Ride a horse along the lakes of Killarney

Killarney National Park is lakes, oak wood and mountain on the edge of the town of Killarney. The way into it here is on horseback: two hours along the shore of Lough Leane.

The ride needs no experience, and hats and boots are supplied. Nobody has to know anything about horses before getting on one.

The park keeps the only wild herd of native red deer left in Ireland. A few may show themselves. The horses will not care either way.

The park began as the Muckross estate. In 1932 Arthur Vincent and the parents of his late wife, Maud, gave it to the Irish state in her memory, and it became the first national park in Ireland. Lough Leane, the lake the ride follows, is the largest of the Killarney lakes and holds more than thirty islands.