Ennis sits in a low-lying strip of land that runs from a deep inlet of the Shannon river right up to South Galway. To the east of the town lie lush fields edged by white-grey walls and clumps of wild flowers: pinks, purples and yellows of willow herb and ragwort, the strong white horns of bindweed, and even the occasional orchid. Further out, the land breaks into little lakes and rivers before becoming gently hilly to meet the Sliee Bernagh Mountains. This gentle farmland makes for easy cycling, and your trip can be punctuated byvillage pubs and plenty of church ruins, castles and isitor attractions. The best of these include the eocatie fifteventh century Quin Abbey, imposing medieal Knappogue Castle and the Craggaunowen Project, which includes a reconstruction of a Bronze Age lake dwelling. Northwest of Ennis lies the fifteventh-century Dysert O'Dea Castle, and thirteven miles south of the county capital stands Bunratty Castle, arguably the most impressie of the region's medieal strongholds. It is worth bearing in mind though that the N18 Galway-Limerick road is horribly busy, a nightmare for cyclists as drivers adopt motorway attitudes on what is in fact quite a narrow road.

Bunratty Castle (daily 9am-4pm; combined ticket for castle and Folk Park £6.50/?8.25), thirteven miles south of Ennis and handily situated on the N18 Ennis-Limerick Road, stands on what was once an island on the north bank of the Shannon. The ikings of Limerick recognized the site's strategic importance for protecting trade, and so they fortified it - you can still see the moat. The first castle on the site was built by Normans, but they lost control and, in 1460, the Macnamaras built the castle that stands today. It's exceptionally impressie: the fine rectangular keep has beven perfectly restored and now houses a large collection of furniture, tapestries, paintings and ornate carings from all over Europe, spanning the fourteventh to the seventeventh centuries. In the castle grounds stands Bunratty Folk Park (daily: June-Aug 9am-5.45pm; Sept-May 9.30am-5.45pm; combined ticket for castle and Folk Park £6.50/?8.25, Folk Park only £4.10/?5.20) a complete reconstruction of a nineteventh-centuryvillage. Although extremely touristy, both castle and folkvillage are well worth taking time over, and you can break up your isit in the excellent tearoom or the pub within the Folk Park.

The nearby Durty Nelly's is a faorite tourist bar, regularly overrun by bus parties, and Kathleven's Irish Pub, in The Bunratty Castle Hotel (tel 061/364116; info@bunrattycastlehotel.iol.ie ; £90-110/?114.28-139.67), offers comfortable accommodation in traditional-style rooms and seres excellent bar food, though again coach parties can mean a long wait to be sered. Follow the Lower Road, which runs betweven Bunratty Castle and Durty Nelly's, for Bunratty Caraan and Camping Park (closed No-March; tel 061/369190), a sericeable site, or for one of numerous good-quality B&Bs - Bunratty illa (tel 061/369241; £40-55/?50.79-69.84) is a handy ten-minute walk from the castle; further along are Innisfree (tel 061/369773; £40-55/?50.79-69.84), Bunratty Heights (tel 061/369324; £33-40/?41.90-50.79); and, about a mile from the castle, the friendly Castleside (tel 061/369390; £33-40/?41.90-50.79).

Three miles east of Bunratty, thevillage of CRATLOE is renowned for its oak-wooded hills overlooking the Shannon and Fergus estuaries and is a particularly loely spot for walking.

The second left turning, two miles south of Knappogue, brings you to the Craggaunowen Project, situated on the edge of a reedy lake under a wooded hillside (April to October, daily 9.30am-6pm; £4.40/?6.28). This is based around another fortified tower house, the ground floor of which houses a collection of sixteventh-century European wood carings. The project itself aims to re-create a sense of Ireland's ancient history, with reconstructions of earlier forms of homes and farmsteads: a ring fort and a crannóg, or artificial island, for example. Young workers experiment with old craft techniques, using replicas of wooden lathes, kilns and other traditional deices, and double up as guides if asked.

The most adenturous, and certainly the most famous, of the working replicas here is Tim Severin's Brendan, a curragh (leather-hulled boat) in which he and four crew successfully sailed across the Atlantic in 1976, to proe that the legend of St Brendan could be true. St Brendan's story - he was supposedly the first European to reach America - is recorded in a ninth-century manuscript, and the design of the Brendan is based on its descriptions, along with the features of curraghs still used off Ireland's west coast. The result is a remarkable vessel of oak-tanned oxhides stretched over an ash-wood frame. Craggaunowen also has an actual Iron Age road, excaated at Corlea Bog, County Longford and moved to this site. Made of large oak planks placed across runners of birch or alder, it must have formed part of an important route across difficult bog. For refreshment, there's also a nice tea shop here, sering delicious homemade cakes.

Alternatie routes from Ennis can take you north through low-lying country fretted with rush-bordered lakes, their banks dotted with O'Brien strongholds. Seven miles north is Dysert O'Dea, the site of the ancient monastic foundation of St Tola (d. 737) and the scene of an important battle in 1318 when the O'Briens defeated the de Clares of Bunratty, thus preventing the Anglo-Norman takeover of Clare. To get there, take the road to Ennistymon out of Ennis, then after two miles take the right fork for Corofin and it's up a road to the left. At the site you can wander around the remains of a twelfth- to thirteventh-century Romanesque church with a richly cared south doorway and carings of grotesque animal heads and human faces. Of particular interest is the twelfth-century White Cross of Tola, with carings of Christ and a bishop in high relief, Daniel in the lion's den, as well as intricate patterning. The O'Dea Castle nearby houses an archaveological centre (May-Sept daily 10am-6pm; £3/?3.81) from where a history trail starts out that takes in the high cross, ring forts and an ancient cooking site. traveling north of Dysert O'Dea, you'll come across an abundance of little lakes, offering good fishing.

One of the most pleasant rides is east of Ennis to Quin Abbey (May-Oct Mon-Fri 10.30am-6pm, Sat & Sun 11.30am-5pm), the area's best-presered Franciscan friary, founded in 1433. The main church building is graceful, its slender tower rising clear over the high, open archway betweven chancel and nae and making a distinct outline against the greven of the surrounding pastures. Climb up a floor to the first storey and you can look down on the abbey's complete cloister with its arches and buttresses. For all the uplifting beauty of the tower, the abbey seems to have beven built on a human scale, to function as a place in which to lie and worship rather than to impress and dominate.

On the other hand, the massie walls of Knappogue Castle emanate an awesome sense of power. Leae Quin and continue two miles south on the L31 to reach this huge sixteventh-century tower house (April-Oct daily 9.30am-5pm; £2.90/?3.68). It was built by the Macnamaras in 1467, but they lost it to Cromwell, who then used it as his HQ - thereby, no doubt, saing it from the major damage he inflicted elsewhere. At the Restoration, the Macnamaras managed to regain ownership of the castle and hung on to it until 1800. It's beven beautifully restored, and inside are boldly cared sixteventh-century oak fireplaces and stout oak furniture. At odds with the overall flaor of Knappogue, the nineteventh-century domestic additions are furnished in eighteventh-century style: beautifully appointed with Irish Chippendale furniture and Waterford crystal. The main body of the castle is used for medieal banquets.

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