They call it a quaint place. The predominant definition of quaint for someone who isn’t digging too deep is “attractively unusual or old-fashioned”. Intrigued yet? You will be once you leave your 25 minute train journey from Dublin and walk towards Howth Harbour with some rustique cheese you’ve bought at the handicraft and food market. Ignore the wind and pretend the sun is tanning your face. Listen to the birds, as this is one of their sanctuaries too.

Follow the green arrows, and because we are no longer in the Middle Ages, feel free to check your phone for directions, and take the Howth Cliff Path, and see that it is much less impressive in terms of crowds than the celebrated cliffs of Moher and just as beautiful. Follow the different colored arrows for other loops such as the Bog of the Frogs, but do make sure to check the state of those paths in terms of distance and difficulty. Reconsider your fitness level after all that cheese you’ve had. Maybe a lazy stroll in the village and some excellent fresh cod at one of the many fish eateries is more what you feel like.

If you’re in for some secluded creepy murder island fantasy, take a boat to Ireland’s eye and stand there with the rest of them, meaningfully gazing towards Great Britain. The rest of the seals hanging out there, we mean. But seriously, what is now a birdwatching, seagull-nesting, seal spotting paradise was in some dark Victorian days a place of tum-tum-TUUUM: murder!

In 1852 it is believed that a Mr. William Burke Kirwan murdered his beautiful wife Maria on a beautiful autumn day because of his infidele commitment to another woman. Can you feel this foul play in the strange but majestic twists of those rocks? The treachery in the screams of the seagulls? Already eyeing your partner suspiciously? Make sure you’ve told the boatmen to come get you before it’s dark.