I left Ireland 30 years ago. How would my homecoming go?

I travelled with my old pals from Rabbie’s Tours in Edinburgh. In recent years, I’ve explored the Italian lakes, the Swiss Alps, and the English countryside with them. If, like me, you’ve spent decades as an independent traveller and now fancy someone else doing all the hard work for you - whilst still getting that authentic, off-the-beaten track ‘travel-not-tourism’ experience - then give Rabbie’s a holler.

They fix a fantastic itinerary, arrange stays in funky little hotels and B&Bs, and drive you around in luxury with your own personal guide. The guides are really what make these tours. They know every secret spot where day-trippers never tread, the best restaurants and bars, the local lore and legends. And as this is Ireland, they’re great craic.

Galway is a fun stop (Image: free)

This journey saw my wife and I set off one bright, sunny morning from Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green - one of the sites of the Easter Rising. Take some time in Dublin to explore the city’s history, particularly its revolutionary past during the early 20th century. Go to Davy Byrnes Pub, where James Joyce idled his time away, and try a plate of rib-sticking ham, cabbage, potatoes and parsley sauce, with a pint of the black stuff. The food and drink of the gods, and for me the taste of home.

Galway was one of our main bases. On the way, we stopped on the banks of the Shannon at the ancient, ruined monastery of Clonmacnoise - right in the heart of Ireland. It’s a memorial to Ireland’s glittering Celtic past during the so-called Dark Ages, when the island was the land of saints and scholars, keeping the flame of education and civilisation alive in a then barbaric, backward Europe. Clonmacnoise was founded in 554AD. You can sense magic, myth and history here. It’s a good primer for what’s to come.

Indeed, we went back deeper into the past, much deeper. On the lunar landscape of The Burren, in Country Clare, I found myself hypnotised by the signs of the civilisation of our most ancient ancestors. It’s there you’ll discover the Poulnabrone Dolmen, a unique Neolithic monument put up possibly as early as 4200BC - long before Stonehenge. Ireland is littered with standing stones and Stone Age monuments. The past walks beside you here - whether it’s the revolutionary past, or the deep, strange forgotten past.

If you’re not seeing a castle every few miles, you’re doing something wrong. But if you need a spot of downtime from all that majesty of nature and history, well, isn’t Ireland the place to party.

Galway is like a mini-Edinburgh - there’s always some festival or other on. It’s a cool little city on the wild west coast, throbbing with life. You might never want to leave Galway. I could spend the rest of my years strolling its streets at night, popping in and out of pubs playing Irish music, then treating myself to seafood sold fresh from the harbour. And if you want whiskey (not spelt ‘whisky’, you’re in Ireland now not Scotland), there’s distilleries everywhere. Try Kilbeggan. It’s my new tipple.

From our Galway base, we explored the Wild Atlantic Way (inspiration for Scotland’s North Coast 500). It’s 1500 miles of breathtaking scenery that’s featured in everything from Star Wars and Game of Thrones to Ryan’s Daughter, The Banshees of Inisherin and The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

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Only poets can put words to the splendour of this countryside - to the untamed soul of Romantic Ireland - and they have, just read WB Yeats. The dramatic Cliffs of Moher are like being at the very end of the world. In fact, until Christopher Columbus, to the European mind, the rugged west coast of Ireland was the end of the world.

I recall driving through sun-kissed verdant countryside before heading up into the mountains of Cork and Kerry, where at a high pass the clouds came down wreathing the world in mist. It was like being transported to fairyland.

Indeed, wherever you go, you’ll find fairy forts and fairy forests. The mythical past lies very close to the surface of the present here. Bring a book of Irish legends with you and imagine heroes, giants, banshees and goddesses roaming this land.

After a few days, we made another base in Killarney, a town that - at least while I was there - never slept. It’s as pretty as a picture, but if you want to party, this is where you go. A tip: visit the Mad Monk restaurant. The seafood here was even better than Galway.

From Killarney, you can branch out into the Dingle Peninsula, soaking up the scenery, the Gaelic culture - for you’re in the Gaeltacht here, where Irish in the principle language. We wandered ruined Iron Age forts, played in the sands of pristine beaches, spotted dolphins in Dingle Bay - where I had the best fish and chips I’ve ever had in my life, and that’s saying something - and got a little tipsy in the most westerly bar in all of Europe, Kruger’s near Tralee.

Dunmore Head, part of the Dingle Peninsula (Image: PA)

Next morning it was up through the towering mountains again into the Ring of Kerry, home to Ireland’s most spectacular vistas. Stop off at the mansion house of Daniel O’Connell, known as The Liberator of Ireland, to watch the flag being raised.

No trip to this part of the country is complete without a visit to Blarney Castle, home to the famous Blarney Stone. Now, you need your bravery about you here as the stone itself is at the top of a vertiginous tower, a good 100 feet up, and you need to lie on your back and shoogle your body out over the edge to give it the stone the kiss that grants you the ‘gift of the gab’.

On the way back to Dublin, we made one last stop over in Kilkenny to watch the biggest sporting event of the year - Cork v Clare in the All-Ireland hurling final. You haven’t known what craic is until you’re in a bar where the Guinness and whiskey is flowing as an entire town goes mad at the final whistle.

This was the perfect portmanteau holiday. Want great food? It’s everywhere. Great drink? Well, come on, this is Ireland. Music? Again, come on, this is Ireland. History? You can’t move for the past. Beautiful landscapes? I’m telling you, some of these sights are so profound they could make you cry. Romance? It’s in the air.

I love Scotland, it’s been so good to me. But this trip to rediscover my homeland, made me wonder why I ever left Ireland in the first place.

Neil travelled with Rabbie’s Tours. For full details of trips and prices visit www.rabbies.com