Cliffs of Moher: tickets, getting there from Galway, boat trips and walks

The Cliffs of Moher are a wall of dark rock on the Atlantic coast of County Clare, dropping straight into the sea for about 14 km. On a clear day you can see the Aran Islands across the water. On a foggy day you can see the fog. The practical side has changed in the last few years: online tickets, a two-hour entry window, and long stretches of the coastal path closed. Below: tickets and hours, getting there from Galway (and Dublin), the boat from Doolin, O’Brien’s Tower, which walks are actually open, then the geology, the birds, the legends and the films.

Where are the Cliffs of Moher?

The Cliffs of Moher are on the west coast of Ireland, in County Clare. They run north from Hag’s Head, near the village of Liscannor, to Doolin at the northern end. They sit just south-west of the Burren, and the two are managed together as the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark. (They’re not in Northern Ireland, and not in County Galway, whatever the day-tour listings imply.)

Fact	Figure
Length	About 14 km (9 miles)
Highest point	214 m (702 ft), just north of O’Brien’s Tower
Height at Hag’s Head	120 m (390 ft)
Rock	Namurian shale and sandstone, about 313–326 million years old
Branaunmore sea stack	67 m, below O’Brien’s Tower
Visitor center opened	February 2007
Visitors	About 1.1 million in 2022 (41 percent from the United States)

The name comes from a promontory fort called Mothar or Moher, which stood on Hag’s Head until the early 19th century, according to Wikipedia’s Cliffs of Moher article. So the cliffs are named after a fort that isn’t there anymore.

Cliffs of Moher tickets: prices and what’s included

Every visit to the main cliff-top area goes through the Cliffs of Moher Experience, the visitor center. Prices as listed on the official admission page in November 2026:

Gate rates (no online booking)

Ticket	2026	2027
Adult	€15	€16
Student	€12	€13
Senior (65+)	€12	€13
Family (2 adults + 2 children under 12)	€30	€32

2027 online rates

Ticket	Peak	Off-peak	Late evening (summer)
Adult	€14	€9	€7
Student	€11	€7	€6
Senior	€11	€7	€6
Family	€28	€18	€14

For 2026 the site shows online prices through its booking calculator rather than a fixed table. They’re below the gate rate, and the site advertises savings of up to 45 percent at off-peak times. Book online. It’s the easiest money you’ll save all trip.

What the ticket includes: parking, the visitor center with its exhibition and theater, about 800 m of paved paths and viewing areas, O’Brien’s Tower and its rooftop viewing, the audio guide and app, restrooms, Wi-Fi, a water refill station, and loans of binoculars and picnic blankets. Each ticket allows a two-hour visit from your entry time.

Rules worth knowing:

• Children under 12 go free with a parent or guardian, up to four per family.
• Groups of 10 or more arriving by coach must book through the groups department.
• Dogs are welcome on a lead but aren’t allowed in the visitor center unless they’re registered guide or support dogs.
• If you don’t book online, you pay the full gate rate.

Can you visit the Cliffs of Moher for free, or without a tour?

You don’t need a tour at all. You can drive yourself, or take the public bus from Galway (below). Free is another matter. The main cliff-top area, with the paths, the viewing platforms and O’Brien’s Tower, is reached through the visitor center, and the official FAQ tells you to book a ticket. Your ticket is also your parking. Children under 12 are the only free entry. The open stretch of coastal path from Doolin is a public walk, but as of August 2026 it stops at Surfers Path and doesn’t reach the visitor center.

Opening hours and the best time to visit

Months	Opening hours
May–August	8am–9pm
March, April, September, October	8am–7pm
November–February	9am–5pm

Peak time is 11am to 4pm from March to October (11am to 3pm in winter). Arrive before 11am or after 4pm and it’s cheaper online and less crowded. From May to August, a late-evening ticket covers 6pm to 9pm.

The cliffs face due west, and the official site suggests sunset as the best time to visit. Here’s the catch in June: the sun sets after 10pm, an hour after the visitor center closes at 9pm. The FAQ says the car park exit barrier lifts automatically after closing, so you can stay on for the light. Just bring a layer.

Cliffs of Moher weather: what to wear

It’s an exposed cliff top on the Atlantic, so plan for wind first and rain second. The official FAQ says to check the forecast before you come, expect it to change, and wear good walking shoes. It also says umbrellas aren’t recommended, because when it rains it’s usually too windy to use one. (Leave it in the car. Really.)

Fog is the big one. It can hide the cliffs completely, and the site can’t offer a discount for weather. What it does offer: if you’re staying nearby, you can reuse your ticket within 24 hours when it’s foggy. That’s a good reason to stay a night in Clare instead of trying to do it all in one day.

The short packing list: a waterproof jacket with a hood, a warm layer under it even in summer, shoes with grip, and binoculars if you want the puffins (the visitor center lends them too).

How the Cliffs of Moher formed, and how tall they are

The cliffs are layers of shale and sandstone, sedimentary rock laid down in the Upper Carboniferous period. The official FAQ puts it at 319 million years ago; Wikipedia gives a range of about 313 to 326 million. Up to 200 m of it is exposed in the cliff face, and the Atlantic has been cutting it back ever since.

At their highest, just north of O’Brien’s Tower, the cliffs are 214 m (702 feet). At Hag’s Head, the southern end, they’re 120 m (390 feet). The Burren to the north-east is a different rock, Visean limestone, about 325 million years old. The cliffs are one of the geosites of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark.

How to get to the Cliffs of Moher from Galway

By car. The cliffs are roughly 75 km from Galway city, about an hour and a half by car, according to The World Was Here First. The scenic route follows the N67 around Galway Bay through Kinvara and Ballyvaughan, then over Corkscrew Hill or along the coast road past Fanore to Lisdoonvarna and Doolin. Park in the main car park opposite the visitor center; parking is included in your ticket.

By bus. Two public bus routes run from Galway, as listed on the official How to Get Here page:

• Bus Éireann 350: Galway Bus Station via Kinvara, Ballyvaughan and Doolin to the Cliffs of Moher coach park, continuing to Ennis. Up to ten services a day each way in summer.
• TFI Local Link 351: Galway to the Cliffs of Moher, four services a day each way, with extra stops on the coast.

By coach tour. Day tours run year-round from Galway, Ennis, Limerick, Cork and Dublin.

In summer without a car. The free Burren and Cliffs of Moher Explorer shuttle runs hop-on, hop-off stops across the Burren and the cliffs.

Cliffs of Moher from Dublin: is a day trip worth it?

The cliffs are on the opposite side of the country from Dublin. Route planners put it at roughly 255 to 275 km by road, depending on where in Dublin you start (Rome2rio gives 254 km), which is about 3 hours each way by car.

You can do it in a day. The official site notes that Dublin day tours usually leave at 7am and get back at 7pm or later, with at least seven hours on the bus. Honestly? That’s a lot of bus for two hours on a cliff, and if the fog comes in, you’ve got nothing. If you can, stay a night or two in Clare. You’ll get far more time at the cliffs, and the 24-hour fog rule starts working for you.

Cliffs of Moher boat trip

To see the cliffs from the water, Doolin Ferry Co runs cruises from Doolin Pier. According to Discover Ireland:

• The cruise takes about one hour.
• It covers roughly 6 km of coastline under cliffs rising over 214 m.
• It passes the Great Sea Stack (Branaunmore), home to thousands of seabirds.
• Cruises run hourly in season, from Doolin Pier (V95 DR74).
• You can combine a cruise with a crossing to the Aran Islands.

Sailings depend on the weather and the sea, so keep a back-up day if the boat is the thing you most want. Our Doolin guide has the ferry times to the islands.

O’Brien’s Tower

O’Brien’s Tower is the stone tower near the highest point of the cliffs, north of the visitor center. Sir Cornelius O’Brien built it in 1835. Entry and the rooftop viewing are included in the standard ticket. The highest point of the cliffs, 214 m, is just north of the tower, and the Branaunmore sea stack stands at the foot of the cliffs below it.

Cliffs of Moher walking trail: what’s open in 2026

This is the bit that catches people out. Much of the coastal walk between Liscannor and Doolin is closed. As of 1 August 2026, the official coastal walk page says:

Section	Status (1 August 2026)
Visitor center loop	Open. About 3.5 km round trip: north past O’Brien’s Tower for about 1 km and back, then south to the Southern Viewing Platform (1.5 km round trip).
North of O’Brien’s Tower	An 800 m stretch open; part of it was resurfaced in 2025 as an enclosed route.
Southern section, Liscannor/Hag’s Head to the visitor center (6 km)	Fully closed due to severe safety concerns. No access from Liscannor or from the visitor center.
Northern section from Doolin	Open from Doolin only as far as Surfers Path; turn back there. No access to the visitor center from Doolin. Don’t walk on the road at Surfers Path.

Why is it closed? The official page gives one reason for the southern section: severe safety concerns. It doesn’t go into more detail, so we won’t guess. The status has changed before and will again, so check the page the week you go.

Guided walk from Doolin. Pat Sweeney, a local farmer and historian, runs the Doolin Cliff Walk, about 9 km and about 4 hours along the coast, crossing two sections of his farm and finishing near the highest point of the cliffs. Contact him for current dates and route status.

Safety. The official site’s rules are simple: stay on designated paths at all times, never go beyond walls or barriers, and respect closures and fencing. Nobody’s photo is worth the edge.

Hag’s Head

Hag’s Head is the southern end of the Cliffs of Moher. The rock is said to look like a woman’s head gazing out to sea. On top stands the ruin of Moher Tower, on the site of the old Mothar fort that gave the cliffs their name, and there’s a natural arch. With the southern walk closed in 2026, you can’t reach Hag’s Head on foot from the visitor center; check the official site for any change.

Cliffs of Moher vs Slieve League or the Giant’s Causeway

People ask this a lot, and the honest answer depends on where you’re staying.

	Cliffs of Moher	Slieve League	Giant’s Causeway
Where	County Clare, west coast	County Donegal, north-west coast	County Antrim, Northern Ireland (UK)
What it is	A 14 km wall of sea cliffs	Some of the highest sea cliffs in Europe	About 40,000 basalt columns at the sea’s edge
Height	214 m at the highest	601 m (the mountain’s summit)	Low; it’s a shoreline, not a cliff
Rock	Shale and sandstone, about 319 million years old	—	Volcanic basalt, about 50–60 million years old

Slieve League is the bigger cliff by a long way. Wikipedia calls them the second-highest sea cliffs in Ireland, after Croaghaun in County Mayo. The usual viewpoint is Bunglass, reached by a narrow road from Teelin. If you want height and fewer people, and you’re already in Donegal, go.

The Giant’s Causeway is a different thing entirely: interlocking columns from an ancient volcanic eruption, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, mostly owned and run by the National Trust, per Wikipedia. It’s in Northern Ireland, so it’s part of the UK.

If you’re based in Clare or Galway, the Cliffs of Moher win on logistics alone. If you’re doing a big loop of the whole island, there’s no rule against seeing all three.

Birds at the Cliffs of Moher

The cliffs hold about 30,000 pairs of seabirds of more than 20 species in the breeding season. The official site lists razorbills, Atlantic puffins, guillemots, fulmars, gannets, shags, cormorants, choughs, ravens, swallows and finches. The cliffs are a Special Protection Area for birds.

Puffins. According to the official FAQ, puffins arrive at the end of March and stay until mid-July, and May and June are the best months to see them. Binoculars are on loan at the visitor center, and the boat trip from Doolin gets you much closer.

The legends of the Cliffs of Moher

The cliffs have several old stories. The official myths page tells four:

1. The Leap of Foals (Aill na Searrach). After Christianity came to Ireland, the old gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann, turned themselves into horses and hid in caves at Kilcornan for centuries. When seven foals finally came out into the sunlight, they panicked, galloped along the cliff edge and fell. The place is still called the Cliff of the Foals.
2. Mal and Cú Chulainn. The witch Mal fell for the hero Cú Chulainn, who didn’t want her, and chased him down the coast. Near the mouth of the Shannon he jumped to a rock called Diarmuid and Grainne’s Rock. Mal tried to follow and fell to her death. Her blood is said to have named Malbay (Miltown Malbay), and the rocks at Hag’s Head are said to show her profile. (Not a great advertisement for chasing a man down a cliff.)
3. The Mermaid of Moher. A fisherman caught a mermaid near the cliffs and hid the magic cloak she needed to return to the sea. She married him and they had two children. Years later she found the cloak, went back to the sea and never returned. It’s the same pattern as the selkie stories: a stolen skin or cloak, a marriage, a return to the sea.
4. The lost city of Kilstiffen (Cill Stuifin). A city sank beneath the sea when a chieftain lost the golden key to its castle, and it stays under the water until the key is found. Some say it rises every seven years, and whoever sees it will die before it rises again.

These stories, and the fae romance that draws on them, are why the cliffs are on our trip. Our guide to fae romance books covers modern fiction built on Irish myth.

Films shot at the Cliffs of Moher

The official filming page lists seven films that used the cliffs:

Film	How the cliffs appear
The Princess Bride (1987)	The Cliffs of Insanity
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)	The cave sequence, when Harry and Dumbledore go to the cave
Ryan’s Daughter	Listed by the cliffs
Leap Year	Listed by the cliffs
Into the West (1992)	Listed by the cliffs
Hear My Song	Listed by the cliffs
The Mackintosh Man	Listed by the cliffs

A lot of websites overstate what was filmed here. In The Princess Bride, the Cliffs of Moher are the establishing shot of the Cliffs of Insanity. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the cliffs appear in the cave sequence, but the rock Harry and Dumbledore stand on was a separate island off County Kerry, combined with the cliffs digitally, and the cave interior was a set. Our Cliffs of Insanity guide goes through both films scene by scene.

Where to stay near the Cliffs of Moher

The nearest villages are Liscannor to the south and Doolin to the north. Doolin is the better base if you want traditional music every night and the ferry to the islands. Ballyvaughan, on Galway Bay at the north edge of the Burren, works if you want to pair the cliffs with Poulnabrone and Aillwee Cave. Any of them beats a 3-hour drive back to Dublin.

The Cliffs of Moher on our trip

On our Midsummer in the Burren trip, 17 to 25 June 2028, we come to the Cliffs of Moher on foot from the quiet end. The trip page describes a 3-hour walk with a local farmer from Doolin up to the cliffs, telling the legends of the mermaid of Moher and Hag’s Head on the way, then St Brigid’s holy well at Liscannor, and dinner and traditional music in Doolin. They’re also the Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride, which suits a group that’s spent five months reading romance and myth before arriving.