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You may already know some of Ireland’s bucket list sightseeing spots, such as the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland or the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. But did you know that Ireland is full of surprises if you look a little deeper?

On your next visit to Ireland, take a tour where you step off the well-trodden path and experience Ireland in a different way.

These types of tours will bring you into Ireland's landscape to experience its people, culture and traditions in a new way, whether it’s walking a remote peninsula or a mysterious hill, kayaking in a bay at night, camping in the mountains or canoeing to a country cottage for cake. Let's go off-the-beaten track!

Taking to a boat or kayak to explore from the water gives you a whole new perspective on a place. And seeing it at night just adds to that experience. Set out at dusk from Reen Pier near Skibbereen in West Cork for the Castlehaven Bay night kayaking tour with Atlantic Sea Kayaking, and you can witness the bay come alive.

On a clear night, you will see sunset, followed by glorious views of the stars and possibly the light of the rising moon overhead. Meanwhile, under your kayak the sparkles of bioluminescence glow in the water as you paddle (depending on the time of year). You will hear birds calling and get sweet scents like gorse and honeysuckle in the night air. This is a quiet, sheltered bay for gentle paddling so the 2.5-hour trip for adults is suitable for beginners and is a truly serene experience.

Mountains such as Ben Bulben or Knocknarea are well known in County Sligo, but a few hours on the lesser-known Knocknashee Trail with Seatrails in south Sligo will let you experience the county and its layers of history, archaeology and mythology in a new light. The name Knocknashee comes from the Irish Cnoc na Sí which means “hill of the fairies”. The 276-metre flat-topped mountain is reached by an easy track, past grazing sheep, and offers panoramic views of Sligo.

From the summit, you can see farmland below and as far as the Ox Mountains, Knocknarea and Ben Bulben, as well as Carrowkeel and Kesh Mountain, both full of archaeological sites. On the top of Knocknashee are two large cairns with megalithic burial chambers, plus the remains of around 30 circular Bronze Age dwelling sites and the outline of a hilltop fort, enclosed by banks of earth.

On this 1.5-hour guided tour, Seatrails guide and archaeologist Auriel Robinson will tell you about these megalithic sites, the people who built them, as well as stories of the mountain, from mythology to folklore.