Killarney

Killarney owes its existence, more or less, to the view. The town grew up in the middle of the eighteenth century when Thomas, the fourth Viscount Kenmare, set about drawing visitors to the extraordinary scenery on his doorstep - the lakes, the woods and the mountains that would later become Killarney National Park. By the standards of Irish towns it is a young place, laid out quite deliberately as a resort, and it has been in the business of hospitality ever since.

Two things fixed its fame. The railway reached Killarney in 1853, and almost overnight the trickle of travellers became a flood - the handful of hotels multiplying within a year. Then, in 1861, Queen Victoria came to stay, and her visit placed Killarney firmly on the Victorian grand tour, a name known to genteel travellers across Europe. The souvenir trade that grew up around them even produced its own craft, the inlaid arbutus-wood 'Killarney furniture' prized by nineteenth-century visitors.

For all its long history the town remains, first and foremost, a base. From its streets you can strike out to Ross Castle on the lake, to the grand rooms of Muckross House, to Torc Waterfall and the Gap of Dunloe, or set off around the Ring of Kerry proper. The town itself is easily walked: a knot of colourful shopfronts and pubs, the soaring Gothic Revival cathedral of St Mary's, and, waiting at the edge of the centre, the horse-drawn jaunting cars whose drivers - the jarveys - have been carrying visitors out towards the park for generations.

Killarney is well connected, with its own railway station and good roads in from Cork and the wider peninsula, and the compact centre makes it an easy place to stay put and explore outwards. Most people use it as a base for a night or two; the town is free to wander, with the individual attractions charging separately. High summer, and July and August in particular, brings the biggest crowds, so the shoulder seasons are quieter and often kinder for it.