Hatch a plan for an Easter trip to Ireland

Celebrate Easter and the arrival of spring on the island of Ireland: there will be happy bunnies galore, an array of festivals, horse-racing, spring fairs and tons of adventure activities in the great outdoors.

The Easter period is a hive of activity in Ireland, and right around the country the options for egg hunts, feeding lambs and encounters with the mysterious rabbit that delivers Easter eggs will be endless. 

Meet the Easter Bunny at Stonehall Wildlife Park in Limerick on Easter Sunday, for instance, and trade little chicks for Easter eggs. Or head to Westport House in County Mayo, a favourite location among the many Irish country houses, parks and gardens putting on family entertainment at Easter time. Here, Pinkie Rabbit will be darting around on Easter Sunday to help children look high and low for clues to enter a competition for some great prizes.

The Jungle outdoor adventure centre in County Londonderry will be another great place to be on Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday. After the Easter Egg Hunt through an enchanted forest you can explore a woodland petting farm with chicks to cuddle, piglets to chase and lambs and llamas to feed.

Kids – and adults – who love seeing new life emerging in the springtime will delight in the small animal house at Watertop Farm on the famous Causeway Coastal Route. Opening for Easter on 11 April, this farm is home to a collection of playful baby animals, including puppies, lambs, rabbits and chicks, as well as a host of excellent farm-related activities and camping and caravanning facilities. 

For those who like to stay inside, the biggest indoor egg hunt in the country will be among the nooks and crannies of St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast on Easter Tuesday. 

When it comes to an Easter feast in Ireland, it won’t come any better than the Galway Food Festival. Taking place from 9–13 April with the theme of ‘planting seeds’, this premier Irish food festival will feature five days of open-air markets, food trails, family fun and much, much more. 

Expect talks, tours, top-class workshops, in-house events and everything from a food truck village to an exciting range of cookery demonstrations from a line-up of top chefs. With Galway being the 2020 European Capital of Culture, extraordinary cultural experiences, events and creativity also await this Easter time. 

And for those looking for a more spiritual Easter experience of Ireland, Pilgrim Paths Week, based around the country’s network of medieval pilgrimage routes, runs from 10–19 April. 

Welcoming walkers of all denominations and none, it features one-day events and multiday outings along routes such as St Finbarr’s Pilgrim Path in County Cork and St Kevin’s Way in County Wicklow, which takes in the famous glacial valley of Glendalough, home to one of the most important monastic sites in Ireland.

www.ireland.com