Most of what survives here is stone left standing on limestone. Poulnabrone Dolmen sits on open pavement in the heart of the Burren, a portal tomb of about 3500 BC whose excavation turned up the bones of at least 33 people; it is free and open all year, and after the Cliffs of Moher it is the busiest thing in the Burren. Corcomroe Abbey, near Bellharbour on the north coast, is the counterweight: a Cistercian church in a green hollow, unstaffed, with carved capitals at the east end that reward a slow look.
The Burren cluster runs on from there. Kilfenora keeps its 12th-century cathedral and high crosses, three of them under glass, and Kilnaboy has a Sheela-na-gig over the south door and the Mullaghmore Loop starting nearby. Killilagh, the parish holding Doolin, has a church burned in 1645 and a court tomb at Teergonean. Dysert O’Dea, further south, carries a Romanesque doorway of nineteen heads beside a round tower Cromwell’s men blasted.
Ennis Friary is the one town site, walkable in the county town and staffed by an OPW guide in season. East Clare is a different county again, Lough Derg and the Shannon rather than the Atlantic, with Holy Island by boat and St Cronan’s at Tuamgraney. That side needs its own day and its own drive.
A Neolithic portal tomb on bare Burren limestone, free and open all year, with the bones of at least 33 people recovered from beneath it.
A Cistercian church of the early 13th century in a green hollow of the grey Burren, holding some of the finest medieval carving in any Irish abbey ruin.
Founded around 1242 by the O'Briens, this town-centre friary holds an exceptional set of 15th- and 16th-century limestone carvings, including the McMahon tomb.
An early monastic site of St Tola with a Romanesque doorway carved with nineteen heads, a blasted round tower and a much-travelled high cross.
The county's inland side on Lough Derg and the Shannon, with Holy Island's monastic ruins by boat and Ireland's oldest church still in use at Tuamgraney.
33 of 33 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Burren, clare
Poulnabrone is a Neolithic portal tomb on the Burren's limestone pavement: a thin capstone tilted west on two tall portal stones, built around 3500 BC. Rescue excavations in the 1980s recovered the bones of at least 33 people, along with a stone axe, arrowheads and beads now in the Clare Museum. It's free, open all year, and the most visited spot in the Burren after the Cliffs of Moher.
Near Bellharbour, clare
Corcomroe Abbey is a Cistercian church set in a green hollow of the grey Burren, founded for monks from Inislounaght around 1195 and built in the early 13th century. The carved capitals and ribbed vault at the east end are among the finest medieval stonework in any Irish Cistercian ruin. It is free, unstaffed and open in daylight, near Bellharbour in north Clare.
Ennis, clare
The Ennis Friary collection of 15th- and 16th-century limestone carving is among the finest in Ireland, including the McMahon tomb and an effigy of St Francis showing the stigmata. Founded around 1242 by the O'Briens of Thomond, the friary is free to enter and staffed by an OPW guide in season.
Dysert, clare
Dysert O'Dea Church stands on the limestone of north Clare, the heart of an early monastic settlement founded by St Tola. Its Romanesque doorway is carved with nineteen heads, and beside it stand a Cromwell-blasted round tower and a high cross that has been toppled, re-erected and even shipped to Barcelona.
East Clare, clare
East Clare is the county’s inland side, built around Lough Derg and the River Shannon rather than the Atlantic. Paddle the calm lake, take the boat to the monastic ruins of Holy Island, and visit Tuamgraney, home to what is reckoned the oldest church in continuous use in Ireland.
Ennis, clare
Ennis is the county town of Clare, built on an island in the River Fergus. Its 13th-century Franciscan friary keeps an exceptional set of medieval limestone carvings under a modern roof, and its lanes hold the pubs that made the town's name for traditional music. It also makes a handy base for the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.
Kilfenora, clare
Kilfenora is a village of about 150 people on the edge of the Burren that calls itself the world’s smallest city. The draw is the 12th-century cathedral and its high crosses, three of them sheltered under a glass roof, with the Burren Centre, ancient ring forts and a Father Ted filming trail alongside.
labasheeda, clare
One of six limestone forts built between 1811 and 1814 to cross-fire any French ships entering the Shannon, Kilkerrin Battery is the best-surviving of the chain. You can walk its dry moat, find the iron pulleys that once raised the drawbridge, and look across Clonderlaw Bay to Kerry. A 2019 survey found protected lesser horseshoe bats roosting inside the blockhouse.
Killilagh, clare
Killilagh is the civil parish that holds Doolin, and its history is written in stone you can still walk to: a church built in 1470 and burned by Cromwellian troops in 1645, a 5,000-year-old court tomb at Teergonean, and quarries that once paved London. Every site is free and open year-round.
Liscannor, clare
The ruined church at Kilmacreehy stands in a graveyard sloping toward Liscannor Bay, about 2 km south-east of the harbour. The 15th-century stonework sits on a site used since at least the 6th century, and the Irish-language poet Aodh Buí Mac Cruitín lies here in an unmarked grave. It is a short roadside stop with one good story attached.
Kilnaboy, clare
Kilnaboy's ruined church carries a Sheela-na-gig over its south door and a rare double-armed cross on its west gable, on a much older monastic foundation. The village is also the trailhead for the 7.5 km Mullaghmore Loop, one of the best short walks in the Burren National Park.
Newmarket-on-Fergus, clare
In 1854 the largest hoard of prehistoric gold ever found in western Europe turned up near Mooghaun Lough, just outside Newmarket-on-Fergus. The gold is in Dublin now, but the great Bronze Age hill-fort above the find is still here - free, unstaffed, open any time - and it is the best reason to stop. Dromoland Castle, a Mid Clare Way trailhead and trout fishing round it out.
Ballysteen, clare
St Brigid's Holy Well runs across two levels near the Cliffs of Moher – a lower grotto with a bubbling spring, bronze statue and candles that burn day and night, and an upper sanctuary with a rag-tree and the old O'Brien graveyard. Pilgrims walk the turas here, above all on St Brigid's Day and the Feast of the Assumption.
Tuamgraney, clare
You enter St Cronan’s through the same 10th-century doorway Brian Boru is recorded as repairing around 1012 – and it is still a working church, the oldest in continuous use in Ireland or Britain. Inside are a carved Romanesque head, medieval windows and a €1 million stained-glass Ascension, free to see from April to September.
Killaloe, clare
St Flannan's Cathedral in Killaloe holds the only known bilingual runic-ogham stone in Ireland, carved by a Viking named Thorgrim. Alongside it stand a richly carved Romanesque portal from the vanished earlier cathedral and, in the churchyard, a rare stone-roofed oratory from around 1100. Free to visit, on the banks of the Shannon.
East Clare, clare
St Cronan's 10th-century church at the heart of Tuamgraney is reckoned the oldest church in continuous use in Ireland, with a Romanesque doorway linked to High King Brian Ború. Around it, this East Clare village packs in handmade chocolate, traditional weaving and quiet walks toward Lough Derg.
Ennistymon, clare
Kilfenora, clare
Burren National Park, clare
Ennis, clare
Fanore, clare
Corofin, clare
Formoyle West, clare
Mooghaun South, clare
Poulawack, clare
clare
Slievenaglasha, clare
Aughiska Beg, clare
Kilfenora, clare
Killaloe, clare
Dysert O’Dea, clare
Carran, clare
Toomullin, clare
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