Killarney

Killarney is where the Irish national-park idea began: in 1932 the Bourn family and Arthur Vincent gave the state Muckross House and its estate as a memorial park, and the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park Act — still the only park with its own statute — wrapped the gift in law. The park has since grown to roughly a hundred square kilometres covering the three Lakes of Killarney — Lough Leane, Muckross, and the Upper Lake — with Purple Mountain and Mangerton rising straight from the water and MacGillycuddy's Reeks, Ireland's highest ridge, filling the skyline beyond the boundary.

Ecologically it is the country's treasury. The oceanic climate keeps the oakwoods at Tomies and Derrycunnihy dripping with mosses and filmy ferns; the strawberry tree — an arbutus that belongs on Iberian hillsides — grows wild here at its northern limit; and the herd of red deer on Torc and Mangerton is the only one in Ireland with an unbroken native lineage since the ice. The park earned UNESCO biosphere status in 1981 and spends much of its energy fighting for it, hacking back the rhododendron thickets that would otherwise smother the woods. History sits on every shore: the monastic island of Innisfallen, whose annals recorded medieval Ireland, and Ross Castle glowering over Lough Leane.

What's worth knowing before you go

Killarney town is the gateway and has the rail link from Dublin and Cork; the park begins at its edge, which explains both the convenience and the crowds. The core circuit — Muckross House, Torc waterfall, the lakeshore — absorbs the tour buses; jaunting cars have worked these paths since Victorian tourism invented the place.

Distance is the filter: hire a bike or take the boat from Ross Castle to Lord Brandon's Cottage and the Upper Lake, and the park empties fast. The Gap of Dunloe run — boat up, walk or cycle the glacial breach back — is the classic full day. Early autumn brings the deer rut on Torc's slopes and the arbutus in flower and fruit at once, the park's quiet party trick.