Castles and Historic Sites in Co. Clare
7 places
1.Craggaunowen Castle & Crannóg
Bronze Age lake dwellings beside a 1550 castle
An open-air museum in the Clare countryside where a restored 1550 MacNamara castle stands over a reconstructed Bronze Age crannóg, ring fort and the leather boat Tim Severin sailed across the Atlantic.
- Highlights
- Reconstructed crannóg and roundhouses on a lake
- Restored 16th-century Craggaunowen Castle
- Tim Severin's Brendan Boat
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
2.Bunratty Castle & Folk Park
a 600-year-old castle and a 26-acre folk village
A restored 15th-century castle and a 26-acre "living" folk park where 19th-century Irish village life, farmhouses and fairy trails come together on the banks of the Shannon.
- Highlights
- Ireland's most complete restored medieval castle (1425)
- 26-acre folk park with 30+ buildings
- Costumed village characters and musicians
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
3.Doonagore Castle
A 16th-century tower house closed to the public
A round 16th-century tower house perched above Doolin Point, used by boats as a navigational aid — and famous for a very dark Spanish Armada story. It is privately owned, so you admire it from the outside.
- Highlights
- Round sandstone tower house with a bawn wall, one of the Burren's three cylindrical tower houses
- Panoramic views over Doolin Point and out to the Aran Islands
- Site of the 1588 Spanish Armada hangings
4.Loop Head Lighthouse
A 1670 lighthouse with 74 steps to the top
A working lighthouse has guarded the mouth of the Shannon since 1670, perched on a wind-battered Clare headland where Atlantic cliffs drop 90 metres to the sea. Climb the tower for views as far as the Blasket Islands and Connemara.
- Highlights
- Origins dating back to 1670
- One of two Wild Atlantic Way Signature Discovery Points in Clare
- 74-step climb to a 23 m tower and open balcony
5.Moher Fort Site Telegraph Station
Free 1808 watchtower at the cliffs' quiet tip
A roofless Napoleonic signal tower on Hag's Head, the southern tip of the Cliffs of Moher — the free, crowd-free viewpoint most coach tours never reach.
- Highlights
- Free, unstaffed Napoleonic watchtower on Hag's Head
- Panoramas to the Aran Islands, Galway Bay and Loop Head
- Built on the promontory fort Mothar that named the Cliffs of Moher
6.Caherconnell Stone Fort & Sheepdog Demonstrations
Only sheepdog demo beside a 1,000-year-old fort
A 1,000-year-old stone fort and County Clare's only sheepdog demonstration, set in a hidden valley in the heart of the Burren. Watch border collies work the hillside, then tour a remarkably preserved ring fort still yielding buried treasures.
- Highlights
- County Clare's only sheepdog demonstration, held daily
- A 1,000-year-old ring fort, still excavated each year
- Finds including Venetian glass, Baltic amber and the earliest pen in the British Isles
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
7.Poulnabrone Dolmen
a 5,800-year-old portal tomb on bare limestone
A dramatic portal tomb, the oldest dated megalithic monument in Ireland, standing alone on the Burren's bare limestone plateau.
- Highlights
- Portal tomb with a massive sloping capstone
- Oldest dated megalithic monument in Ireland
- Second most visited site in the Burren after the Cliffs of Moher
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access