Shannon Golf Club

Shannon town is Ireland's first purpose-built industrial estate, developed from the late 1950s alongside the Shannon Free Zone — the country's first free trade zone, established 1959. The golf club was founded in 1966 on land adjacent to the airport, designed by John Harris, a prolific architect who built over 250 courses internationally and designed the course explicitly as "a major championship course of international standard." It is intimately connected with mid-20th-century Irish economic development in a way that almost no other golf club can claim. The Shannon name derives from the Old Irish Sinand — in Irish mythology, Sionna is a goddess, granddaughter of the sea god Lir, who drowned at the Well of Wisdom in the Otherworld. The river is named for a drowned goddess of knowledge.

The course plays to par 72 at 6,763 yards with a rating of 72.6 and slope of 128. Christy O'Connor Jnr, best remembered for his 2-iron approach on the 18th at The Belfry in the 1989 Ryder Cup that helped Europe retain the cup, served as professional here. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Shannon hosted a celebrated Pro-Am whose field included Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, and Sandy Lyle. The signature 17th is the only par 3 in Irish parkland golf played directly over a tidal estuary: a 213-yard carry over the Shannon Estuary, with the prevailing wind typically coming in from the right off the water.

Bunratty Castle (15 minutes) is the most complete authentic medieval castle in Ireland, built in 1425 and restored in 1954. Dromoland Castle (10 minutes), ancestral home of the O'Brien family — direct descendants of Brian Boru — is a luxury hotel and golf resort. Quin Franciscan Friary (20 minutes), built over a Norman castle, has among the best-preserved Franciscan cloisters in Ireland.