Holiday Cottages In Munster

Munster is Ireland's south-western province, home to around 380 self-catering cottages on selfcatering.co.uk. It runs from the mountains and peninsulas of Kerry to the long Cork coast, the Cliffs of Moher in Clare and the Vee in Tipperary. Of those cottages, 138 take dogs and 21 have a hot tub, most of them gathered around Kerry and Cork.

Counties of Munster

Munster covers the south-west of the Republic and holds most of the famous Wild Atlantic Way scenery. Cottages here are spread across six counties, with the great majority in Kerry and Cork.

• Kerry: the busiest base in the province, with the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula and the lakes of Killarney
• Cork: Ireland's largest county, taking in the harbour city, the emigration port of Cobh and the West Cork coast around Kinsale and Bantry
• Clare: home to the Cliffs of Moher, the limestone Burren and the trad-music town of Doolin
• Waterford: the Copper Coast, the Comeragh Mountains and Ireland's oldest city
• Tipperary: an inland county of the Golden Vale, with the Rock of Cashel and the Glen of Aherlow
• the city and county of Limerick on the Shannon, a smaller market with a handful of cottages

Kerry and Cork together hold well over half of Munster's cottages, so most visitors base themselves on the south-west coast and take day trips inland.

Munster's coast and mountains

Munster carries the southern half of the Wild Atlantic Way, the long coastal route that threads round its peninsulas and harbours. Kerry holds the highest ground in Ireland, the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, rising behind the lakes of Killarney National Park, while the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula push out into the Atlantic. In Clare the Cliffs of Moher stand over 200 metres above the sea, with the bare limestone of the Burren behind them. The Cork coast runs from the sheltered waters of Kinsale and Bantry Bay in the west to the harbour at Cobh, and Waterford's Copper Coast and the inland Comeragh and Galtee mountains round out the province.

Things to do in Munster

Munster mixes scenery with some of Ireland's best-known sights. Drive or cycle the Ring of Kerry, walk in Killarney National Park and take a jaunting car to Muckross House, or ride the boat out to the Skellig Islands in summer. In Clare, walk the cliff path at the Cliffs of Moher, explore the Burren and catch live music in Doolin. Cork offers the harbour town of Cobh and its emigration story, Blarney Castle and its stone, and the food town of Kinsale. Inland, the Rock of Cashel crowns Tipperary, while Waterford has the House of Waterford Crystal and the medieval Viking Triangle in the city.

When to visit Munster

Summer, from June to August, brings the warmest weather and the long evenings that suit the coast roads, though Kerry's honeypots and the Cliffs of Moher are at their busiest then. Late spring and September are quieter and often kinder for walking the peninsulas and the Burren, with lower cottage rates. The far south-west catches plenty of Atlantic weather year round, so pack for rain whatever the month. Winter is the season for a fireside cottage, with many owners dropping their prices well below the summer peak.

Dog-friendly and hot-tub cottages in Munster

Munster suits a dog-friendly trip, with miles of open strand and hill walking, and 138 of the cottages here welcome dogs. A smaller number, 21 in all, come with a hot tub, handy after a wet day on the Wild Atlantic Way. Most of both are concentrated in Kerry and Cork, where the choice of cottages is widest. The provincial filters for dogs and hot tubs are not available, so it is best to compare these directly on the individual county pages.

Getting to Munster

Munster has three airports of its own. Cork Airport serves the south, Shannon Airport sits between Limerick and Clare for the west, and Kerry Airport at Farranfore is handy for the south-west peninsulas. By road the M8 links Dublin to Cork in around two and a half hours, with the M7 and M20 reaching Limerick. Ferries from Britain and France dock at Rosslare in the neighbouring province, while Cork has a seasonal sailing to Roscoff in France. Trains run from Dublin Heuston to Cork, Limerick, Tralee and Waterford.

Useful links

• Discover Ireland
• Failte Ireland
• Killarney National Park
• Wild Atlantic Way

Munster is the southernmost and largest of the four traditional provinces of Ireland, occupying the whole of the south-west of the island. It is made up of six counties: Kerry, Cork, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. Cork is the largest county in the country by area, and the province stretches from the Atlantic peninsulas of the west to the rivers and farmland of the inland south.

The land is at its most dramatic in the south-west, where the MacGillycuddy's Reeks rise to the highest summits in Ireland above the lakes of Killarney, and the long fingers of the Dingle, Iveragh and Beara peninsulas reach into the ocean. The coastline carries much of the Wild Atlantic Way, from the Cliffs of Moher and the limestone Burren in Clare, round the great natural harbour of Cork, to the Copper Coast of Waterford. Inland lie the fertile Golden Vale, the Comeragh and Galtee mountains and the broad valley of the River Shannon, which forms much of the province's northern edge.

Munster has a long and storied past. It was once a kingdom in its own right, and later the seat of powerful Gaelic and Norman families whose castles and abbeys still stand across the region. Cork and Limerick grew into important port cities, and Cobh was the last Irish port of call for many emigrant ships, including the Titanic. Today the province blends busy cities with deeply rural coast and mountain country, and it remains one of the most visited corners of Ireland.