On the Road with Reid 'Round Ireland: The Post-Modern Pot o' Gold (cont'd)

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The 5,000-year-old Poulnabrone dolmen, dramatically sited amidst the weird limestone landscape of the Burren, justifiably draws droves of visitors, but to avoid the crowds just pick up a good map to track down more than 500 similar yet totally unheralded relics in the same area

The Good Part (Where You Save Money)
Soon after leaving the Dingle, I discovered that this phenomenon of charging admission for just about any site has spread to much of Ireland over the past three to four years. So, rather than just complain about it (or, to be honest, after complaining, cursing, and ranting about it for a day or two), I figured I'd find a solution. And I found two great ones.

First off is what I now consider the biggest money-saving device in Ireland (after the fly-drive-B&B package deals described yesterday, that is): the Heritage Card (www.heritageireland.ie). This pass is good for a full year, gets you into more than 80 sites across Ireland—ancient sites and ruined abbeys, sumptuous gardens and historic homes, palaces and manor houses, castles and museums—and costs €20 for adults, €15 for seniors, €7.50 for students and children, or €50 for a family card good for two adults and "a reasonable number of children under 18" (which, in Ireland, is usually considered to be four).

You can buy the card at the first official Duchas Heritage Site you visit, which is what we did on our very first day when we discovered that regular admission to Muckross House and the Traditional Farms just outside Killarney was going to be €8.25—add in nearby Ross Castle sitting prettily by the lakeside, and the total would come to €13.25. In fact, just to visit the five sites in the popular Killarney/Ring of Kerry/Dingle Peninsula region would total €21.50. Over the course of our trip, we visited a mere nine Heritage Sites, and yet our savings still came to €20.50 each.

Nine sites is actually a bit slim, considering that these Heritage Sites are amongst the tops in Ireland, but that's because we weren't doing a whole lot of sightseeing. Or rather, as the trip went on and I got more frustrated by those crowds at major sites, we started looking for lesser-known, rarely visited places.

We bought detailed maps that showed every little ring fort and ancient tomb and overgrown old churchyards forested with Celtic crosses. That way, instead of (or in addition to) paying homage to a famous dolmen (that's a prehistoric tomb that looks a bit like a single-room house of cards made using stone slabs, sort of burial a la Flintstones), we could bump down country lanes and discover overgrown dolmens we could have all to ourselves—well, us and the sheep.

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