The historic village of Ardmore on the south Irish coast plays an important role in my Sharpe & Donovan series. Fictional Declan’s Cross, where a mysterious art thief got his start, is a stone’s throw. Ardmore–Ard Mohr in Irish, or “great hill”–is an intriguing, picturesque mix of old and new.

Joe and I had the opportunity to visit the area again a few weeks ago. We did the cliff walk along the headland, winding our way to the ruins of Saint Declan’s medieval monastic settlement, and his empty crypt. An impressive twelfth-century round tower rises above the gravestones and ruins. 

“Imagine Saint Declan walking this same ground hundreds of years ago,” says Wendell Sharpe, FBI agent Emma Sharpe’s art detective grandfather, in Harbor Island. 

Joe and I certainly did, and afterward, we had lunch at the very contemporary Cliff House Hotel, which hugs the cliffs along the beautiful bay.