Galway

Ashford Castle sits on the shore of Lough Corrib near Cong, a fairy-tale pile of turrets and battlements that began as a real Anglo-Norman fortress in the 13th century before being expanded over the centuries, most notably by the Guinness family, who owned it for nearly a hundred years and built much of the grand French-chateau-style facade seen today. It's now one of Ireland's most famous luxury hotels, but its grounds and history are open to a wider audience than just overnight guests. Visitors can walk the 350 acres of parkland and woodland, take a falconry lesson at Ireland's School of Falconry on the estate (one of the oldest of its kind), or simply have afternoon tea in rooms once frequented by Oscar Wilde and, during the filming of The Quiet Man in the 1950s, John Wayne. The lake setting, complete with boat trips on Lough Corrib, and the sheer theatrical scale of the building make it a memorable stop even for those not staying the night, though the best of the estate experiences — falconry, spa, dining — are geared toward paying hotel guests.

Claddagh is the old fishing village on the west bank of the Corrib estuary in Galway city, historically a tight-knit, Irish-speaking community of thatched cottages that lived almost entirely from the sea. The thatched cottages are gone, replaced by 20th-century housing, but Claddagh's identity survives most famously in the Claddagh ring — the design of two hands clasping a crowned heart, symbolizing love, friendship, and loyalty — which originated here and is now recognized worldwide. Today Claddagh is a quiet residential quay best known for the walk along Claddagh Basin and the swans that gather where the river meets Galway Bay, just beside the Wolfe Tone Bridge and a short stroll from the Spanish Arch. It's less a sightseeing destination in its own right than a pleasant, low-key extension of a Galway city walk, offering good views back across the water toward the Latin Quarter and a sense of the fishing community that shaped the city's character before tourism did.

Cliffs of Moher: The Cliffs of Moher are Ireland's most photographed natural landmark: an 8-kilometre wall of sheer rock rising up to 214 metres straight out of the Atlantic on the County Clare coast, layered with visible bands of shale and sandstone laid down 300 million years ago. On a clear day the view stretches to the Aran Islands and the mountains of Connemara; on a windy one, which is often, the drama of waves smashing the base far below is reason enough to come. O'Brien's Tower, built in 1835 as a viewing point for Victorian tourists, still marks the highest section and remains the classic photo spot. The cliffs are a breeding ground for tens of thousands of seabirds, including one of Ireland's largest colonies of Atlantic puffins on Goat Island just offshore, best seen in spring and early summer. A modern visitor centre is built into the hillside to preserve the clifftop views, and a network of paved and rougher trail paths lets visitors walk well beyond the main viewing areas — though the exposed edges, strong winds, and occasional closures for erosion or weather make caution genuinely necessary here, not just a formality.

Connemara National Park protects almost 3,000 hectares of the wildest scenery in County Galway, a landscape of blanket bog, heath, and grassland set beneath the quartzite peaks of the Twelve Bens and Maumturk Mountains. Diamond Hill, the park's signature walk, is a steep but manageable climb rewarding hikers with panoramic views over Connemara's patchwork of lakes, bog, and the Atlantic coastline beyond Letterfrack village. The park is also one of the best places in Ireland to see a herd of native Connemara ponies and reintroduced Golden Eagles, alongside red deer that roam the open hills. Its visitor centre in Letterfrack does a good job explaining the ecology of blanket bog, a habitat that covers much of the region and has shaped local life for centuries through turf-cutting. Combined with nearby Kylemore Abbey, it forms the natural heart of a Connemara loop that's less about single sights than the sense of empty, dramatic space.

Eyre Square, officially Kennedy Park since John F. Kennedy's visit in 1963, is the civic heart of Galway city and the natural starting point for exploring it — most walking routes into the Latin Quarter and Shop Street begin here. The square has been Galway's central public space since the 1700s, when it was laid out as a formal green, and today it's a mix of lawns, monuments, and benches ringed by hotels, shops, and the bus and train station just across the road. Among its landmarks are the Browne Doorway, a carved 17th-century entrance salvaged from a merchant townhouse, and a fountain sculpture representing Galway hookers, the traditional sailing boats once central to the city's trade. It's not a sight to linger over for hours, but as the transport hub and gateway to the old city, nearly every visitor to Galway passes through it, making it a natural orientation point and meeting place rather than a destination in itself.

Galway Cathedral, formally the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, is a striking presence on the Galway skyline: a huge green dome and Renaissance-influenced limestone bulk completed only in 1965, making it one of the last large stone cathedrals built in Europe. It stands on the site of the old city jail, right on the bank of the River Corrib, and its scale surprises many visitors who don't expect a building this monumental in a city otherwise defined by narrow medieval streets. Inside, the mix of styles is part of the appeal — Romanesque arches, a Renaissance dome, mosaic floors, and modern stained glass sit together, along with a mosaic of John F. Kennedy reflecting his visit to the city. It's a working parish church, not just a monument, and entry is free, making it an easy add-on to a walk along the river or through the university area, even for visitors who wouldn't otherwise seek out a 20th-century cathedral.

Galway City Museum: The Galway City Museum sits right beside the Spanish Arch on the riverbank, telling the story of Galway from its medieval trading-port origins through to the 20th century in a compact, free-to-enter building. Exhibits cover the old city's walls and merchant families, the Claddagh fishing community, and the Galway hooker sailing boats that once carried turf and goods along the coast, alongside temporary exhibitions on local art and history. It's a modest museum rather than a world-class one, but its location makes it a natural stop when exploring the Spanish Arch and Claddagh area, and the top floor offers good views over the Corrib and the arch itself. For visitors trying to make sense of Galway's identity as a historic port city rather than just a lively college town, it fills in useful context in well under an hour.

Kylemore Abbey is Connemara's most romantic landmark: a grey turreted castle built in the 1860s by wealthy English businessman Mitchell Henry as a gift to his wife Margaret, set against a backdrop of the Twelve Bens mountains and reflected in the still waters of Lough Pollacappul. After Margaret's early death and the family's later financial ruin, the estate passed through several owners before Benedictine nuns, fleeing Belgium during the First World War, bought it in 1920 and have run it as an abbey and school ever since. Today visitors can tour part of the castle's restored rooms, visit the small neo-Gothic church Henry built as a memorial to his wife, and walk the six-acre Victorian walled garden, one of the last of its kind in Ireland, restored to its original design after decades of neglect. The setting alone — lake, mountains, and castle in one frame — makes it one of the most photographed spots in the west of Ireland, and the layered history of romance, tragedy, and monastic life gives it more depth than the postcard view suggests.

Salthill Promenade is Galway's seaside strip, a roughly two-kilometre walkway along Galway Bay linking the city centre to the traditional seaside suburb of Salthill. It's best known for a local tradition: walking to the end and "kicking the wall" at Blackrock diving tower before turning back, a ritual so ingrained that Galwegians use it as a casual measure of distance and mood. Beyond the walk itself, Salthill has amusement arcades, a small aquarium (Galway Atlantaquaria), and a string of pubs and takeaways that give it a slightly old-fashioned seaside-resort character distinct from the rest of the city. The views across Galway Bay to the Burren and, on clear days, the Aran Islands are the real draw, along with sea swimming off Blackrock for those hardy enough to brave the Atlantic. It's a genuinely local scene as much as a tourist one — an evening or weekend stroll here is how a lot of Galway actually spends its free time.

Shop Street, Galway: Shop Street is the spine of Galway's Latin Quarter, a narrow medieval street (which changes names several times along its length) lined with independent shops, buskers, and some of the city's most atmospheric pubs, including Tigh Neachtain and The Quays. It's pedestrianised and almost always busy, especially on weekends, and carries the city's reputation for street music — Galway has produced or hosted a disproportionate number of well-known Irish musicians, and it's common to walk past genuinely excellent live performers here on any given afternoon. Along the street and its side lanes are the Lynch's Castle (now a bank, but one of the best-preserved medieval townhouses in Ireland), the Church of St Nicholas where Columbus is said to have prayed before his voyage, and countless small craft, jewellery, and book shops. It's less a single sight than the connective tissue of the old city — the street tourists and locals alike walk again and again, and arguably the best single place to feel Galway's reputation as Ireland's most bohemian city.

Spanish Arch: The Spanish Arch stands where the River Corrib meets Galway Bay, a fragment of the city's 16th-century walls built to protect merchant ships unloading Spanish wine and goods in the harbour that once stood here. The name reflects Galway's centuries-old trading links with Spain, when the city functioned as one of Ireland's busiest western ports, dealing more with the continent than with England. Todaythe arch itself is a modest structure, but its surroundings — the riverside green, views over to Claddagh, and the adjoining Galway City Museum — make it a natural gathering point, especially on sunny days when locals sit out on the grass along the water. It's one of the oldest visible remnants of medieval Galway still standing in something close to its original form, and a short, easy add-on to any walk along the Corrib toward Claddagh or Salthill.

The Burren is one of Europe's strangest and most striking landscapes: roughly 250 square kilometres of exposed limestone karst in County Clare, its surface cracked into a grid of grykes and clints that from a distance looks almost lunar and largely barren. Look closer, though, and the cracks shelter an improbable mix of Arctic, Mediterranean, and alpine plant species growing side by side, a botanical quirk that has made the Burren a magnet for naturalists for over a century. Beneath the surface, the region is riddled with caves, including Aillwee Cave, one of Ireland's oldest show caves, while above ground it holds an extraordinary density of ancient monuments — Poulnabrone dolmen, a 5,000-year-old portal tomb, is the most photographed, but the area also has ring forts, wedge tombs, and holy wells scattered across the terrain largely unmarked and unfenced. It's a landscape best explored slowly, on foot or by bike along quiet lanes, rather than rushed through by car, and it sits right next to the Cliffs of Moher, making the two a natural pairing on a Clare day trip.