Experience the best of Limerick

Limerick sits where the River Shannon widens towards its estuary, and its oldest quarter lies on King's Island. King John's Castle, a thirteenth-century Norman fortress with round towers, dominates the riverbank, and St Mary's Cathedral stands near it, begun in the twelfth century. The Treaty Stone, on a plinth near Thomond Bridge, marks the 1691 treaty that ended the Williamite war in Ireland.

Georgian terraces fill the Newtown Pery district, where the Hunt Museum holds antiquities and art in the old Custom House, and the Milk Market trades at weekends. Frank McCourt's memoir Angela's Ashes is set in the city's lanes, and Thomond Park is the home of Munster rugby. Bunratty Castle and the thatched cottages of Adare are within easy reach, and at Foynes, a former flying-boat base, Irish coffee was first served.

Limerick ham, smoked and boiled, is the local speciality, served with soda bread, creamy butter and Shannon salmon, and the evening usually ends in a pub full of music and talk of hurling and rugby. The Atlantic keeps the climate mild and wet, so the fields stay green through the year.