Driving Route: Limerick Drive
Starting Point: The trail starts and finishes in Limerick City.
Services: Limerick City, Hospital, Croom, Rath Luirc, Newcastle West and Adare.
Time: This driving route makes a comfortable day trip allowing you to visit all the places named.
This drive begins in the bustling city of Limerick and brings you through a green and fertile land where livestock graze and visitors take their time.
Take a south westerly route out of the city on the N21 Limerick to Tralee/Killarney road and head for the beautiful village of Adare where the streets are lined with Tudor style thatched cottages, pictured below. Enjoy 5 star luxury in Adare Manor hotel and explore a unique cluster of mediaeval religious houses. Follow the signposts to the woodland estate and lakes around the shell of 18th century Curraghchase House, once home of the poet Aubrey de Vere, now a State forest and park.
The R518 and the N11 will bring you to the busy market town of Rathkeale and south to the attractive riverside town of Newcastlewest. Turning east you can connect up with the N20 Cork road and head north to Croom a village dominated by a restored riverside granary and mill.
Travelling east once again brings you to Hospital, a village named for the Knights Hospitallers of Crusader times and where you will find remnants of their great church and a splendid effigy of a knight in armour.
A short trip north brings you to see the habitat and artifacts of Neolithic Man in Lough Gur, one of Ireland's most important archaeological sites. And finally you return northwards to Limerick City.
Head Office, Shannon Town Centre,
Shannon, Co Clare: t: +353 (0)61 361555 f: +353 (0)61 361903
