WHERE TO EAT, STAY AND PLAY IN THE IRISH BORDERLANDS

Writer Ed O’loughlin’s top picks for places to eat, stay and play on your road trip through the borderlands

EAT

Ghan House, Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland This award-winning restaurant and guest house is located in a renovated 18th-century cottage on the edge of medieval Carlingford village, under the slopes of the scenic Cooley Mountains. Consistently rated as one of the best restaurants in the border region, its menu caters to hearty hillwalker appetites and relies heavily on locally sourced beef, lamb, seafood and vegetables. ghanhouse.com

STAY

Castle Leslie, Glaslough, County Monaghan, Ireland The 400-hectare estate on which this stately Victorianera home sits gives you three options for a night’s rest: one of 20 elegantly old-fashioned rooms in the castle itself, a charming 29-room lodge or a series of two-bedroom mews-style houses. You can also stay off-site, in one of the four- and five-bedroom cottages that the Leslie family owns in nearby Glaslough village. castleleslie.com

PLAY

Walk the walls, Derry City, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland Derry City has lived through plenty of hard times, so it’s surprising that a walking tour of its famous 1.5-kilometre-long circular wall is so much fun. Stories from the 17th-century Siege of Derry and the 20th-century Battle of the Bogside are leavened with local wit and whimsy. Afterward, stop in at one of the many lively pubs that throng the town’s compact centre. derrycitytours.com