Cliffs of Moher
Atlantic Sea Cliffs Rising To About 214 M And Running About 8 Km; Part Of The Burren And Cliffs Of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark · Liscannor, Clare
The Cliffs of Moher are Ireland's most visited natural sight: a wall of dark shale and sandstone that rises straight out of the Atlantic to about 214 m and runs for roughly 8 km along the County Clare coast between Hag's Head and the Doolin end. People come for the scale of it - the layered rock faces, the sea stacks, the seabirds wheeling below the path, the Aran Islands and Galway Bay on the horizon - and for the drama of standing on the edge of Europe in an Atlantic gale. The main site is the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, a centre dug into the hillside so it barely shows, with paved paths north to O'Brien's Tower and south towards Hag's Head. The cliffs sit inside the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark and appeared in The Princess Bride and a Harry Potter film. The honest caveat: on a foggy day you see nothing at all, the central viewing area is packed with coach tours from late morning in summer, and the edges beyond the official paths are undercut and have killed people.
Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, R478 between Liscannor and Doolin, County Clare, Liscannor, Clare, Ireland
Open all year; the Visitor Experience opens from about 08:00-09:00 and closes between about 17:00 in winter and 19:00-21:00 in summer, and it usually closes for a few days around Christmas - confirm. Entry is paid per adult and includes parking; tickets bought online in advance are cheaper and cover a time slot. By car it is about 1 hour 15 minutes from Shannon Airport, 1.5 hours from Galway and 3.5 hours from Dublin; Bus Eireann runs a Galway-Doolin-Cliffs-Ennis route (confirm times) and many day tours come from Galway and Dublin. Book boat cruises from Doolin ahead in summer.