GET CLOSER TO THE CELTIC SPIRIT

You’ll find it in the land, the sea and the sky. You’ll find it in the people, their languages and their stories. And you’ll find it in the rivers, the trees and the stones. But what is it? We call it the Celtic Spirit. It’s hard to define, but if you travel to West Wales and Ireland’s Ancient East, it’s easy to discover.

Recently, more of us have come to enjoy walking in the countryside closer to home, but as we venture back to our favourite places, there’s a whole new world of walking waiting to be discovered on the Celtic Routes of Ireland’s Ancient East and West Wales. Walkers experience the landscape in high-definition, to touch, smell, taste and explore them – all the things that get you closer to the Celtic Spirit.

You can walk along the 46km Wicklow Way. One of Ireland’s most popular walking trails, it runs through a wild expanse of coastline, woodland and imposing mountains. You will marvel at the beautiful landscapes you pass by, which include the River Suir, the Comeragh Mountains, the Copper Coast and Dungarvan Bay.

On the other side of the Irish Sea, the Wales Coast Path allows you to discover all the hidden coves, wonderful beaches and untamed nature along the Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion coasts. In Pembrokeshire, the path becomes the 186-mile-long Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. It covers almost every kind of coastal landscape, from volcanic rock headlands, limestone arches, blowholes and sea stacks, to narrow glacial inlets.

In Carmarthenshire you can experience the vast expanse of Cefn Sidan beach. Ideally, get up before dawn to watch the early sunlight trickle out over the dunes.

The sense of being in a Celtic land is enhanced if you roam the uplands. Pumlumon Fawr is the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains in Ceredigion. On a clear day, you can see the mountains of Wexford in Ireland. Perhaps a fellow hiker on top of Slieve Coillte is gazing back.

If you are planning on visiting Ireland or Wales in 2022, make sure you take a Celtic Route and really discover the Celtic Spirit.

Glendalough, in the Wicklow Mountains National Park, Ireland.

The Pembrokeshire Coast Path, Wales.