The Irish love their whiskey nearly as much as they love their beer and potatoes and Jameson one of Ireland’s most popular drops has a magnificent distillery experience for anyone traveling around the Cork area. The Old Distillery in Midleton on the banks of the Dungourney River is home to the Jameson Experience. Not only does the distillery have a great gift shop where you can purchase a few bottles and some pretty cool memorabilia they have a tour of the distillery with plenty to see and learn. You will see how whiskey is produced from grain to the years of maturing in wooden kegs and you will even get to sample a drop or two at the beautiful old bar. The Jameson Experience is in Midleton which is about 18 km from Cork, there is also the Old Jameson Distillery in Dublin which has a visitors centre.

For more information: Midelton Distillery: http://www.jamesonwhiskey.com

Dublin tour http://www.oldjamesondistillery.com

Back in the late 1970′s a little Irish band recorded their 3 first albums at Windmill Lane in Dublin before they became one of the richest, most influential and exciting (and sometimes precious) bands of the last 30 years. Since it’s opening by sound engineer Brian Masterson, Windmill Lane has also been the studio many of Ireland’s best rock acts have chosen for their albums including artists like Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor and Clanned. The studio is no longer on site but the ledged lives on. There are plans to build Dublin’s biggest tower near by called the U2 tower which will be completed in 2010 which will include apartments and a recording studio all owned by U2 costing in the vicinity of 200 million Euro. The old studios today is covered in graffiti paying homage to the days when U2 were the greatest new band Dublin had ever seen. The old studios are a bit hard to find with no signage, look for Bob Bushills furniture store and then go to the street behind.

The Giant’s Causeway is located in County Antrim in Northern Ireland and is one of the most amazing natural features on this planet. Protected by Unesco’s world heritage listing this 40,000 or more black basalt columns are believed to be the result of volcanic activity some 50 million years ago. The tones are an incredible hexagonal shape- which really do look as if they are man made. Well maybe they were there a local legend that suggests the stones were placed there by Finn MacCool who was a giant who roamed the north coast of Ireland. The story goes that he built a bridge to Scotland so another giant Benadonner could walk across the bridge to Ireland for a battle. Looking at the striking shapes and patterns of these rocks we think this is probably the best explanation of their existence.