5. Galway Food Tours, Galway city
Galway city is a hotbed of gastronomic talent and you could spend days here enjoying some of the best eating and drinking in the land. For a fast-track overview, Sheena Dignam’s 2.5-hour culinary walking tour shares a taste of local flavours – from beers and cheese to patisserie and sushi – and the best eateries and pubs, shops and markets to find them in. Alternatively, simply browse Galway’s lively weekend food market and adjacent Sheridan’s Cheesemonger, a national treasure that started life as a market stall.
6. Burren Food Trail, County Clare
With its starkly beautiful karst limestone hills, the Burren appears an unlikely gastro-destination, but this unique landscape is not dubbed "the fertile rock” for nothing. The UNESCO Global Geopark’s fascinating food heritage can be directly experienced through farm visits and wild food walks, smokehouse tours and oyster shucking workshops, weekly markets and annual food festivals, from May’s Burren Slow Food Festival through to October’s Burren Winterage Festival with its local food fair and community cattle drive walk. Singular dining settings include a Michelin-starred thatched cottage, bean-to-bar chocolate cafe and quayside lobster bar.
7. Treaty City Brewery Tour, Limerick city
Tucked away in a 250-year-old building in the medieval quarter of this Shannon-side city is Treaty City’s working craft brewery. Join a master brewer to learn about Limerick’s history of brewing since the 1700s through to contemporary brewing processes and ingredients, before judging the results for yourself with a complimentary beer tasting. If you’re visiting at the weekend, don’t miss the nearby Milk Market (Fri–Sun); with some 50 stalls and 21 shops, this covered market makes a great deep dive into Ireland’s vibrant food scene.
8. Dingle Cookery School, County Kerry
With bright, colourful shop fronts, a harbor filled with fishing boats and a mood mountain backdrop, Dingle is arguably one of the island's most charming towns. The coffee scene is strong, there’s a ton of great places to eat from Irish-style tapas at Solas to fine-dining at The Chart House, and the pubs – from Foxy John’s to Dick Mack’s – are legendary. Right now, it’s a great place to connect with the Kerry food scene, and if you want to expand your culinary skills then the Dingle Cookery School is the place to head. In the company of chef Mark Murphy, you can embark on a spot of Traditional Irish Cooking or Learn to Cook Fish To Perfection, but our advice? Head out on one of the Catch and Cook days on a fishing boat around Dingle Harbour, before heading back to the school to cook up your catch! It’s an experience you won’t forget.
9. Up There the Last, Leap, County Cork
Join traditional food conservationist Max Jones as he shares his passion for transforming our natural landscape into sustaining food. In Myross Wood near Leap village is the Booley, his off-grid research space inspired by mountain huts once used by cattle herders, where Max hosts natural cheese and butter making workshops. Down on the shoreline itself, he preserves ancient traditions of the sea through shoreline feasts and hands-on workshops, where you can learn to find, harvest, prepare, cook, cure, salt and smoke the bounty of a coastal forage. Max also helped establish The Keep at Woodcock Smokery where Ireland’s last wild salmon smoker, Sally Ferns Barnes, now runs workshops, courses and events.
10. Kinsale Mead Co, County Cork
Kate and Denis Dempsey established Ireland’s first meadery in 200 years, bringing the preferred tipple of Celtic kings and chieftains into the 21st century. The tour is full of surprises, starting with the refreshing mead itself which is as versatile for food pairings as for cocktails, from negronis to sangrias. Learn too about the ancient Irish bechbretha (‘bee laws’ to protect this precious resource) and mead-related myths and legends, and discover how this award-winning mead is made today.
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