The Celtic Routes takes in Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, Wales and Wicklow, Waterford and Wexford, Ireland.

Every spring the Routes offer verdant meadows, rolling hillsides, leafy woodlands, dense forests, landscaped gardens and grassy river banks.

Locations include :

Mount Congreve, Waterford

Ambrose Congreve won 13 Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show for his gardens.

Today they comprise around 70 acres of intensively-planted woodland, a 4-acre walled garden and 16km of walkways.

The entire collection consists of over 3,000 different trees and shrubs, including 2,000 Rhododendrons, 600 Camellias, 300 Acer cultivars and 600 conifers with many more tender species contained in the Georgian glasshouse.

www.mountcongreve.com

Wells House & Gardens, Wexford

Wells House & Gardens was originally created in the late 17th century, and in the 1830s, the English architect Daniel Robertson redesign the house and gardens as it looks today.

www.wellshouse.ie

Llandeilo and the Tywi Valley, Carmarthenshire

The market town of Llandeilo, with its narrow streets and painted Georgian houses has, in the surrounding Tywi Valley, some of the finest scenery in Wales.

Perched on a 90-metre limestone crag, Carreg Cennen dominates the skyline for miles.

Dryslwyn Castle sits on a rocky hill and theElizabethan gardens of Aberglasney and the National Botanic Garden are nearby along with National Trust properties including the Neo-Gothic Paxton's Tower.

Minwear Woods, Pembrokeshire

Minwear Woods is a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, near Narberth.

Located close to the Cleddau Estuary, the combination of salt and fresh water provides a varied habitat for wildlife, with waterside birds like herons and kingfishers along with the great spotted woodpeckers and tree creepers.

The woodland also sustains a wide range of flora and, in spring, the woodland paths come alive with bright yellow lesser celandine and bluebells

Waterford Greenway, Waterford

The former Waterford City to Dungarvan railway line has been transformed into a 46km off-road cycling and walking trail, taking in 11 bridges, three viaducts and a 400 metre-long tunnel.

There's also the 9th century Woodstown Viking settlement, the ornamental gardens at Mount Congreve and the Waterford & Suir Valley Heritage Railway.

The area also has the River Suir, Comeragh Mountains, the Copper Coast and Dungarvan Bay.

www.waterfordgreenwaybikehire.com

Wicklow Way, Wicklow

Just south of Dublin, County Wicklow, which is known as the Garden of Ireland, is a wild expanse of coastline, woodland and imposing mountains through which runs the country's most popular walking trail.

The 127 knm Wicklow Way, Ireland's oldest marked trail, crosses the Dublin and Wicklow uplands, through the rolling hills of southwest County Wicklow, to finish in the small Wicklow-Carlow border village of Clonegal.

www.wicklowway.com

Tywi Valley Gardens, Carmarthenshire

The National Botanic Garden of Wales is a 560-acre complex that opened in 2000, with a range of themed gardens and the world's largest single-span.

Aberglasney Gardens is a formal walled gardens dating from Elizabethan times with a cloister garden at its heart.

www.discovercarmarthenshire.com/places/llandeilo-and-the-tywi-valley

Pumlumon, Ceredigion

Pumlumon, meaning 'Five Peaks', is a ridge of peaks in the Cambrian Mountains, with the highest the 752m Pen Pumlumon Fawr.

To the west, Snowdonia links to Preseli via the sweep of Cardigan Bay and, to the east, the Berwyn and Aran ranges connect to the Brecon Beacons along the English border.

Courtown Woodland Walks, Wexford

Although mainly a seaside village, the 60-acre wood in Courtown provides a source of shade from the nearby beach.

During the 1860s and 70s, James Stopford, the 5th Earl of Courtown, established a pinetum in the grounds of Courtown House.

Trees remaining from his collection include a Californian redwood, swamp cypress, Japanese cedar, a cedar of Lebanon and numerous pines, yews and true cypresses.

Glendalough and Upper Lake, Wicklow

Carved out by glaciers during the last Ice Age, Glendalough or Gleann dá Loch, means 'Valley of the Two Lakes'.

Useful links

​ www.celticroutes.irish