Celts Tour #1Cycle from Edinburgh to Killarney

From charming boutiques to well-deserved comfort, our accommodations are carefully selected to reflect the unique character of each region. We favour places with a true sense of place over big chain hotels, ensuring your stay is as memorable as the ride itself. Depending on the stage, you’ll experience everything from luxurious retreats to functional stays, always selected with care to suit the journey.

Dining in Scotland and Ireland is as much a part of the journey as the ride itself, a chance to connect with the land, the people, and the rich culinary heritage of both nations.

From cosy pubs to elegant restaurants, expect a blend of rustic tradition and refined modern fare. In the Highlands or along the Irish coast, you might begin the day with a hearty full breakfast, eggs, sausages, black pudding, roasted tomatoes, soda bread, and strong tea or coffee. Along the road, local bakeries and cafés offer fresh scones, smoked salmon, or a comforting bowl of cullen skink or seafood chowder.

Evenings are often spent in carefully selected hotels and historic inns, where the menus celebrate local ingredients, wild venison, line-caught cod, hand-dived scallops, lamb, and buttery potatoes, often paired with seasonal vegetables and rich sauces. Desserts lean toward stick-to-your-ribs comfort, think sticky toffee pudding, rhubarb crumble, or whiskey-laced cranachan.

You’ll have the chance to sample regional delicacies such as:

• Haggis (served with neeps and tatties, of course)
• Arbroath smokies in Scotland
• Boxty, colcannon, and soda farls in Ireland
• And perhaps a dram of single malt whisky or a sip of Irish poitín to end the day

The culinary experience on this tour is not only satisfying, it’s a reflection of place, season, and the hospitality of the Celtic people.

The Celts were one of the most influential and far-reaching cultures of the ancient world. Emerging in Central Europe around 1200 BC, Celtic tribes spread across Britain, Ireland, France, and much of the Iberian Peninsula. They never formed a single empire, but shared a common language, artistic style, and a fierce spirit of independence that shaped the identity of Western Europe.

Their world was rich in oral tradition — songs, stories, and legends — rather than written history, leaving modern historians to piece together their lives through archaeology, Roman records, and mythology. What survives tells of a people who revered nature, fought bravely in battle, and placed great value on community, honour, and the mysteries of the spiritual world.

Though they clashed with expanding powers like Rome, the Celts were never truly conquered in Ireland and Scotland. Their traditions adapted and endured, woven into the medieval kingdoms that followed and still felt in language, music, and folklore today.

As we cycle through the lands they once called home, we follow a path through time — tracing the enduring spirit of a people whose influence is still alive in every stone circle, misty glen, and ancient hill fort we pass.