Protected blanket bogs, ancient oakwoods, and wild mountain valleys
#1 Glenveagh ( glen-VAY; Irish: Gleann Bheatha, meaning 'glen of the birches') is the second-largest national park in all of Ireland. Located in County Donegal, it includes: Glenveagh Castle and its grounds; Lough Veagh; and much of the Derryveagh Mountains. National parks in Ireland conform to IUCN standards. As of 2024, Glenveagh is the only national park anywhere in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland.
#2 Burren National Park (Irish: Páirc Náisiúnta Bhoirne) is one of eight national parks in Ireland managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It covers a small part of the Burren, a karst landscape in County Clare. Burren National Park was founded and opened to the public in 1991. It features 1,500 hectares of mountains, bogs, heaths, grasslands and forests. The park is the smallest of Ireland's national parks.
#3 The Glen of the Downs (Irish: Gleann dá Ghrua, meaning 'The Valley of the Two Brows') is a 2 km long wooded glacial valley with steep sides rising to almost 250m on the east coast of Ireland. It contains a designated Nature Reserve comprising 59 ha, and is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
#4 The Gearagh (Irish: An Gaorthadh) is a submerged glacial woodland and nature reserve two kilometres southwest of Macroom, County Cork, in Kilmichael parish, Ireland. It is located at the point where the River Lee descends from the mountains and widens at an alluvial plain, and stretches for roughly five kilometres, bounded by the townlands of Toonsbridge, Illaunmore and Anahala. It was until recently densely populated with ancient oak trees and the last surviving full oak forest in western Europe. Its Irish name is An Gaorthadh (meaning "the wooded river-valley" or "the river-bed"). Author Seamus O'Donoghue provides another Irish name, An Gaoire, derived from the Irish word Gaorthadh. The area was flooded in 1954 to facilitate the building of two hydro-electric dams in Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra, which provide electricity for the nearby city of Cork. The area is now part of the plants' upper reservoir. The development required the flooding of the region; consequently, hundreds of trees were felled and many people were relocated. Many of the trees were centuries old and had grown since the medieval period. Today only their stumps survive, in flood land, giving the area a ghostly and almost lunar appearance. Today it comprises wide but shallow water enclosing a series of small islands separated by anastomosing, mostly flat, river streams. It remains an area of outstanding natural beauty, with a diverse ecological system and wide variety of plants, birds and fish, including freshwater pearl mussel, Atlantic salmon, whooper swans, kingfishers and otters. It is designated a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and also enjoys international protection as an EU Special Area of Conservation of 558 ha. Part of the SAC is designated a nature reserve under the Irish Wildlife Act and the reservoir is a wildfowl sanctuary.
#5 Castle Espie is a wetland reserve managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) on the banks of Strangford Lough, three miles south of Comber, County Down, Northern Ireland, in the townland of the same name. It is part of the Strangford Lough Ramsar Site. It provides an early wintering site for almost the entire Nearctic population of pale-bellied brent geese. The Castle which gave the reserve its name no longer exists.
#6 Killarney National Park (Irish: Páirc Náisiúnta Chill Airne), near the town of Killarney, County Kerry, was the first national park in Ireland, created when the Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish Free State in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and encompasses over 102.89 km2 (25,425 acres) of diverse ecology, including the Lakes of Killarney, oak and yew woodlands of international importance, and mountain peaks. It has the only red deer herd on mainland Ireland and the most extensive covering of native forest remaining in Ireland. The park is of high ecological value because of the quality, diversity, and extensiveness of many of its habitats and the wide variety of species that they accommodate, some of which are rare. The park was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981. The park forms part of a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area. The National Parks and Wildlife Service is responsible for the management and administration of the park. Nature conservation is the main objective of the park, and ecosystems in their natural state are highly valued. The park is known for its scenery, and recreation and tourism amenities are provided for.
#7 Connemara National Park (Irish: Páirc Naisiúnta Chonamara) is one of eight national parks in Ireland, managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is located in the northwest of Connemara in County Galway, on the west coast.
#8 Wicklow Mountains National Park (Irish: Páirc Náisiúnta Sléibhte Chill Mhantáin) is a 205-square-kilometre (51,000-acre) protected area in Ireland, one of eight national parks in the country. The park stretches through County Wicklow as well as small areas of South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown in County Dublin. The park is located in the Wicklow Mountains a short distance south of Dublin. It contains a variety of attractions that are popular with city dwellers seeking recreation, and areas visited by tourists and history enthusiasts.
#9 Wild Nephin (Irish: Néifinn Fhiáin, NAY-FINN) is a national park in northwest County Mayo, Ireland. It includes much of the Nephin Beg Mountains and one of the largest expanses of peatland in Europe, consisting of 150 square kilometres of Atlantic blanket bog. It is a unique habitat with a diverse flora and fauna. It was established as Ballycroy National Park in 1998, then expanded and re-named in 2018, with plans to re-wild the additional lands acquired at Nephin Forest to the east of the Nephin Beg Mountains. Wild Nephin includes the most remote point of land on the Irish mainland. The park is a candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC) as part of a site known as the Owenduff/Nephin Complex. It is also a Special Protection Area and part of the Natura 2000 network.
#10 The Raven Nature Reserve is a Ramsar site and national nature reserve of approximately 1,455.5 acres (5.890 km2) located in County Wexford, Ireland. It is managed by the Irish National Parks & Wildlife Service.