Emma Rudd: Green Door Tours
This feature is part of an ongoing series where I highlight trusted members of my networks from the Ireland Travel Planning Tips Facebook Group—people who are passionate about helping you experience Ireland in a more authentic and stress-free way.
What is your background in tourism and how did Green Door Tours come about?
My main background in tourism is having been a tourist. I traveled extensively in my 20’s and have always had a grá (Irish for love, used in everyday language) and excitement for travel.
Before launching Green Door Tours, I completed a business development course and afterwards further study to become a tour guide. I hold a Fáilte Ireland accredited qualification in national and regional tour guiding, covering tour management, local history, guiding principles and practice, and ecotourism.
Fáilte Ireland is the national body that supports and regulates tourism businesses in Ireland. They provide accreditation, training, and industry standards that ensure high-quality visitor experiences.
I travelled extensively throughout Ireland guiding on tour buses, gaining invaluable experience and a deep knowledge of the country’s culture.
The inspiration for Green Door Tours began in the summer of 2021 during a meeting with an Irish, US-based school friend. From that conversation, a seed was planted. In collaboration with my friend, who sourced the visitors from the United States, the first tour was launched in summer 2023 — and it was a great success.
What kind of tourists are attracted to Green Door Tours?
Our guests aren’t just tourists — they’re travelers.
They’re looking for a slower pace, time to breathe, and space to truly connect with Ireland rather than simply see it.
Many come from the United States, often with Irish ancestry, and feel a deep personal pull toward the landscape, traditions and stories of their forebears. They’re not looking for a bus tour highlight reel — they want to experience Ireland from the inside.
For our guests, immersion might mean:
- Standing on the sideline at a local Gaelic Athletic Association hurling match and understanding why it matters so much to the community.
- Learning to pull a proper pint of Guinness and hearing the stories behind the pub culture.
- Feeding newborn lambs on a working farm and talking with the farmer about rural life today.
- Listening to traditional music in a small village pub rather than a show.
What inspired you to focus on tours in addition to offering accommodation?
While completing the Business Development course, I undertook a detailed module in market research. As part of this process, I designed and circulated a targeted questionnaire to better understand what visitors truly wanted from an Irish tour experience.
The feedback was clear and consistent — travelers were looking for a more relaxed, immersive experience without the need to constantly repack and move hotels.
From this research, the concept of a “one-stop” tour was developed: guests stay in one carefully selected accommodation for the duration of their trip, while travelling out by day to explore Ireland’s food, farms, flowers, history, castles and churches — all within a comfortable travelling distance. This model combines depth of experience with ease and comfort, creating a stress-free and enriching Irish journey.
Tell us about the beautiful Georgian house that serves as a temporary home for your guests and what they can expect once they arrive?
The main house, built in the early 19th century (circa 1800–1820), is a detached four-bay, two-storey residence with a pitched slate roof. Its elegant round-headed front door, complete with decorative fanlight and sidelights, immediately reflects the symmetry and grace of the Georgian period.
Over time, outbuildings and a stable yard were added, and the property was once associated with a thriving stud farm. In more recent years, it has become renowned not only for the house itself but also for its extensive and celebrated gardens.
From the moment you step into the hallway, you are met with a sense of calm and beauty. To the left lie the gracious drawing room and dining room. Continuing through the hallway brings you to a spacious yet cosy kitchen, centred around a traditional AGA. A later addition — a tastefully designed sunroom with a door opening onto the side garden — fills the space with natural light. A small sitting room and a back door leading to the cobbled yard are located just off the kitchen.
Ascending the wooden staircase, you’ll find a charming mini library at the halfway landing — the perfect quiet nook to pause and indulge in a book.
The first floor offers five double bedrooms, one with an en suite, and two that share an interconnecting bathroom. In addition, there is a large family bedroom with en suite and three single beds. The bedrooms are elegant and light-filled, with large, symmetrical Georgian windows framing extensive views of the surrounding countryside.
Give us some insight into how you choose your tours since food, culture and local experiences seem to be an integral part of your business?
With a background in food, catering and horticulture, my Ireland is rooted firmly in the land. I am drawn to good, simple food — seasonal, local and honest — and to gardens that tell stories through soil, planting and design. My love of horticulture naturally leads guests into Ireland’s historic estates, working farms and beautiful private gardens, including time spent at properties connected to the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland.
My interest in Irish history developed later, sparked by discovering the extraordinary depth of Ireland’s past — from ancient landscapes shaped thousands of years ago to the complex social history that led so many to emigrate. Rather than presenting history as a lecture, I weaves it gently through place, conversation and lived experience.
Can you walk us through a typical day on one of your week-long tours — from breakfast to evening?
All guests have a detailed itinerary and generally in the morning, folk come down and start the day with a brew. If they are extra early birds, they have access to a kettle so they can make tea or coffee. I help the team set up breakfast, fresh fruit, poached fruit, muesli, granola, porridge, cereals, pastries and breads in addition to eggs, bacon, sausages, and avocado.
The bus arrives, generally at 9 a.m. and the guests load up and whoever is acting tour guide of the day hops in to accompany. I choose sites of interest and within one hour’s drive depending on the place so as not to have my guests sitting for too long in the bus. Toilet stops are an important aspect that are factored in as well.
Lunch is a carefully selected café, no rush before boarding the bus once again and off to the afternoon visit.
The bus arrives back at the accommodation generally late afternoon; there are cups of tea and homemade goodies available before dinner anytime from 7 p.m.
On one of the evenings, there is a visit to a nearby public house (pub) with traditional music playing. On another evening, a musician comes to the house. Generally, the evenings are spent relaxing or taking a stroll in the heavenly walled garden…chill time.
Ireland’s Midlands are often forgotten as tourists rush from Dublin to the west coast? What, in your opinion, is special about this area?
Many visitors come to Ireland for the dramatic coastline — the cliffs and the crashing Atlantic. And they are beautiful. But the story of Ireland didn’t begin on the edge.
It began here.
In the Midlands.
This landscape was once the spiritual and political center of the island.
At the Hill of Uisneach, ancient kings gathered and lit ceremonial fires that symbolically united the provinces of Ireland. Along the banks of the River Shannon, monks built great centers of learning like Clonmacnoise, preserving scholarship and faith during centuries of upheaval.
When you stand here, you’re standing in the center of a story that stretches back thousands of years.
For many of your followers in the group or those who follow your website, Ireland on a Budget, Ireland may not just be a destination — it may be part of your family story.
The Midlands were home to farming families, as well as those in market towns and generally to people who worked hard on the land and, in difficult times, left it. Some of their descendants built new lives across the Atlantic.
There is a quiet resilience in this part of Ireland. The boglands, the stone walls, the rivers — they’ve witnessed famine, rebellion, emigration and renewal. They’ve shaped a people known for storytelling, humor and hospitality.
Over the coming days, you won’t just see historic sites. You’ll meet people whose families have farmed here for generations. You’ll taste food rooted in the land. You might hear the clash of ash in a hurling match or learn how to pull the perfect pint.
This isn’t Ireland as a postcard.
It’s Ireland as lived experience.
My hope is that by the end of this journey, you won’t simply have visited Ireland — you’ll feel connected to it. To its history. To its people. And perhaps, in some small way, to your own story too.
You can find out more about Emma’s business at the Green Door Tours website, or you may email her at [email protected].
Emma’s business, Green Door Tours, is in my Tour Guide Network.
