You’ll need time to savor such
Discover the flavors of
wide-ranging flavors as Sligo’s edible
seaweeds carrageen and dillisk, native
Ireland’s West Coast
oysters, the Burren’s distinctive
flora-scented honey, Connemara hill lamb,
and delectable farmhouse cheeses such as
Oisin organic goat and cow cheeses,
St. Tola goat’s-milk cheese and Cratloe
Hills sheep’s-milk cheese.
The pristine Atlantic shores give rise to glistening fresh
fish and shel fish, while the rugged landscape of the
Burren delivers preserves made from wild harvests of
hazelnuts, sloes, rowanberries, fraughans (blueberries)
and blackberries.
You’ll also delight in the unique Irish drinks, including
porter, stout, ales and beers from local microbreweries.
These idyllic rural counties also produce a huge selection
of dry-cured bacon, ham, oak-smoked lamb, turf-smoked
beef, cured sausages and salami.
Local Specialities
• Seaweed-flavored sausages are a specialty of LoTide
Fine Foods, County Mayo.
• Fish and shellfish from the Atlantic waters include
Clare Island organic fresh salmon, Kinvara smoked
salmon, Kinvara smoked eel, mackerel and trout.
• Bunratty Castle winery in County Clare brews the
traditional drinks of mead and poitín.
• At the Burren Smokehouse in County Clare,
and the Connemara Smokehouse in County
Galway, you can learn all about the ancient legend of
the Salmon of Knowledge and how the fish is smoked,
before tasting a sample.
• Biddy Early Brewery in Ennis, County Clare,
Ireland’s first microbrewery, produces a beer made
from carrageen (seaweed) and bog myrtle; the unique
brewing techniques and resulting tastes are
highly revered.
28 Dromoland Castle, County Clare
