9 Best Sights in County Clare, Galway, and the Aran Islands, Ireland

After a number of tit-for-tat burning of castles by the Normans and local chieftains on or nearby the current castle, the McNamara clan built the existing 15th-century Bunratty Castle. It was once the stronghold of the O'Brien family who became the Earls of Thomond before they left Ireland in the 17th century for a change of identity and cozier lifestyle in England, but the castle is the park's highlight. It's now fully restored to its former glory, including everything from its carefully chosen period furniture to its "murder holes" that allowed defenders to pour boiling oil on attackers below. The views across the Shannon River from over the battlements are spectacular. Bunratty Folk Park has a carefully planned reconstruction of a typical 19th-century village, which comes complete with school, haberdashery, and, of course, a fully stocked Mac's Pub. Other highlights scattered about the park include the Shannon Farmhouse, the park's first exhibit, which was transported stone by stone from a site earmarked for Shannon Airport's main runway, and the 1898 Hazelbrook House, which was the home of Ireland's most famous ice-cream producers. Pa's Pet Farm and the Fairy Trail keep younger visitors intrigued. The castle runs epic annual events at Halloween and Christmastime. A café and high-end gift store at the entrance to the park has good-quality lunch bites.

Visit Bunratty Castle first as it is the earliest attraction to close (at 4 pm, to facilitate the evening banquets).

Though not the tallest cliffs in Ireland, these giant bastions of Irish tourism feature high on the bucket list of visitors to Ireland because of one undeniable fact; they're magnificent. Reaching a colossal height of over 700 feet and looming over 8 km (5 miles) of County Clare's jagged coastline, they offer panoramic views across the seaboard from County Kerry to County Galway. Numerous colonies of seabirds, including puffins and guillemots, make their homes in the shelves of rock on the cliffs.

The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience—a grass-roof, subterranean visitor center built into the cliff face—is a good refuge from passing rain squalls. The interior imitates the limestone caves of County Clare and contains a gift shop, public toilets, and a tearoom. The Atlantic Edge exhibition features information panels and interactive consoles for children; the highlight is the Ledge, a vertiginous virtual reality tour of the cliffs from a bird's-eye view. Outside the center, extensive hiking paths (some with elevated viewing platforms) give access to the real thing, including O'Brien's Tower, a 19th-century folly built on the cliffs' highest point (€2 extra for access to upper levels and O'Brien exhibit) at the northern extremity. Parking is on the opposite side of the R478; access is by a pedestrian crossing. Pedestrians may be asked to pay admission for the use of the visitor facilities.

Take the Cliffs of Moher cruise from Doolin or Liscannor for a different perspective of the cliffs below the giant stacks.

At the first hint of sunshine, locals drop everything and flock to Lahinch's Blue Flag beach, a wide, sandy crescent about 2½ km (1½ miles) long, facing southwest onto the Atlantic Ocean. The most popular beach in County Clare, it has a good selection of facilities (even off-season), but it can get crowded---the trick is to arrive early. The beach has long been a family favorite, offering safe bathing and ideal conditions for beginner surfers. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); toilets; water sports. Best for: sunset; surfing; swimming; walking.

A vast 2-million-year-old cave, Aillwee is the biggest and most impressive chamber in the region accessible to those who aren't spelunkers. Illuminated for about 3,300 feet, the cave contains an underground river and waterfall. Aboveground, there are a big crafts shop, cheese-making demonstrations, a café, and the Burren Birds of Prey Centre, which puts on flying displays from eagles, falcons, hawks, and owls daily at noon and 3 pm (weather permitting). Discounts available if you book online.

The largest open space in central Galway and the arrival and departure point by train and bus, this is a favorite chill-out spot on a sunny day for students, visitors, and lunching locals. Eyre Square on the east side of the River Corrib incorporates a sculpture garden and children's play area, while its west side is bound by a heavily traveled road. In the center is Kennedy Park, a patch of lawn named in honor of John F. Kennedy, who spoke here when he visited the city in June 1963. At the north end of the park, a 20-foot-high steel sculpture standing in the pool of a fountain represents the brown sails seen on Galway hookers, the area's traditional sailing boats. Now a feature of Kennedy Park, the Browne Doorway was taken in 1905 from the Browne family's town house on Upper Abbeygate Street; it has the 17th-century coats of arms of both the Browne and Lynch families (two of Galway's 14 founding families).

The city's civic museum, housed in a modern building behind the Spanish Arch, contains materials relating to local history: old photographs, antiquities (the oldest is a stone ax head carbon-dated to 3500 BC), and a full-scale Galway hooker (turf-carrying boat) in the stairwell, as well as information on the city's involvement in Ireland's 1916 Rising. On the top floor, there's a child-friendly ocean-life museum with panoramic Corrib River views. Its café, the Kitchen, is a lively lunch and coffee spot.

This wide, sweeping, crescent-shape, sandy beach is cradled by the town's rocky contours and slopes down gently to the ocean. It was a favorite of author Charlotte Brontë. The absence of a strong current means that it's one of the safest swimming spots on the west coast. Amenities: none. Best for: swimming, walking.

A lively, hugely popular seaside resort, Salthill is beloved for its old-fashioned seaside promenade—the traditional place "to sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh, and see the sun go down on Galway Bay," as Bing Crosby used to croon in the most famous song about the city. Today locals use it for a routine run from the city center or weekend leap into the ocean from its diving boards. The main attraction of the village, set 3 km (2 miles) west of Galway, is the long sandy beach along the edge of Galway Bay and the promenade above it. New hotels, trendy restaurants, and craft beer pubs along the seafront have nevertheless left plenty of room for the traditional amusement arcades (full of slot machines), seasonal cafés, and a fairground.

It's a strange experience to walk across the little wooden bridge above reeds rippling in the lake into Ireland's Celtic past as an aircraft passes overhead on its way into Shannon Airport—1,500 years of history compressed into an instant. But if you love all things Celtic, you'll have to visit the Craggaunowen Project. The romantic centerpiece is Craggaunowen Castle, a 16th-century tower house restored with furnishings from the period. It was a retreat for "Honest" Tom Steele, a local squire who famously canvassed Pope Pius VII to change his religion before he had a change of heart and became a key figure in Catholic emancipation. Look for Steele’s initials carved into a stone quoin outside the castle. Huddling beneath its battlements are two replicas of early Celtic-style dwellings. On an island in the lake, reached by a narrow footbridge, is a clay-and-wattle crannóg, a fortified lake dwelling; it resembles what might have been built in the 6th or 7th century, when Celtic influence still predominated in Ireland. The reconstruction of a small ring fort shows how an ordinary soldier would have lived in the 5th or 6th century, at the time Christianity was being established here. Characters from the past explain their Iron Age (500 BC–AD 450) lifestyle, show you around their small holding stocked with animals, and demonstrate crafts skills from bygone ages. Be sure to check out the Brendan boat, a hide vessel used by explorer Tim Severn to test, and prove, the legend that Irish St. Brendan discovered America in a curragh boat almost a millennium before Christopher Columbus.

The park is hilly in parts, particularly near the wild boar compound. Bring comfortable walking shoes.