Unique Guided Tours of Ireland - Experience the Real Ireland

More than a vacation to Ireland, taking the backroads makes all the difference!

“Irish Byways takes touring Ireland to the Next Level!”
--Jim Brooks, Editor, THE IRISH GAZETTE - TheIrishGazette.com

Dia Dhuit!

Welcome to Irish Byways Tours, born on the Irish soil! 
Our tours are very popular with the general public.  Our academic tours are popular with universities seeking a cultural experience for their alumni and students.

2012 TOURS:

JULY 31 - AUGUST 10
“The Monastic Tradition Sites in the West of Ireland” with Masterful Irish Guide, Dave Hogan and Author, Anthony Previte (read about this exciting NEW tour below on this page)

SEPTEMBER 11-21
“Landscape & Lore, Music & Myth” with Guide, Dave Hogan (Tour Itinerary Highlights found under Ireland Tours & Dates - bottom of that page.  Read about Dave Hogan under Tour Guides)

All tours limited to 26 travelers!  Cost $2400 plus airfare and travel insurance (see our FAQ page for full description of what is included!)
Inquiries:  920.850.2789 OR our Contact Page:  - All inquiries receive a free copy of The Irish Gazette!

When you travel with us, you will:
- enjoy a relaxed pace led by brilliant Irish guides
- roam through castles, quaint villages, and shops
- engage with authentic Irish storytellers, authors, historians, artists and musicians
- travel by ferry to islands off the Irish coast
- touch sacred sites, dolmens, stone circles
- stay at authentic, high quality B&Bs/Guest Houses with Irish Charm
- be immersed in Irish music and gather memories to last a life time!
- travel by professional coach, but be mostly off-the-bus

As you browse our website, we invite you to review a multitude of testimonials

We welcome your inquiries:  920.850.2789 OR Tours limited to 26 travelers!

We offer these distinct ten-day tours PLUS a new tour is being introduced July 31-August 10, 2012: “Tour of Ireland’s Monastic Tradition” with our guide, Dave Hogan and Author Anthony Previte!

• University Study or Study/Service Tours for Alumni or Students
• Landscape & Lore, Music & Myth Tour - September 11-21, 2012
• A Pilgrimage Tour to Sacred Sites—Not offered in 2012
• NEW SUMMER 2012!  “A Tour of the Monastic Tradition Sites of Western Ireland”
  Monastic Tour Dates: July 31-August 10, 2012 described below

The Tour of Monastic Sites in the West of Ireland is designed and led by Dave Hogan, ecologist, historian, musician and brilliant guide.  Author, Anthony Previte, will also present on the tour. 

Previte’s books A Guide to Lough Corrib’s Early Monastic Sites, and A Guide to Connemara’s Early Christian Sites, are a rich resource for the tour having recently won the All-Ireland Heritage Award.

Both men are known world-wide for their teaching and their books.  They invite you to come along as they step through significant sites of the independent ascetic monastic period, 400-1100, prior to the introduction of a diocesan system. Previte describes early monasticism in Ireland as having “a special uniqueness in the history of the Celtic church in that any organisation to do with finance, lands etc., was not governed by bishops but by the abbots of the monasteries.  … Against other parts of the Roman Empire world, there were no cities in Ireland so the life and economy was wholly pastoral and based around local tribes or little kingdoms.”

Such a tour requires a masterful guide who is knowledgeable about the life of monks who organized churches, centers of learning and produced artistic and scholarly works.. Dave Hogan is that guide, who also brings together all the fascinating and interconnected layers of Irish life and landscape surrounding this period.

A partial list of the monastic sites follows here. Some include round towers, beehive huts, bullauns, holy wells, graveyards, cross slabs and high crosses with ancient inscriptions:

-Clonmacnoise, founded by St. Ciarán in the mid-6th century and became a major Catheral City

-Clonfert Cathedral founded by Saint Brendan in 577 and at its height had three thousand monks

- Killursa (ca.620) and the magnificent ecclesiastical structure Ross Errilly (1270 origin) on the shores of Lough Corrib

- Cong Abbey – an architectural treasure with 13th century fragmentary cloister and 15th Century Monk’s Fishing House

-Kylemore Castle/Abbey – A breathtaking castle converted into an Abbey in 1920 has become the #1 tourist attraction in the west of Ireland.
Several island locations are included:

- Inchagoill Island: A church building attributed to St Patrick and his nephew Lugna.
The Stone of Lugna holds one of the oldest Christian inscriptions (5th-6th Century) in Europe

-Inishbofin Island:  St Colman’s Abbey built 668 (Colman was a monk of Iona and died on Bofin) and St Scaithin’s Hermitage

- Caher Island:  An ancient center for pilgrimage, with 6th century monastic settlement attributed to St Patrick

-Omey Island: A Christian settlement founded by St Feichin – 7th Century

Previte writes, “According to historian Paul Gallagher, between 575 -725 in Continental Europe, the Irish monastic movement had founded 113 monasteries and schools in France and Switzerland, 26 in Germany, 10 in Austria and 3 in the north of Italy”.

Every Irish Byways tour provides professional coach transportation.  Unique features of Irish Byways tours are the exclusive use of the best B&Bs with Irish charm in each area, a relaxed early morning schedule, the free time in Galway City, extended stays in the city of Clifden on the Atlantic Coast and two festive music nights!

Come along on your own or bring a group to join one of our 2012 tours:

“The Monastic Tour”:  July 31 – August 10
“Landscape & Lore, Music & Myth”:  September 11-21

Inquiries:  920.850.2789 OR
Informational Meetings: Irish Byways Office, 889 Grand Ave, St Paul

�A tour with Irish Byways is a special experience.  This company puts together the very best people to give the visitor to Ireland a real sense of the land and its history, culture, and present energy.  Time is a magical commodity, respected and relaxed, without any feeling either of �hurry hurry� or of pointlessness.  The guides know the land and its lore, and they know how to share these openly and comfortably with others.� --Anna H., University Study Tour traveller

RESERVE YOUR PLACE NOW ON OUR CONTACT PAGE!