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Village in County Limerick, Ireland
Photo: Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Adare is a small town in County Limerick in the Shannon Region of western Ireland. It's one of the prettiest towns in the country, with a castle and a plush golf resort. Adare grew up at a point where the River Maigue can be forded, hence its name Áth Dara, "ford of the oak". In 2022 the population was 1224.
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13th century ring-fortress, the stronghold of the Earls of Kildare till 1536 then forfeited and awarded to the Earls of Desmond. Visit by guided tour starting from the Heritage Centre.
Friendly restaurant, good place to bring kids.
This bistro gets consistently great reviews for food and welcome.
Good Chinese for sit-in or takeaway.
Open April-Sept, well-run site, clean and welcoming.
Smart hotel in an old coaching inn. Mostly good reviews, some decor tired and the occasional breakfast malfunction. Free parking, leisure centre.
Pleasant welcoming guest house.
Spa hotel, scores well for comfort, food and especially for service.
Grand hotel and golf resort, mostly 19th century, in parkland east of town - in 1836 the entire property was valued at a mere £130. It also hosts Adare Golf Club and Limerick Cricket Club.
Plush accommodation in a 19th century pseudo-Gothic "castle," five bedrooms, sleeps ten. Popular with wedding parties in summer, and they mostly do exclusive lets, but have some availability for couples on short breaks.
Adare is 15 km southwest of Limerick city. M20 / N21 leads to Adare but there's no bypass, so the town is always congested with traffic passing through to Kerry on top of tourist traffic for the town itself.
Read in the guideAccess to the castle is by shuttle bus, everything else is best visited on foot. There's a free public car park (monitored by CCTV) behind the Heritage Centre, with an e-car charging point.
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Shannon · International · SNN
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