General Industry

Six Irish Attractions Make Lonely Planet's Top 500

By Steve Wynne-Jones
Six Irish Attractions Make Lonely Planet's Top 500

Six Irish tourist destinations have been named in Lonely Planet's must-see sights of all time.

Four sites in the Republic and two in the North were mentioned in the list of 500 must-see places, which placed the ancient Temples of Angkor in Cambodia as its number one destination.

From the six Irish sites that made the list, the Giant's Causeway in Co. Antrim finished the highest at 103. Brú na Bóinne, the Neolithic monuments of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, came in at 224. The other Irish attractions that made the list were:

The Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare (#378)
Titanic Belfast, Co. Antrim (#424)
Trinity College, Dublin (#468)
The Rock of Cashel (#497)

Alex Connolly, Head of Communication for Fáilte Ireland said that Ireland featuring on the list numerous times will place it in the thoughts of potential tourists to the country.

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"The Irish sights which made it onto the list reflect the range of attractions Ireland has to offer and demonstrate that for a small country, Ireland is certainly punching above its weight internationally," said Connolly.

The top ten sites on the list are as follows:

1. Temples of Angkor, Cambodia
2. Great Barrier Reef, Australia
3. Machu Picchu, Peru
4. Great Wall of China, China
5. Taj Mahal, India
6. Grand Canyon National Park, USA
7. Colosseum, Italy
8. Iguazú Falls, Brazil-Argentina
9. Alhambra, Spain
10. Aya Sofya, Turkey