Do it like DIRT: A Foodie Tour of Ireland
If you need something to get you excited about a trip to Ireland, start with Huckberry’s DIRT: Ireland. It captures one of our favourite things about travelling here: the way food, people, landscape and adventure all seem to lead naturally into one another.
Inspired by that same combination, this is the Irish Routes take on a foodie journey through Ireland. We’ve added some of our own favourite places, people and experiences, along with a slightly slower pace, giving you time to work up an appetite, meet the people behind what you eat and properly enjoy it all along the way.
This 15-day Ireland food itinerary takes you from Cork and West Cork to Dingle, the Burren, Galway and Connemara, and finally to Ireland’s Ancient East.
As always, this is inspiration rather than prescription. Your route, restaurants, experiences and pace will be shaped entirely around you.
Day 1 — A First Taste of Cork
Arrive in Cork and give yourself an easy first day to settle into Ireland.
Once you've dropped your bags, head just outside the city to discover the story of Irish whiskey at one of the country's most historic distilleries, before returning to Cork for the evening.
Food is taken seriously here, so start as you mean to go on. We'll point you towards a brilliant first-night restaurant, whether you're after something relaxed and ingredient-led or a table worth dressing up for.
Day 2 — Into West Cork
Leave the city behind and make your way into West Cork, a corner of Ireland where exceptionally good food seems to appear everywhere from tiny village cafés to ambitious destination restaurants.
Your base for the next few nights could be a family-run country house surrounded by gardens or a wild eco-retreat tucked away in the landscape. As always, we'll find somewhere that suits the way you like to travel.
This afternoon, get properly hands-on with a half-day smoking workshop at a small artisan smokehouse, learning the craft before sitting down to lunch and hearing some of the stories behind it.
Later, swap smoke for salt water and take to the coast by kayak as evening begins to fall.
Days 3–5 — West Cork
Give yourself a few days to explore. West Cork rewards people who don't rush it.
Follow the coast towards Mizen Head, browse a Saturday market laden with local produce or spend a morning among the cafés, galleries and independent shops of one of the region's colourful little villages. And if you're in the mood for something special, there is some seriously good destination dining hidden along this coastline.
Food here is often inseparable from the landscape. Spend a day hiking and foraging in the mountains before arriving at an outdoor kitchen, where your finds become part of a feast cooked over an open fire.
For something particularly memorable, we can arrange for a private chef to cook an exquisite seafood barbecue on the beach. Irish weather gets the final say, of course.
There is plenty more you could squeeze in. We'd rather make sure you have time to enjoy it.
Day 6 — Across to Dingle
Today is one of those days when the journey is every bit as good as the destination.
Leave West Cork behind and wind your way north across the spectacular Healy Pass before crossing the mountains towards Killarney. Stop for lunch, stretch your legs beside the lakes or head out for a longer hike if the weather is playing ball.
Then continue west onto the Dingle Peninsula, where you'll spend the next two nights.
Stay within wandering distance of Dingle's restaurants and pubs, or escape further onto the peninsula for something quieter and more remote.
Tonight, follow your nose. Dingle has no shortage of places to eat well, followed by exactly the sort of pub you hoped you'd find in Ireland.
Day 7 — West Kerry
Spend today following the road around the western edge of the Dingle Peninsula.
Swim from clear Atlantic beaches, stop for a fresh crab roll and head out on foot along the cliffs around Dun Chaoin, where the Blasket Islands sit just offshore.
Later, call into one of Ireland's smallest breweries, tucked into the West Kerry countryside. See where the beer is made, taste a few of their creations and stay for a pint in the pub next door.
If you're lucky enough to be here on the right night, you may find some excellent traditional music too.
Make your way back to Dingle slowly. There is absolutely no prize for completing the peninsula first.
Day 8 — North to Clare
Leave Kerry behind today and cross the Shannon by ferry, a handy little shortcut that brings you straight into County Clare.
Follow the coast north, stopping whenever somewhere catches your eye, before reaching Doolin and settling in for the next three nights.
Tonight, make your way to an unassuming cottage overlooking the Atlantic for one of the journey's standout meals. This is the kind of place that rather proves the point: some of Ireland's most exciting food is found where you least expect it.
Day 9 — Behind the Plate
Today is all about the people producing food in the Burren.
Start on a working farm, learning how this extraordinary limestone landscape shapes the way people have farmed here for generations. Explore the land in a vintage Land Rover before sitting down to a rustic picnic made from the produce around you.
Later, visit a family-run smokehouse to discover how organic Irish salmon is traditionally smoked, before wandering next door for local beer, good stories and one of Clare's great pub institutions.
Tonight, settle into a private traditional music experience, where songs, stories and hearty Irish food offer a very different taste of the Burren.
Day 10 — Taste the Burren
You'll have eaten plenty by now. Fortunately, the Burren is an excellent place to work up an appetite.
Spend the morning walking through its strange limestone landscape, following quiet trails between ancient monuments, wildflowers and views towards the Atlantic. We can arrange a private guide or simply point you towards our favourite routes.
Then head for the coast. Taste a locally made sea-moss tonic over an excellent toasted sandwich before continuing to the Flaggy Shore for oysters fresh from the waters in front of you. Learn to shuck them properly — and then eat the evidence.
Take a walk along the shoreline or, if you're feeling brave, go for a dip in the Atlantic.
Later, discover how chocolate is made from bean to bar at a small Burren chocolate factory, with plenty of tasting along the way and, inevitably, a few bars coming home with you.
And because chocolate and whiskey make rather good companions, you could finish with a tasting at a small distillery hidden in the heart of the Burren.
Day 11 — Galway
Turn north towards Galway today and swap countryside for one of Ireland's liveliest little cities.
A guided food tour is one way to discover it, but you don't necessarily need one. We'll arm you with some of our favourite cheesemongers, bakeries, delis and independent food shops and let you wander.
Stop when you're hungry, order whatever looks good and leave plenty of room for dinner.
Tonight, settle in for an excellent meal before exploring Galway's pubs, where the music tends to continue long after dessert.
Days 12 & 13 — Mountain to Shore
Leave the city behind and watch the landscape become wilder as you head into Connemara.
Spend the next two nights at a historic country hotel or somewhere smaller and more characterful, depending on how you like to travel.
There are plenty of ways to work up an appetite here. Kayak across quiet water, e-bike along empty roads, hike into the mountains or simply pull over when you find a beach too beautiful to drive past.
Food provides another way into the landscape. Head out privately with someone who knows this corner of Ireland intimately, meeting a vegetable grower whose produce finds its way into some of the country's best kitchens, visiting oysters growing in cold Atlantic waters and foraging along the shoreline for something altogether wilder.
You don't need to do it all. Pick the things that excite you and leave some time for Connemara to surprise you.
Day 14 — One Final Feast
Turn east today for the final chapter of your journey.
Spend your last night at a beautifully restored country house within easy reach of Dublin, where food is at the heart of the experience and much of what arrives on your plate begins in the surrounding land.
After two weeks of markets, smokehouses, oyster farms, kitchens, pubs and plenty of adventures in between, finish with one final feast: an exquisite tasting menu that celebrates just how far Irish food has come — and where it is going next.
Tomorrow, Dublin Airport is within easy reach for your flight home.
Although after travelling around Ireland like this, breakfast may never feel quite the same again.
Inspired?
This isn't an off-the-shelf tour. Think of it as a glimpse of what two weeks in Ireland could look like.
Your route, hotels, experiences and pace will be shaped entirely around you.
Image Credit: Tourism Ireland
15 Days | Cork, West Cork, Dingle, The Burren, Galway, Connemara & Ireland’s Ancient East
