AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Just by the turnoff to my road there is a sign to welcome motorists to the Ancient East. It’s a big gold coloured sign but after which there is nothing, no further signage on the motorway to lead visitors to explore. It’s very different from the Wild Atlantic Way which is celebrating its 10th birthday – and where the distinctive blue zigzag symbol is there to greet you all along the iconic scenery of the Atlantic seaboard.
The 2,500km Wild Atlantic road trip stretching from the Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal to Kinsale in Co. Cork has been a huge success, a clever marketing tool which boosted visitor revenue there to a staggering 3 billon last year. The Ancient East, created a year later to introduce visitors to a wealth of Irish history stretching back 5,000 years, hasn’t achieved quite the same high profile.
It’s a bit of misnomer, for the East stretches a long way west, as far as Tipperary offering wonderfully varied experiences in on roads less travelled. Stretching from Dowra in Co. Cavan to Hook Head in Cork, the Ancient East was relaunched last year as one of Bord Failte’s four new Regional Tourism Development Strategies to provide a framework for sustainable tourism regional brands: Ireland’s Ancient East, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, Dublin and the Wild Atlantic Way.
According to Bord Failte, the Ancient East brand has proven to be a motivating reason to visit Ireland with 650,000 more visitors visiting the region in 2019 compared to 2017. Nationally, Ireland’s Ancient East has a 25% share of overseas visitors to Ireland and 35% share of total domestic trips.
Rather than routes, the area has themes and stories with a number of must-see destinations in each where there are wheel signs showing other destinations nearby. I spoke to a couple of tour guides who had the same comment: ”Visitors don’t say that they have come to Ireland because of the Ancient East, whereas they do come specifically for the Wild Atlantic Way.”
Personally though, I much prefer the subtle charm of the Ancient East to its wilder brother, and which include my most favourite parts of Ireland, explored while researching several of my books, including The Hidden Gardens Of Ireland and The Hidden Houses Of Ireland. Glimpses of ancient tumuli, ruined towers, grand houses behind demesne walls offer tantalising hints of history and stories waiting to be unravelled. What’s not to love about those river valleys the Barrow, The Suir and the Nore and the villages strung along them, Thomastown, Inistioge and Graiguenamanagh like jewels in a lush landscape.
There are wonderful surprises to be discovered on the byways: the exotic Hindu Gothic Gate on the road to Villierstown, Co. Waterford, the watch tower village of Clonegal, Co. Carlow with memorable haunted Huntington Castle and the gastronomic delights of the Sha-roe Bistro. Or how about the exquisite Ros Tapestry [pictured] on display in 13th century Kilkenny Castle, depicting Norman history in the South East and created by local craftspeople over 20 years.
There is no doubt about it, tourists are wild about the west. The Wild Atlantic Way is now an international brand name which caused tourism there to surge by 58% in the last 10 years and created 35,000 new tourism jobs according to Bord Failte, while tourism overall in Ireland grew by 45% between 2013 and 2019, well above the European average.
But I prefer to be far from the madding crowd and for instance one of the joys of the other brand Hidden Heartland is that it leads to places bypassed in the lemming-like rush for coastal scenery.
Take the Midlands, where there is the story behind the Jealous Wall, Ireland’s largest sham ruin, waiting to be discovered at Belvedere near Mullingar, or take time to admire the delicate lace at the Lace Gallery in Carrickmacross or to find Lough Derravaragh where the legendary Children of Lir swam as swans for 300 years.
Meanwhile, the Ancient East as a marketing concept isn’t as razor sharp as the WAW but maybe that adds to the charm of discovering roads less-travelled.
