Four of these six sit within a short drive of each other in the south-east of the county, around Lough Gur and the small rivers draining towards the Maigue. Knockadoon Hill is the low hill on the lake itself, farmed and fortified since about 3000 BC and free to walk year-round, carrying six Bronze Age enclosures and two medieval castles, with the Grange Stone Circle a short way round the shore. Bruff lies close by, known for the Kennedy family link and the free Thomas Fitzgerald Centre, and it makes the obvious base. Herbertstown is smaller again, a single street on the River Camogue with a flat riverside path that waterlogs after rain.
Further south, the Loobagh comes down out of the Ballyhoura Mountains and threads through medieval Kilmallock, past the ruins of the Dominican Priory, with cycle loops of 20 to 83 km running back into the hills. West of there, the Maigue is tidal all the way up to Adare and runs 62 km from north Cork to the Shannon Estuary; there is a free public fishing stretch below Adare bridge, quiet walking past the friary and castle, and birds on the water around Croom and Bruree in winter.
The Shannon Estuary is the outlier in scale. The tidal range reaches 5.4 m at the Limerick docks, and the 207 km Shannon Estuary Way is a driving loop through Clare, Limerick and Kerry rather than an afternoon out.
Kennedy ancestral town in east Limerick with a free Fitzgerald Centre, and the handiest base for the archaeology around Lough Gur.
Free to walk year-round, this low hill over Lough Gur carries six Bronze Age enclosures, two medieval castles and 5,000 years of farming.
Where the Shannon meets the Atlantic, with a 5.4 m tidal range at the Limerick docks and a 207 km signed driving route around it.
A single-street village on the River Camogue with a flat riverside walk, easy going in dry weather and a short drive south of Lough Gur.
Rises in the Ballyhoura Mountains and runs through medieval Kilmallock, with a riverside path past the Dominican Priory and cycle loops into the hills.
6 of 6 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Bruff, limerick
Bruff is the east Limerick town that Thomas Fitzgerald, grandfather of President John F. Kennedy, left for America in 1852; a bronze JFK statue and the free Thomas Fitzgerald Centre mark the link. A few miles north lies Lough Gur, with Ireland's largest stone circle and 6,000 years of archaeology – the real reason to base yourself here.
Lough Gur, limerick
People have farmed and fortified Knockadoon since about 3000 BC, and the low hill over Lough Gur still carries six Bronze Age enclosures and two medieval castles. It's free to walk year-round, and the Grange Stone Circle a short way round the lake is the largest in Ireland.
Clare, clare
The Shannon Estuary stretches from Limerick city out to the Atlantic between Loop Head and Kerry Head, with a tidal range of up to 5.4 m at the Limerick docks. The 207 km Shannon Estuary Way loops through Clare, Limerick and Kerry, taking in Napoleonic battery forts, dolphin-watching from Kilrush and the Killimer–Tarbert car ferry.
Herbertstown, limerick
Kilmallock, limerick
limerick
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