Lakes, Rivers & Waterfalls in County Clare

The water in this county mostly sits on its edges. Lough Derg forms the eastern boundary with Tipperary and Galway, ringed by harbour villages at Killaloe, Garrykennedy and Mountshannon, with boats out to Holy Island and the 68.9 km Lough Derg Way along the shore. To the south, the Shannon Estuary widens from Limerick city out past Loop Head, and the 207 km Shannon Estuary Way strings together the Killimer to Tarbert car ferry, the Napoleonic battery forts and the dolphin trips from Kilrush.

Inland, the pattern is limestone. The Caher, which reaches the sea at Fanore, is the only Burren river to run its whole course above ground; the Aille disappears into caves in dry summers and reappears under the Spectacle Bridge near Lisdoonvarna. Lough Gash, on the edge of Newmarket-on-Fergus, is a turlough that fills in winter and in some years never quite drains, and Lough Atedaun near Corofin rises and falls with the season. Go after rain if you want to see them full.

Ennis is the practical base. Ballyallia Lake lies just north of the town, a flat circuit with a stony slipway, lifeguarded swimming in July and August and up to 40 whooper swans in winter, and the Fergus itself threads through Ennis on its way south. The rest want a car: Fanore and the Caher Valley, the 5.2km Lough Avalla farm loop, and the short riverside walk at Sixmilebridge.