Engaging Ireland - Episode 20 - Top 10 Monastic and Spiritual Sites in Ireland

Our Choices for Top 10 Monastic Sites in Ireland   In the next few episodes, we will be taking a look at our Top 10 lists for Ireland. Seems like everyone is putting together a “Top 10” list these days, so we thought we would share some of our top choices for Ireland. We have chosen our favorites from several categories; for example, we’ll list our top ten favorite towns/cities, our top ten. Why didn’t we limit ourselves to just one list of Top 10 Favorites? It’s too hard! And, while we admit we haven’t seen everything there is to see yet, these are our favorites thus far. We begin the podcast series with our Top 10 Monastic/Spiritual Sites. Ireland is virtually littered with sites dating back thousands of years. These are the sites we are most drawn to again and again. For more information on any of the sites we mention, please click on the links below. NOTE: Many of the sites are part of Heritage Ireland (www.heritageireland.ie). If you purchase an OPW Heritage Card, you can enter these sites for no cost or reduced cost.   Skellig Michael   http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=757 http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/South-West/SkelligMichael/  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skellig_Michael   Interesting web book entitled “The Forgotten Hermitage of Skellig Michael” by      Walter Horn, Jenny White Marshall, and Grellan D. Rourke:   http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1d5nb0gb;brand=ucpress   Boat operators to Skellig Michael:   http://iguide.travel/Skellig_Michael/Overview/Boat_Operators   Loughcrew   http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew.htm http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/MidlandsEastCoast/Loughcrew/ http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/ireland/loughcrew.html (Great Photos)   Loughcrew House, Gardens, and Adventure Course http://www.loughcrew.com/   Rock of Cashel/Hore Abbey   http://www.cashel.ie/ http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/South-East/RockofCashel/   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hore_Abbey Clonmacnoise   http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/MidlandsEastCoast/Clonmacnoise/ http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ireland/clonmacnoise   Kells (Co. Kilkenny)   Site with comprehensive information about Kells Priory http://kells.frantzen.de/index.htm   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kells_Priory   Kilree Round Tower and High Cross (just up the road from Kells) http://www.roundtowers.org/kilree/index.htm   Glendalough   http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/midlandseastcoast/GlendaloughVisitorCentre/ http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ireland/glendalough   Dublin St. Patrick’s Cathedral http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/index.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Patrick%27s_Cathedral,_Dublin   Christ Church Cathedral http://cccdub.ie/ http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ireland/dublin-christ-church-cathedral.htm   Hill of Tara/Hill of Slane   http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/midlandseastcoast/HillofTara/ http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/tara/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Tara   http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/slane/index.html http://www.slane.com/hillofslane.htm   Quin Abbey   http://www.nd.edu/~ikuijt/Ireland/Sites/mdonnel2/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quin_Abbey   Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange, Knowth, Howth)   http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/MidlandsEastCoast/BrunaBoinneVisitorCentreNewgrangeandKnowth/   http://www.knowth.com/bru-na-boinne.htm