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15 - 30 guests
8 Days / 7 Nights
From $2,289
Welcome to the County Clare Ireland Tour! We invite you to join us on this once in a lifetime experience, visiting Clare on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, a beautiful, scenic, and historic part of Ireland. Enjoy the warmth and “Cead Mile Failte” (100,000 Welcomes) that Clare people are renown for throughout the world, and nowhere more so than in their native Ireland. A very big Failte (welcome) awaits you on this wonderful week in the “Emerald Isle”.
Arrive at Shannon Airport and travel through scenic areas of Clare, Limerick, and Cork to Kinsale.
Evening
Doolin is a tiny village of just one street and several pubs, but seems to be a must-see for many people. While at night time this is understandable, since there is good music in the pubs, by day it really isn’t worth even a short detour – but go you must see it! It is however a good place to overnight if you are doing this tour over two days. The recently opened Doolin Caves are worth a visit if you’ve skipped Ailwee or are a real cave enthusiast. Doonagore Castle (N), about 1km from the village, is worth a quick visit if you have time. It’s a pretty 15th century tower surrounded by a walled enclosure, located on a headland with great views. The castle is private, it’s owned by an American family who use it as a holiday home.
Heading south from Doolin, The Cliffs of Moher Hotel in Liscannor presents the perfect opportunity for a tasty bite to eat before experiencing the main event: the cliffs themselves. Plunging into the Atlantic, the gigantic Cliffs of Moher are the superstars of County Clare. The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre tells the story of the cliffs, as well as introducing you to the thriving wildlife that call them home.
Evening
The Burren is one of the most fascinating and lovely parts of Ireland, a huge limestone plateau with numerous megalithic remains and a protected habitat where many rare plants and flowers grow. It can look like a barren and stony wasteland in places, but don’t be misled. It’s a place full of history, with a fascinating geology, a paradise for botanists and very much a living and evolving place.
Corofin is a small and pretty market town, built on the Fergus River which connects Inchiquin Lake with Lough Atedaun. Legend has it that the mythical Irish hero engaged in battle here and the town is named for him – it means “Finn’s Weir”. St Catherine’s Church, built between 1715 and 1720 by Catherine Keightley who was a first cousin of Queens Mary and Anne, is now a small museum and worth a quick visit.
It’s well worth making the 3 mile detour from Corofin to visit Dysert O’Dea. The castle, now home to the Clare Archaeological Center, dates from the 15th century when it was built by the O’Dea clan, the former chieftains of the area.
However this site has been inhabited since at least the 8th century, when St. Tola founded a monastery here, at the site where the ruins of a 12th century church now stand. The Romanesque doorway to this church is unique and fascinating, with 12 faces carved into the stone arch overhead, mostly human but also including dogs and birds. The area around Dysert is rich with archaeological remains, which can be seen by following a guided trail. Among them are a round tower from the 10th or 12th century, a very fine 12th-century high cross, a holy well, a 14th-century battlefield, and a stone fort, which dates from the Iron Age.
On the drive from Corofin to Lemanagh Castle, you pass Lough Inchiquin, an excellent location for salmon and trout fishing and also popular with walkers. The mostly ruined Inchiquin Castle which overlooks the lake was built in 1459 for the powerful O’Brien family. The rather errie looking Lemenagh Castle, another stronghold of the ubiquitous O’Briens, was originally a tower house much like those you have seen already to-day, but was extensively altered and enlarged in the early 1600s by Conor O’Brien, to become an impressive fortified house.
The area from here to Ballyvaughan is probably the most archaeologically rich in the Burren, and sites such as Caherconnell Stone Fort indicate that there have been people living here for thousands of years. The visitor centre here gives a very good introduction to the various sites in the area and is worth stopping at.
Caherconnell Fort itself is an excellent example of a ring fort, which would have been not a military defense but an enclosure where a family could live safely with their animals. It dates back to the 4th century AD and was probably lived in for hundreds of years.
Back on the Ballyvaughan Road our next stop is one that is very busy in high season but worth persevering with. The Poulnabrone Dolmen (the name means “hole of the Sorrows”), a megalithic tomb that dates from about 3500 BC, is the most outstanding of Ireland’s many dolmens, impressive stone monuments erected over the graves of the dead. Excavations in the 1980’s found that at least 22 adults and children were buried here, along with personal items including a polished stone axe, a bone pendant, quartz crystals, weapons and pottery. It’s a remarkable structure, and a place that seems to really leave a lasting impression.
Evening
Visit Kilkee – Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Centre, Scattery Island Monastery boat trip, Vandeleur Walled Garden, Doonaha beach, lighthouse and fort, Carrigaholt Castle and Rinevella Beach, Loop Head Lighthouse, Doonbeg beach, fort and Golf Club, and Spanish Point Beach.
Evening
Coole Park and Thoor Ballylee
“The beauty, the romance of our Seven Woods,
the mysteries of the ebbing and flowing lake are dear to me,
have been well loved, and are now in hands
that will care and tend them it is likely for ever”
– Lady Gregory, 26th May 1929
Coole is at the centre of a rare and complex wetland system that is considered to be of global importance. The system includes underground rivers, seasonal lakes (turloughs), springs and swallow holes. Situated in the low-lying karstic limestone region west of Gort, Co Galway the nature reserve covers an area of approximately 400 hectares (1000 acres) where wetland and woodland meet.
Coole Park, in the early 20th century, was the centre of the Irish Literary Revival. William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge and Sean O’ Casey all came to experience its magic. They and many others carved their initials on the Autograph Tree, an old Copper beech still standing in the walled garden today.
At that time it was home to Lady Gregory, dramatist and folklorist. She is perhaps best known as a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre with Edward Martyn of nearby Tullira Castle and Nobel prize-winning poet William Butler Yeats. The seven woods celebrated by W.B. Yeats are part of the many kilometres of nature trails taking in woods, river, turlough, bare limestone and Coole lake.
Kinvara is a good place for craft shops and the harbour is very pretty and gets photographers excited! If you are lucky you may see one of the traditional local boats, known as Galway Hookers (yes, really!), out on the sea here.
Dunguaire Castle just outside the town is a typical 16th century “domestic scale” castle with fortified walls, in a lovely setting right on the shore of Galway Bay. It was occupied until about the 1950s but is now in the hands of the state and nicely restored. A tour gives a very interesting view of how people lived in this type of dwelling and in the evening a Medieval Banquet is held here, something to consider for the return journey this evening perhaps.
Evening
Check-in to Shannon Airport hotel for overnight stay and rest before returning home the next day