How much time for these sights in Ireland?

Your Day 1 looks fine to me. The time you spend at Glendalough will depend on a couple of things. There is the monastic settlement to explore and a nice little museum (be sure to see the film that they show, which gives great background into the site and its place in Irish history). There are also trails to the lakes if you want to hike. So the time you spend there might be determined by how much you want to do. The weather can also be a factor, since you probably won't want to be hiking if it is raining. Rock of Cashel (again, see their film) will take maybe two hours. So, your Day 2 should work. Day 3 should work, too. The drive from Dingle to the Cliffs of Moher (via the Killimer-Tarbert ferry) will be about four hours. Visiting the cliffs could take a couple of hours, depending on how much you want to see at the visitor center. But you should be able to drive up through the Burren and get to Galway by evening. The amount of time you spend at Bru na Boinne will depend on several things. You must take the bus from the visitor center to the actual tomb site. But if the next bus is already full, you might have to wait for the next one. In September it shouldn't be as much of a problem as at the height of the tourist season, but in general, the earlier you can get there, the better. Once you get to the tomb site, depending on how many people are on your bus, part of the group might have to wait outside while the other goes into the tomb. The whole group will go back together on the bus. When I went (in late February) Knowth was not open, so we only visited Newgrange. From the moment I walked in to the visitor center to when I got back to the visitor center from the site, it was probably two hours.

Hey J.,
We did ALL of the sights on the Antrim Coast in one day EXCEPT Dunluce Castle. (We got there after it had closed, so we had to settle for roaming the outer grounds and taking pictures.) We spent about 2 hours at Carrick-a-rede including the walk to the end and back and actually had some lunch at the visitor's center. Giant's Causeway took us about 1 1/2 hours, but we did the cliff top walk (which is optional) and then used the bus to get back to the visitor's center. If you're not into hiking, you can pay a small fee to take the bus both ways. It's possible to do Giant's Causeway in 30 minutes probably if you were in a rush... Not only did we do those two sights, but we did the Bushmills tour, too! NOW, if you're driving yourself, you could easily do all the sights in less than a day. We were using the bus system and had to wait for the bus in between seeing the sights which ate up some time... If you're shuttling yourself, it can be much more efficient! If you can spend two or three nights on the Antrim Coast, you could spend a day just enjoying the town. It's a beautiful coastal area! We stayed in Portstewart instead of Portrush and loved it. We didn't see any Americans while there which was pretty cool!

Day 2: You will need an early start. The Dingle Peninsula is really a place to savor. The Blasket Island Center is fascinating and a "must-see"stop on the drive. Day 3. Yes, don't miss The Burren after the Cliffs of Moher.

Day 2 is doable, but try to give it another day. Dingle peninsula is so beautiful, and Dingle town is so enjoyable, it would be so much nicer to take it at a slower pace.

Just back from second trip to Eire. We spent about 5 hours walking the Cliffs of Moher starting from the Hag's Head end, and we skipped the visitors' center this trip. I would want to stay in a place at least two nights. The first night you recover from your trip from the previous place, and the second night you recover from your local wanderings. A new place every day will leave you with the "green blur" effect. We rented a house in Dingle for a week and were happy with this choice. Made the Slea Head drive a couple of times, visited some of the small towns on the peninsula, walked the beaches. You can get distance/time info here: http://www2.aaireland.ie/routes_beta/Search.aspx . If you are a nature person, you could probably double the times because you will be stopping frequently (weather providing!). We spent two days on hikes in the Burren, one with Tony Kirby http://heartofburrenwalks.com/ , a friendly leader with an extensive knowledge of history and ecology, and a butterfly walk with a group from the Burrenbeo Trust. http://www.burrenbeo.ie/ . David

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. I too am worried about the "green blur" as David said. And I think Day 2 does have too much in it if we are leaving Kilkenny, stoping at the Rock of Cashel, and then still trying to get to, and do, Dingle Peninsula. Day 3 was up to Galway with a plan to stay there a second night, so we were trying to slow down at least once. :-P We're still trying to figure out the best way for our route. I guess what I'm having a really hard time figuring out is the first day and the direction to head. We get in at 8:30 am, so to work through jet lag, and not waste any of our precious time, we want to get the car and get moving. Let's say we can get through customs and get the car by 10:30, from there it's just a half hour/45 minutes to Bru na Boinne, but if we arrive, say, 11:30, is that going to be too late? My greatest concern is we arrive and all the tours are already sold out. We're going mid-September, so it's still travel season, but beginning to slow down, I understand. That concern was then my reasoning for heading south and doing Ireland clockwise instead of counterclockwise. But if arriving at Bru na Boinne at 11:30 can still get us tours, then we'd probably head counter clock-wise.

Of course there are no guarantees, but I think you should be OK going to Newgrange first. That was what I did. It's only about a 45 minute drive. I got there before noon, waited through one bus, then got the next one. There is more than one bus to the site, so it's not like you have to wait till that group of people is done and back before you can go.

Sounds great. I think we have decided on the counter-clockwise route through the island. That first day we'll go to Bru na Boinne then onto Belfast for the night. And if for some reason we miss all bus opportunities for Bru na Boinne we'll do Battle of the Boyne and maybe the Hill of Tara or something then head to Belfast earlier. Day 2 from Belfast: Antrim Coast to Derry Day 3 from Derry: drive to Galway by way of Leitrim (one of my ancestors emigrated from Leitrim) Has anybody done Strokestown Famine Museum? Day 4 Galway Day 5 From Galway: Cliffs of Moher to Dingle Day 6 Dingle Day 7 Dingle to Dublin, probably doing RofCashel or Glendalough
Day 8 Dublin

A couple of other options if you miss Bru na Boinne (or if you get done quickly there and want something else): Trim, with its castle is fairly close, and Monasterboice, with its high crosses could be sort of on your way to Belfast.

My two cents: Connemara, the Burren, Giant's Causeway, Wicklow Mountains, and the Dingle Peninsula were awesome. The Cliffs of Moher were a disappointment. I would have skipped it but that's just me.