Cliffs of Moher experience

As a former geographer, I’m all for visiting coastal and great geographical features, and the Cliffs of Moher is on many people’s to visit lists when in Ireland.

Running for 14km along the southwest side of County Clare, the cliffs are a sight to see. If you’re a big walker you can walk along the coastal route. You do need to look out for closures though; there were quite areas closed that we saw signposted on our drive up to the cliffs. So it’s worth checking before you set off how far you can get.

Visiting the Cliffs of Moher

We stuck with just visiting the Cliffs of Moher experience, and the relatively short walk straight up rather than going too far either direction (much to N’s consternation, as he said he’d have liked to have walked further along away from the crowds).  

It is a popular tourist attraction (best visitor attraction in Ireland 2023), so get there early to avoid all the crowds and tour buses that come.  We left just before 11 and it was really getting packed with people by then.

We paid for our entrance in advance – it’s said you can save 70%, although I’m not convinced. Children under 13 are free, for the 2 of us to go it cost £14 for the early morning off peak slot which is before 11. There’s an off peak later afternoon slot for the same price too. But the prices are reasonable for entry, parking and the visitor centre, as well as a raft of other inclusions like (evidently) picnic blankets and binoculars on loan.  

There’s also a free visitor app and audio guide you can download, although we didn’t bother.

The car park was quite well organised (they couldn’t find my booking for a while because I didn’t get ticket order confirmation, just an email saying thanks for booking and welcome). But they found me in the end, so we had our booking exchanged for our tickets, and could start our walk across the road and up towards the cliffs and the visitor centre.

There are disabled spaces nearer within the coach park, because the car park is a little walk away.  For going up the pathways to see the views, it’s a little steep. Those who struggle to walk, can use the shuttle bus service which takes people to the top and down again.

We decided to walk the pathways and steps to O’Briens tower, checking out the views of the vertical drop cliffs on the way.

When we’d driven over I’d worried how foggy it was, but we were lucky how it had cleared when approaching. The cliffs are spectacular to see.

On the walk up there’s a few information boards, mainly about busking at the cliffs, although we didn’t see anyone on our visit.

The O’Briens Tower overlooks the cliffs, and is open to people to go up. N said it was too busy when he went to investigate, so we just wandered around instead.

After we’d had our fill of a bracing walk, we headed down to the visitor centre.

The Visitor Centre

In there you can find out more about the wildlife and how the cliffs were formed, the people and how they’ve coped over the years living and working nearby. It was really interesting finding out more about the area.

For children there are interactive games to play to learn more about the wildlife there too. 

We also went into The Ledge experience which is a virtual reality film where you get to see what it would be like to be a bird around the cliffs, including under the sea. This was probably my favourite part of the experience in the centre. Although maybe not if you get dizzy, as a couple of people left very early on in the film.

We decided to move on elsewhere to get some food as it was a bit early for lunch. But there’s snacks and drinks from the Puffins Nest Cafe, and the larger Cliffs View Cafe as well.

On the walk back out to the exit to the car park, there are also a few shops on Craftworker’s Street set into the hill. These are where you can buy knitted items, printed t shirts, jewellery or music as souvenirs of your Ireland trip. It’s nice to see something like that for local craftspeople, rather than just the usual gift shop (there’s one of those as well).

It was a nice visit to be able to get outside, and see the cliffs. But also the drive through The Burren and small villages coming in. N could keep a look at for Simmenthal cows he was hoping to see. And on the way out we headed off onto the Wild Atlantic Way. The route is 2500km of coastal roads and views through smaller villages and towns on the west side of Ireland, on towards Galway.

Watch out for more of our Ireland holiday posts coming up.