Patricia Byrne

Great to see Loop Head coming out tops in the Irish Times best place to holiday in Ireland competition. I have been visiting there for over a decade and it has grown on me year after year. Just last week I walked at the water’s edge around the light house to the sound of the kittiwakes and the ground awash with sea pinks. Here is my Loop Head list of favourite things to do:

• Visit the light house at the tip on the peninsula and do a circular walk around it at the sea’s edge.
• Enjoy sea food from Carigaholt; purchase it fresh at SeaLyons down towards the pier or enjoy it cooked at the Long Dock restaurant.
• Take a boat trip to Scattery Island and tour its monastic settlements.
• Take the cliff walk in Kilkee and have a coffee afterwards at The Pantry on the  main street.
• Walk the spit at Querrin and enjoy the wonderful montbretia from Querrin Cross to  the pier in late summer.
• Get a copy of Carmel Madigan’s The Wild Flowers of Loop Head to  open your eyes to the all-year round wonders of the west Clare landscape.