Ireland Travel Guide Series - Part 4 County Clare

Doolin – County Clare

The next morning we got up early to head to The Cliffs of Moher, this was about a 3 hour drive. We drove through a bunch of adorable towns on the way, the best part of having your own car is being able to just stop and get out as you wish.

While driving through Ennis we saw signs for Knappogue Castle, so we figured why not stop. Well, sometimes not everything works out. It was “open” according to Google, but there was a sign outside when we got there stating they were closed for a private event that day.

When first getting to the Cliffs and park you need to walk across the street to the entrance to the cliffs. A lot of people will park further away to gain access to the cliffs for free, but the tickets for parking and entry were only about $7 USD.

There are a few stores built into a hill when you first approach the Cliffs and a visitor center with bathrooms, a cafe, souvenir shop and exhibitions.

You have two options at the cliffs, start walking to the right towards O’Briens Tower or you can go left to get another great view of the cliffs. We first went right to see the tower then headed left and walked the edge of the cliffs.

Pro Tip: The Cliffs are very buggy, make sure to have bug spray. The scarf I am wearing in this picture is actually a bug repellent scarf! You can find this scarf in my Ireland Travel Essentials Post and here.

The Cliffs were truly beautiful, be very careful when you are walking them. There are guided safe areas you should stay within. We saw a lot of people getting very close to the edge, I do not like heights so I stayed in the “safe zones”.

After leaving the cliffs we headed to our accommodations for the evening Ballinalacken Castle House in Doolin.

How cute was this little pub inside of the hotel?! We didn’t find this until we were leaving in the morning unfortunately.

While waiting for the sunset after dinner

As you can see, you do not stay in the castle tower it is just on the property. They do nightly tours of the tour, unfortunately we missed it.

After checking in we headed out to the town area of Doolin to walk around and eat.

If you are in this area, you must stop and eat in Gus O’Connor’s Pub. The food is fantastic, the best fish and chips I had the entire trip and the traditional music is superb.

It was extremely bright when walking around Doolin, so I apologize for the lighting in these photos. The town was so cute though!

Since Doolin is on the water and there is a ferry to the Aran Island available here. We did not take this ferry when we went, we went from Galway but this is another good option.