10 of Ireland’s most charming villages

Some of the quirkiest, most picturesque villages are nestled in the outer reaches of the Irish countryside, which has helped preserve their character

Ireland’s most beautiful and well known villages are easy to love. Even their names – Doolin, Adare, Dingle, Kenmare – roll off the tongue in a smooth syllable or two, as if they are part of a jingle or the end word of a rhyming couplet. Some of them rocketed to fame when they caught the eye of a film crew – such as Cong in The Quiet Man (1952) or Trim in Braveheart (1995), while more places grew in prominence because of their proximity to large cities or popular attractions.

Yet dig a little deeper and you’ll discover some of the most charming in the more remote areas of the Irish countryside, where the past sits more comfortably with the present. Their obscurity – perhaps because of a limited bus service or their narrow country roads – has preserved their wonderfully idiosyncratic character. They might even be more beautiful than their high-profile counterparts yet perhaps less appreciated by tourists, because they are not as accessible. But, for me, that just adds to their allure.