OUR Essential Ireland BLOG

Essential Ireland Tours founder,Patrick Wade, recently brought the movie 'lights out' to the Phoenix Cinema inDingle for its Ireland and UK premiere. Cyrus Mojibi and Patrick Wade, co-producers of'lights out', pictured with Stephen McPhilemy of Essential Ireland Tours at thePhoenix cinema in Dingle for the Irish Premier. Essential Ireland tours hosted the after-party forthe Irish premier of Lights Out

The biggest dog in the world! Our co-founders, Patrick and Stephen,own a beautiful gentle-giant Irish Wolfhound called Seamus (the Irish for James). At 205 pounds he is possibly the biggest dog in Ireland, maybe the biggest dog in the world! Famous Seamus the Irish Wolfhound, greeter atMilltown House on Dingle Harbour and mascot of Essential Ireland Tours Seamus is loved, and photographed, by hundreds of our tour guests All our tours on the 'south by south-west'series stay at

Essential Ireland Tours visit Guinness VIP bar In January of 2014 Patrick and Stephen accepted the invite from our friends at The Guinness Storehouse to experience their new 'connoisseur experience'. ‍ We were conducting a tour of Ireland for the Wade family from California and decided to use them, err we mean treat them, as the crash test dummies! And by God did they enjoy it...

2022 Tour Dates have been announced, sign up now for a classic 'Essential Ireland' Tour CASTLES & CLASSICS DELUXE TOUR 7 DAYS/6 NIGHTS From €2500 ‍‍Saturday 19th March to Friday 25th March Saturday 26th March to Friday April 1st SOLD OUT Saturday 9th April to Friday 15th April Saturday 7th May to Friday 13th May SOLD OUT Tuesday 7th June to Monday 13th June, 2022 14th June to 20th June SOLD OUT Saturday 2nd July to Friday 8th July SOLD OUT Saturday 3rd September to Friday 9th

Essential Ireland Tours are back on the road in 2021. Happy Days "Oh its great to be back touring, my biggest daydream during lockdown"  - Stephen McPhilemy,  Essential Ireland Tours Essential Ireland Tours are back on the road in 2021. Happy Days! ‍ Delighted to be back on tour in October 2021. Our 'Essential Ireland' Tour consisted of 6 intrepid travellers (3 couples from across the US), Dave O'Malley from Donegal at the wheel driving, and my good self ( Stephen McPhilemy )

Ireland has many native species of animals, majestic in their own ways. Here are some that you may spot on your Essential Tour of Ireland Lucy at Milltown House This is Lucy, a beautiful Barn Owl who lives at Milltown House  🦉 Barn Owls are easy to recognise, with their honey colour on top and very white underneath, heart-shaped face and long legs. They also mate for life unlike other owls. They usually  like to live near woodlands and ditches. Their screech was an inspirati

The Cliffs of Moher are spectacular sea cliffs in the Burren in County Clare. They run from  O'Brien's Tower to Hag’s Head, so called because a legend relates how a sea-witch, Mal of Malbay, fell in love with the Irish hero, Cú Chulainn and chased him across Ireland. Cú Chulainn escaped by hopping across sea stacks as if they were stepping stones. Mal, however, not being so nimble lost her footing and was dashed against the cliff. Marvelling at the Cliffs of Moher At their so

Warm greetings and Christmas wishes from us all at Milltown House, our idyllic Travel HQ on Dingle Harbour. 2019 was a great year for Essential Ireland Tours, we led 10 tours and private groups on life-affirming, educational and value-for money tours whilst having a ton of fun along the way. We made a lot of new friends doing so - our Tour-Guests quickly become our lifelong friends. We want to wish them all a Happy Christmas and particularly for those who will be celebrating

Castles & Classics VIP Tour 2019 We said goodbye to a successful 2019 tour season with a grand finale at the start of November - our ‘Castles & Classics’ VIP tour of Ireland. 7 days of delightful travel along the Wild Atlantic Way culminating in a blissful stay at Ashford Castle, the best hotel in the world! On a crisp, bright Autumn morning we set off from Dublin (all our tours begin and end there, and pre and post-tour we help Tour Guests see Dublin on their own) with a fun

Learn all about the myths and the history of the Rock of Cashel The Rock of Cashel has an important part in the myths and history of Ireland. From ancient times, it was a fortress that looked across some of Ireland’s richest and most fertile lands. The word Cashel itself comes from the Irish word Caiseal meaning strong fortress. It was held by the kings of Munster for generations until Brian Boru’s brother Mahon took the throne of Cashel in 963 and when Brian crowned himself

Happy Christmas 2018. 🇮🇪 🔥 🎄 "Nollaig Shona Daoibh" (NO-Lihg HO-nuh JEEV) Warm greetings to all our friends, clan and tour guests throughout the world. Our Christmas message isn’t as impactive as that of the Pope or the Queen but we gave it a go anyway 🙂 Thank you for travelling with us through our beloved homeland in 2018. Here’s to a great year of travel and learning in 2019. Le meas/with respectStephen, Patrick & Team & Wolfhounds. 🐺

Seamus the Irish Wolfhound gets a new playmate!

Award winning, small group tours of Ireland Essential Ireland Tours are proud to present our epic 2018 tour series. NOTE: March & April departures sold out! June 15th - sold out! July 20th - sold out!     Extra small groups - only 8-10 people per tour   Unbeatable value  - still travel VIP style    Ultimate Irish experiences - Ireland’s best tour-guides  ‍ We are offer two great tours, one tour to the North of Ireland and one to the South and West (the famous ‘Wild Atlantic W

Essential Ireland's colours and banner inspired by the Flag of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin Our Logo - Essential Irelands’ Green & Gold Banner and  its originsTo celebrate the important year of 2016, Essential Ireland Tours decided we would change our logo and company colours to reflect a pivotal point in Irish history. The 1916 Easter Rising against the British Empire. Patrick and Stephen were eager for a logo and company identity that would feel fresh as we launched our