Things to Do in County Clare

More about County Clare

Where to base yourself

Ennis is the practical choice: the county town, central, and the place with the pubs and the friary on the doorstep. Doolin is the choice if trad music and the Aran ferry are the point of the trip. Lisdoonvarna and Ballyvaughan put you inside the Burren. For the south-west, Kilkee works. If you want the grand version, Dromoland Castle is an 1830s Gothic Revival rebuild on an old O’Brien estate, now a five-star hotel with a golf course and spa.

The Cliffs of Moher, Aillwee Cave and the Burren’s ruins

The Cliffs of Moher charge €15 for an adult, €12 for a student or senior and €30 for a family, with under-12s free; the ticket covers parking, the visitor centre and O’Brien’s Tower. Go before 11am or after 4pm, when the car park still has space. For the same cliffline without a ticket, Hag’s Head at the southern end has no visitor centre and no fences — just the ruined Moher Tower and, most days, hardly anyone else.

Poulnabrone is a Neolithic portal tomb on bare Burren pavement, built around 3500 BC; rescue excavations in the 1980s recovered the bones of at least 33 people. It’s free, open all year, and a short uneven walk from the car park. Aillwee Cave runs a 45-minute guided tour about 90 m underground, past an underground river, a year-round frozen waterfall and the bones of an Ice Age brown bear found here in 1976. It’s open daily 10:00–17:00 from 28 March to 4 October 2026: adults €28, children 5–17 €18, a 2+2 family ticket €72. Corcomroe Abbey, a Cistercian church founded around 1195 in a green hollow, has the best carved capitals and ribbed vault of its kind in the region; it’s free, with no fixed hours, so go in daylight.

Trad music, ferries and castles

Four pubs in Doolin keep sessions running most nights through summer — Gus O’Connor’s has poured since 1832 — and if you only have one evening, Fitz’s Pub runs live music every night of the year and brews its own Dooliner ale. Express ferries leave Doolin pier for the Aran Islands in 15 to 35 minutes — the shortest crossing to the islands from the mainland.

Ennis, the county town on an island in the River Fergus, has a 13th-century Franciscan friary with an exceptional set of 15th- and 16th-century limestone carvings under a modern roof — free, open 10:00–18:00 from 13 March to 4 November, and fully wheelchair accessible. A lighthouse has worked at Loop Head, where the Shannon Estuary meets the Atlantic, since 1670: general admission is €3 with under-18s free, the guided tower tour €8 adult/€5 child, open daily 10:00–17:00 from early May to late September and weekends only either side. A 20-minute ferry from Kilrush crosses to Scattery Island, uninhabited since 1969 and holding Saint Senán’s 6th-century monastery, a 26 m round tower with a rare ground-level door and a Napoleonic battery; the island is free, the ferry runs May to September. Bunratty pairs a 15th-century O’Brien tower house with a 26-acre folk park of rescued thatched cottages — adults €15.25 online or €16.95 on the door, children €10.35 or €11.50, and a nightly medieval banquet at €80 per adult.

Beaches, surf and swimming

Lahinch is the surf town: a 2 km Blue Flag strand facing reliable Atlantic swell, five surf schools, and pubs along the Victorian promenade. Dogs are banned from the beach between 11am and 6pm in summer. Kilkee curls round a sheltered horseshoe bay built for Victorian bathers who arrived by paddle-steamer, with three tidal Pollock Holes for swimming at low water. Fanore has a wide Blue Flag beach where the Caher River meets the sea, backed by limestone hills. For something smaller and more sheltered, White Strand near Miltown Malbay is Blue Flag with a free car park, lifeguarded daily from 1 July to 31 August.

Walking the Burren

The Burren Way runs 118.8 km from Lahinch to Corofin over roughly five days, taking in the Cliffs of Moher, Poulnabrone and Doolin. For a day instead of a week, Black Head marks the Burren’s western edge below a small 1936 lighthouse and is the trailhead for a hard 26 km loop over green roads and limestone pavement, with a shorter 14.5 km option. Kilkee Cliffs gives Atlantic drama without the crowds — free, year-round, and anything from a 30-minute stroll to an 8 km loop past the Bishop’s Island sea stack. For something flatter, the Lough Avalla Farm Loop is a 5.2 km waymarked circuit across hazel woods, limestone pavement, a holy well and a quiet lakeshore, opened in 2011 by organic farmer Harry Jeuken; free, every day of the year, though uneven underfoot with some scrambling.

Rainy days and quieter corners

Aillwee Cave and Ennis Friary both work in weather. Lisdoonvarna is Ireland’s last surviving Victorian spa town, where the Twin Wells still run with iron and sulphur water you can taste and the Spa Wells Heritage Centre is free. Quin Abbey is a Franciscan friary founded around 1433 directly on top of a ruined de Clare castle from the 1280s — three of the castle’s round corner towers survive, built into the friary walls.

When to go

The cliffs, the Aran ferries, Aillwee, Loop Head and the Scattery boat all run on a broadly May-to-September season, and several close or drop to weekends outside it — check before travelling in shoulder season. July and August bring the lifeguards, the nightly sessions and the queues; May, June and September give you most of the access with a fraction of the traffic. The Burren’s flowers are at their best in late spring.