Kinsale
Glandore
Baltimore
Crookhaven
Bantry Bay
Watch puffins nest on the Saltee Islands
Walk the clifftop path above the Cliffs of Moher
Sample a dram at an Irish whiskey distillery
Join a traditional music session in a harbour pub
Spot dolphins and seabirds along the Wild Atlantic Way
Cliffs of Moher
Skellig Michael
Kinsale
Dingle Peninsula
Ring of Kerry
Late May through September offers the most settled weather and the longest daylight, with June and July seeing up to 17 hours of daylight in the northwest. Atlantic conditions remain changeable even in summer, so most charters plan flexible days around the forecast rather than a fixed itinerary. Outside this window, autumn and winter bring the strong low-pressure systems the west coast is known for, better suited to storm-watching from ashore than cruising.
It depends on where the charter starts. Cork Airport (ORK) suits the south coast and Kinsale, Shannon Airport (SNN) serves the Shannon Estuary and mid-west, and Kerry Airport (KIR), near Farranfore, is closest for Dingle and the Ring of Kerry. Dublin Airport (DUB), the country’s main international hub, works well for charters beginning on the east coast or Irish Sea rather than the wilder Atlantic side.
Kinsale, with two marinas and some of the country’s best restaurants, makes an easy base. West of it, Glandore and Baltimore both offer sheltered harbours amid the scattered islands of Roaringwater Bay, while Crookhaven, tucked behind the Mizen Head peninsula, is a favourite last stop before rounding into the Atlantic proper. Bantry Bay, one of Ireland’s largest natural harbours, gives good shelter for exploring further north toward Kerry.
A week gives a good taste of the south and southwest, from Kinsale’s restaurants to the islands around Roaringwater Bay and a run out to the Skelligs, weather permitting. Extending to ten days or two weeks allows time to push further north around the Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas, or to build in weather days, since Atlantic swell and wind can hold a yacht in harbour for a day or two at short notice.
Fastnet Rock, the lighthouse-topped islet off Baltimore known as Ireland’s Teardrop for its place as emigrants’ last sight of home, has marked the turning point of the Rolex Fastnet Race since 1925. Run every two years from Cowes and now finishing in Cherbourg rather than Plymouth, it remains one of the sport’s classic offshore races, and cruising yachts often time a passage to watch the fleet round the rock during race week.
