Three of Ireland’s great drystone forts sit offshore here. Dún Aonghasa stands 100 metres above the Atlantic on the western edge of Inis Mór, its ramparts ending at the cliff, with an exhibition at the visitor centre. Dún Dúchathair, the Black Fort, is on the same island and usually far quieter, and Dún Chonchúir crowns the high point of Inis Meáin, free and unguided at any hour. All three need a ferry, so they are a day out rather than a stop on a drive.
On the mainland the sites fall roughly into a western group and an eastern one. Connemara’s cluster on Derrigimlagh bog south of Clifden, where a free 5 km loop takes in both the concrete mast bases of Marconi’s wireless station and the cairn marking where Alcock and Brown came down in 1919. Cromwell’s Barracks, a star fort of about 1656, lies off Inishbofin and is reached on foot only for the couple of hours the causeway is exposed around low tide.
East Galway runs to churches and institutions near the Shannon: the Romanesque doorway at Clonfert, carved around 1200, where the key comes from the caretaker’s house; the Franciscan foundation at Meelick, still a working parish church; and the Portumna workhouse, whose seven main buildings survive intact and are seen on guided tours. The Spanish Arch is the one you can simply walk to.
Perched 100 metres above the Atlantic on Inis Mór, its drystone ramparts and forest of limestone spikes make it the county's most dramatic prehistoric site.
Built in 1584 as an extension of the medieval city walls, it anchors the Long Walk and stands beside the free Galway City Museum.
A stone cairn on Derrigimlagh Bog marks where the first non-stop transatlantic flight ended in 1919, with a signposted loop past Marconi's wireless ruins.
43 of 45 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Inis Mór, galway
Perched 100 metres above the Atlantic, Dún Aonghasa dominates the western edge of Inis Mór with its massive drystone ramparts and a striking forest of limestone spikes. Visitors can walk the ancient pathways, explore a modern exhibition, and take in uninterrupted views across Galway Bay to the Connemara mountains.
Galway, galway
Two weathered stone arches frame the River Corrib where it meets the Atlantic, anchoring Galway’s Long Walk promenade. Built in 1584 as a defensive extension to the medieval city walls, the site survived a 1755 tsunami and now hosts street musicians, weekend markets and easy access to the free Galway City Museum.
Derrigimlagh Bog, galway
In Derrigimlagh Bog, south of Clifden, a stone cairn marks where Alcock and Brown landed their Vickers Vimy after the world’s first non-stop transatlantic flight. A tail-fin sculpture on nearby Errislannan Hill looks out over the bog and the Atlantic, and a signposted loop walk threads past the ruins of Guglielmo Marconi’s early wireless station.
Ardfry, galway
Ardfry House is the roofless shell of a Georgian-Gothic manor on a peninsula near Oranmore, built around 1770 for the Blake family and given its castle-like pinnacles in an 1826 remodel. Stripped of its roof lead to cover gambling debts, then re-roofed and deliberately burnt for the 1973 film The Mackintosh Man, it is now a fenced-off ruin at high risk of collapse. You view it from the public road or the seafront walk.
Renvyle, galway
At the western tip of the Renvyle peninsula, the roofless Church of the Seven Daughters keeps a pointed-arch north doorway, a single-light east window and a broken stone altar. Legend has a king, or an Omey Island chief, building it in thanks for the cure of seven daughters at the holy well up the track — the sisters then preached their way along the Connemara coast.
Claregalway, galway
The bell tower of Claregalway Friary has marked the Galway–Tuam road for five centuries. Founded around 1240 by the Norman knight John de Cogan, sacked in 1538 and later turned into a barracks, the ruined Franciscan house is free to enter and produced some of Gaelic Ireland's notable scholars.
Inishmore, galway
Clochan na Carraige is the only beehive hut left intact on Inishmore, a mortar-less dry-stone clochán with a corbelled roof and two opposing doorways, in a field signposted off the Kilmurvy–Sruthán road. The corbelling technique was used for thousands of years, so it can't be firmly dated, though it's usually called early Christian and tied to the island's pilgrim past. It's free, unguided and a quiet ten-minute stop on the way to Dún Aonghasa.
Clonfert, galway
Clonfert Cathedral stands where St Brendan the Navigator founded a monastery in the 6th century. Its west doorway, carved around 1200, is the finest piece of Romanesque stonework in Ireland, and Brendan's grave lies inside. The catch: the church is usually locked, and you collect the key from the caretaker's house to the right.
Inishbofin Island, galway
Cromwell's Barracks is a five-pointed star fort built around 1656 on Port Island, a tidal islet at the mouth of Inishbofin's harbour. The Cromwellians held captured Catholic priests here before shipping them to the West Indies, and Jacobite troops later held it until after the Battle of Aughrim in 1691. It's free, but you can only reach it on foot across a causeway that's exposed for about two hours around low tide.
Derrigimlagh, galway
Two firsts in long-distance communication happened on this one stretch of Connemara bog: Marconi's trans-Atlantic radio station and the crash-landing that ended Alcock and Brown's 1919 flight. A free 5 km loop links both across a blanket bog south of Clifden.
Doorus Peninsula, galway
One of Ireland's best-preserved wedge tombs sits on the Doorus Peninsula, about 3 km northwest of Kinvara. The roof stone still rests where its builders hauled it, the side stones haven't shifted, and a cairn of field stones still covers the chamber. Free, year-round, and usually empty.
Inis Meáin, galway
Dún Chonchúir is an oval drystone fort on the highest point of Inis Meáin, built sometime between the 1st and 7th centuries AD. Its inner wall still rises up to seven metres and once ran more than eight metres thick at the base – roughly 14,000 tonnes of limestone stacked without mortar. It is free, unguided and open all hours, with a full 360-degree sweep across the three Aran Islands.
Inis Mór, galway
Perched on a windswept promontory on Inis Mór, Dún Dúchathair is the quieter, equally dramatic alternative to Dún Aonghasa. Its stepped dry-stone walls and surviving beehive huts speak to centuries of island life, all set against the open Atlantic – and unlike its famous neighbour, you'll likely have it to yourself.
Errislannan, galway
A working Connemara pony stud and riding centre on a private peninsula south of Clifden, breeding from the same female bloodlines since 1960. Guided treks cross heather moor and beach on quiet, bitless ponies, and the charity gardens are open daily for a voluntary donation.
Portumna, galway
The Irish Workhouse Centre occupies the Portumna Workhouse, which opened in 1852 and survives with all seven of its main buildings intact – one of the most complete in Ireland. Guided tours run four times a day through the dormitories, kitchen and segregated yards, telling the story of the Poor Law system and the Great Famine.
Kilconnell, galway
Kilconnell Friary is a well-preserved Franciscan ruin in east Galway, founded by the O'Kelly lords of Uí Maine and reconstructed around 1414. Its highlights are the canopied O'Kelly tombs carved with angels and heraldry, a three-storey central tower and surviving cloister arcading – all free to visit, open daily.
Kiltartan, galway
Kiltartan is the south Galway parish where the Irish Literary Revival took root – Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats collected folklore in its fields and lanes. A restored 1892 schoolhouse now holds the Kiltartan Gregory Museum, and the ruins of the de Burgo tower house at Castletown stand a short way off. The crossroads itself is tied to the blind poet Raftery and his 'Beauty of Ballylee'.
Cleggan, galway
Knockbrack is a Neolithic court tomb above Sellerna Bay, its four-metre capstone still in place on a monument built into a field wall. An 800-metre walk out of Cleggan gets you there; it's free and open at any hour, best in the low light of early morning or late in the day.
Abbeyknockmoy, galway
Knockmoy Abbey was founded in 1189/90 by Cathal Crobhdearg Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht, after a vow before battle, and he was buried here in 1224. The north chancel wall holds 15th-century tempera wall-paintings, one of only four such survivals in Ireland, including the 'Three Living and Three Dead'. Reaching it means a stile and steps over a fence.
Letterfrack, galway
Kylemore Lough is a freshwater lake alongside the N59 in Connemara, under the slopes of the Twelve Bens. For most visitors it's a lake seen from the road or as the backdrop to Kylemore Abbey; anglers know it for the salmon and sea trout fished from Delphi Lodge on its eastern shore.
Streamstown Bay, galway
The Letterdeen Standing Stone is a single 1.6-metre granite pillar on a tidal salt marsh at the eastern edge of Streamstown Bay, about 3 km north-west of Clifden. It's a modest monument, and the reason to stop is the setting - a low flood plain opening onto the bay, with several other megaliths scattered nearby.
Derrigimlagh, galway
The first commercial transatlantic wireless messages left this Connemara bog in 1907, tapped out in Morse for a sister station in Nova Scotia. A free self-guided loop crosses the old site past concrete mast bases and interpretive panels, with the Twelve Bens on the skyline.
Meelick, galway
Founded as a Franciscan friary in 1414 and still an active parish church, Meelick has survived suppression, hiding and near-ruin on a quiet rise above the River Shannon. Its 17th-century memorial tablets, old graveyard and place on the Hymany Way make it a worthwhile stop, though it remains a working church rather than a visitor attraction.
Sruthán, galway
Despite the name, only two churches survive here, alongside what may be the only medieval pilgrim hostels left in Ireland and three weathered high crosses. A papal indulgence in 1607 made this the main pilgrimage site on the Aran Islands.
Portumna, galway
Completed in 1911, Portumna Swing Bridge carries the N65 over the River Shannon where Galway meets Tipperary. Its central 28-metre span still swings open on a set schedule to let boats through on Lough Derg, and the crossing is free and open all year.
Leam Bridge, galway
Leam Bridge, a rubble-stone double arch built around 1800, is where John Ford framed the opening of The Quiet Man in 1952. It's an unstaffed roadside stop 8 km west of Oughterard - pull into the lay-by, read the board, take the photo the film's fans come for, and don't pocket a stone, the bridge has needed repairs because people do.
Headford, galway
On the Black River near Headford, Ross Errilly is the most complete Franciscan friary ruin in Ireland. Founded around 1460, it kept its church, 1498 bell tower, two cloisters and domestic quarters through repeated confiscation, and entry to the OPW site is free.
Inis Oírr, galway
Drifting Atlantic sand buried this 10th-century church on Inis Oírr so deep that by the 1800s only a mound showed. Islanders dug it out, and today you step down into the chancel, below the graveyard around it, with the saint's sheltered grave close by.
Galway City, galway
Columbus lore holds that the explorer prayed within these medieval walls before setting sail. St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, completed in 1320, is the largest medieval parish church in Ireland still in continuous use, with a 15th-century bell tower and a façade crowded with carved mermaids, beasts and gargoyles.
University Road, galway
The 1849 Quadrangle, modelled on Christ Church in Oxford, is the reason most visitors come, and it costs nothing to walk into. Two small museums – geology and zoology – hide in the upper floors, and the River Corrib greenway runs along the campus edge.
galway
Inishmaan (Inis Meáin), galway
Inisheer (Inis Oírr), galway
Kinvara, galway
Creeragh, galway
Inisheer, galway
Creggs, galway
Ballygar, galway
University of Galway, galway
Inis Oírr (Inisheer), galway
Sylaun, galway
Galway, galway
Toombeola, galway
Bullaun, galway
Renvyle Peninsula, galway
← All things to do in County Galway
Book tours & tickets
We may earn a commission if you book through this link, at no extra cost to you.
Book tours, skip-the-line tickets and day trips with GetYourGuide. Free cancellation on most experiences.
See tours & tickets in County Galway →