Research has revealed the sunniest counties in Ireland that are most likely to provide you with the perfect staycation weather.
Ireland isn’t best known for its predictable weather; however, when the sun is shining, there is no place we would rather be.
And unsurprisingly, the sunny southeast has dominated the top five, with Wexford taking the top spot, followed by Waterford and Carlow, according to a study conducted by Active Iron.
Two unexpected counties, Longford and Cavan, also broke onto the top five list, leaving some people wondering why all of that sunshine hasn’t made these places holiday hotspots.
The west of Ireland showed that while it is a tourist favourite with lots to offer such as beautiful landscape and scenery, sunshine is something that it is lacking.
Mayo came in at the bottom of the list, with 500 hours less sunshine annually than the sunniest county, Wexford.
The research revealed that Dublin had more hours of sunshine than London - despite the UK being closer to the Mediterranean.
Dublin marginally got ahead of London, with the capital city seeing 1,424 hours of sunshine compared to London's 1,400.
Cork also did slightly better than the UK’s second city Birmingham as Cork received 1,424 hours of sunshine compared to Birmingham’s 1,400.
The UK’s Brighton with 1,900 hours stretched out ahead of Wexford with 1,600 hours of sunshine.
The trend continued with Blackpool receiving more sunshine than Waterford and Manchester out ahead of Galway.
Unfortunately, Ireland does not rank as well against other European countries, which explains why Irish people are always desperate to get away for a break to our sunny European neighbours.
When Ireland’s sunniest county Wexford is compared to Portugal’s capital Lisbon the stark reality of Irelands interchangeable weather becomes clear.
Wexford received just 1,600 hours of sunshine when compared to Lisbon's annual sun of 2,799 hours.
No surprised on the cards as the research revealed Spain to be the second sunniest country in Europe with 2,910 hours of sunshine, and Malta took the top spot with 2,957 hours.
Spain was closely followed by Portugal, Greece, France and Italy, showing why they are Europe's most popular holiday destinations.
Iceland came in at the bottom of the list with just 1,268 hours of sunshine annually.
