping before a short city tour of Cork. The afternoon visit takes you to Cobh Heritage Centre, home of the Queenstown Story - the port where the Titanic made her last call and from which millions of Irish emigrants departed. The evening train brings you to Killarney, where you’ll be transferred to your bed and breakfast accommodation with en-suite facilities. The evening is yours.
Day 2: At 10:00am you set out on the Ring of Kerry - a largely coastal drive around the Iveragh Peninsula, taking in Dingle Bay and the famous Lakes of Killarney, with stunning mountain and coastal scenery throughout. The return train leaves Killarney at 17:50 and arrives back into Dublin Heuston at 21:15.
Departs daily, Monday to Saturday.
At Blarney Castle: The queue for the Blarney Stone can be long in summer - your tour arrival time usually avoids the worst of it. The castle grounds are worth exploring beyond the stone itself. The Rock Close, a Victorian rock garden with standing stones and the famous Wishing Steps, is fifty metres from the main crowds and genuinely peaceful. Allow time for it.
In Cobh: After Blarney, your Day 1 afternoon brings you to the Cobh Heritage Centre and the Queenstown Story. The pier where the Titanic tenders departed is two minutes’ walk from the train station - it’s still working. Walk the promenade past the Annie Moore statue (she was the first person processed at Ellis Island in 1892, a fourteen-year-old from Cobh) to the seafront and back. The painted Victorian terrace below St Colman’s Cathedral - called the Deck of Cards - photographs best from the prom, looking up.
Killarney evenings are yours: Your bed and breakfast is booked, the evening is free. Killarney has a real pub scene. Courtney’s Bar on Plunkett Street is where the locals go for trad sessions - small, low-ceilinged, tunes from about half nine. The Laurels on High Street has been run by the O’Leary family for over a century and keeps the music honest. For dinner, Bricín on High Street does a boxty - a potato pancake stuffed with whatever is good that day - that’s worth planning around.
The Ring of Kerry: On Day 2, the 179km loop takes in Kenmare, Sneem, and the coastline of the Iveragh Peninsula. If you stop for coffee in Sneem, walk five minutes from South Square behind the church to the salmon cascades - the Sneem River drops in a series of stepped falls that most coaches miss entirely. Kenmare is the town where the Ring opens up into proper food country; if you have an hour there, Kenmare has a Bronze Age stone circle five minutes from the square and a food scene that punches well above its size. The loop comes back to Killarney for your evening train.
Getting back to Dublin: Your return train from Killarney at 17:50 arrives into Heuston at 21:15. The direct service from Killarney to Dublin has been running since 1853 - the railway is the reason the town is shaped the way it is. Step off the platform in Killarney and you’re five minutes from the high street; worth knowing if you have time before departure.