Butlers Chocolate - a perfect way to experience Easter in Ireland

Butlers Chocolate Experience is the No 1 visitor attraction in Ireland right now in my opinion and I should know, having personally reviewed over a hundred such sites for my website www.irelands-hidden-gems.com.

Butlers Chocolate have to be commended for their innovation (a glass walkway tour over the factory floor) which is an amazing blend of information and fun (hands on chocolate painting workshop) and value for money (all the chocolate you can eat and your own personal chocolate bear to take home).

Only after the tour (a behind the scenes glimpse of the chocolate making process)did it occur to me that the same fastidiousness that goes obvious goes into producing and packaging their chocolate products, is what had been applied to the Butlers Chocolate Experience, which is a sure fire recipe for success if ever there was one....

Being the month that’s in it, Easter eggs twirl around on their molds, while mini-eggs wrapped in shiny foil grow into small mountains before your eyes. The pristine new eggs and trays of different chocolates arrive at the packing area where they are arranged into the Butlers signature boxes or wrapped in color paper and foil and hand-tied (of course) with ribbons. What I hadn’t expected was the surge of pride for an Irish product and a new respect for the people producing it, which will undoubtedly influence my future purchasing power....

For full details of my delicious tour of the Butlers Chocolate factory see http://www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/butlers-chocolate.html

By Susan Byron of www.irelands-hidden-gems.com

Where Queen Elizabeth II will stay in Dublin - Farmleigh House

Farmleigh house in the Phoenix Park was purchased from the Guinness family by the Irish government in 1999 for €29 million. A fantastic mansion on 78 acres, albeit in need of refurbishment the purpose was to provide a venue for state occasions and a place for visiting dignitaries to stay.

It is next door to Aras an Uachtarain, home of the Irish president currently Dr Mary McAleese and her family which you can also visit for free if you are lucky.

A limited amount of tickets are issued each Saturday at the Pheonix Park Visitor Centre. However Farmleigh is open all year round unless it is hosting government functions and its also free If you visit around Christmas time the house is beautifully decorated but a pleasure year round nonetheless with beautiful staterooms, a magnificent galleried Jacobean wood panelled library and Victorian conservatory complete with potted palms.

Outside there are very well maintained formal gardens including a Dutch sunken garden which has three descending terraces to an oval pool with a carrara marble fountain as its centrepiece. There are regular free events for children including storytelling and puppet shows at Christmas. And for adults free ticketed musical events, artisan food markets, gallery exhibitions etc. Or if you fancy letting someone else do the cooking a contemporary restaurant in the Boathouse on the lake.

For more things to see and do in Dublin visit www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/dublin.html

Glasnevin Museum - tracing your Irish roots

Glasnevin Cemetery is not where you might expect to find Ireland’s only Thea award winning visitor attraction and in fairness, not what I would normally recommend as a family day out? But the new museum at Glasnevin is so good, it’s hard to put into words.

Death is something we all have to face at some stage and far from being macabre or morbid, the Trust’s imaginative, sensitive and respectful handling of a difficult subject is to be applauded along with all the other accolades it has picked up since it opened in 2010.

Every Dubliner has some connection with Glasnevin and their excellent new online genealogy service is helping people from all over the world retrace their Irish roots. And to celebrate their first birthday the Glasnevin Museum are giving away 10 free vouchers to their Irish American friends for the best comments on this post.

Over a million people have been buried there, many in unmarked graves, since it was founded in 1832 by Daniel O’Connell, who believed every citizen had a right to a proper burial regardless of their religion which is why it remains secular to this day. Modelled on the Pere Lachaise in Paris, it doubled as a pleasure garden in Victorian times with elaborate mausoleums and clipped yews lining the maze of pathways, which are in constant need of repair and upgrading which the Trust hopes to have completed for the anniversary of our Independence in 2016.

The new museum (just inside the main gates) is on 3 levels with the tour starting underground in the Necropolis (City of the Dead). A scrolling screen displays the names of all the people buried there on a loop which takes 10 hours to complete. There is a small theatre where the filmed introduction is shown and a charming, nostalgic display of items categorised by the professions of people that might once of owned them.

Innovative displays (interactive headstones) lend a fascinating insight into the social history of Dublin, you can even eavesdrop on the gravediggers conversations. Upstairs there are further interactive displays (with great views) including a 10 metre timeline with a detailed history of the great and good (and not so good) buried at Glasnevin and an exhibition about Daniel O'Connell. The iconic new building is stunning, with good facilities (of course) a shop and a nice restaurant.

Susan Byron author of http://www.irelands-hidden-gems.com

To enquire about the online genealogy facility visit http://www.glasnevinmuseum.ie

Driving in Ireland is easier than you think?

Driving in Ireland is no longer the ordeal it used to be with new motorways linking all the major towns and cities. And you will soon get used to driving on the left hand side of the road if you stay in the flow of traffic and take your time at the first couple of roundabouts (traffic circles) Tolls are relatively cheap and you can pay at the kiosks as you pass through. The only tricky one is the barrier free M50 which is the tolled ring road around Dublin, this €3 toll is simply charged to your car rental account so you don’t need to worry about it. Petrol ie gas is expensive, currently €1.49 a litre so it’s worth upgrading to a diesel car if you intend doing a lot of mileage.

And its only when you leave the motorways that you will encounter the narrow country roads that for some reason seem to terrify our American cousins? Relax, you are in for a treat especially if you take any of the coastal routes? For example the road from Ballyvaughan to Doolin, out along the northwest coast of Clare has been voted one of the best road trips in the world by Conde Nast Traveller and is truly spectacular with the wild Atlantic Ocean on one side and the mountains of the Burren on the other, ditto Dingle and Donegal. Nor can you beat the wild heathery mountains and inky blue loughs of Connemara either. Just keep your eye out for sheep; they love to sleep on the tarmac verges.

Anybody crafty enough to detour off into the midlands will have the inland waterways, lakes, boglands and drumlins all to themselves as apparently only 1% of visitors go there in their rush to the east or west coasts. I can never understand this, as it’s absolutely beautiful, with Belvedere House, Birr Castle, Clonmacnoise and the Rock of Cashel, not to mention not one but two whiskey distilleries Lockes &Tullamore Dew waiting to be explored.

And besides what could be more magical than pitching up on a river bank or in a verdant little glade of an old ruined castle of stonewalled graveyard and having nothing around you but the birds and bees and maybe a few sheep or horses raising their lazy, inquisitive heads to have a look at you? And don’t worry about getting lost it really is a very little island!

Thrifty Car Hire doing a special deal for the month of April, with a week’s car rental starting at €80. So, what’s keeping you? And while prices will go up as it moves towards the peak season, there is always value to found (ask online) and it really is the only way to see and experience the ‘real’ Ireland.

For more details visit Thrifty Car Hire

Susan Byron author of http://www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/