Best Historic Places in County Galway, Ireland - Map and Reviews

Tyrone House stands on an outcrop by the sea, about two miles from Kilcolgan village in Ireland's County Galway. The structure is now a roofless and windowless ruin, made of blue-cut limestone, and stands three storeys high. Wild ivy covers its walls, It stands high on rocky soil, its front facing south to the Atlantic, with the Kilcolgan River beyond the woods to the north. It is easily visible from all around. Facilities Tyrone House can be viewed by the public from the outside. The house has commanding views over the surrounding Galway countryside. The House was built in 1779. It was originally owned by Christopher St. George. It was the personal home of the family. The building was one of the largest homes in the country, with the property growing at one point in the 19th century to 53,000 acres. However, it was destroyed in 1920 by arson during the Irish War of Independence by the local IRA unit. It was never rebuilt, and remained in abandon until 1972, when the Irish Georgian Society acquired it.

Inisheer Lighthouse stands at the southern tip of Inis Oírr (Inisheer), the smallest of the three Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland in County Galway. Perched dramatically on a low rocky promontory where the Atlantic swells roll in from the open ocean, this lighthouse has guided mariners through the treacherous waters between the Aran Islands and the Clare coastline for well over a century. The lighthouse marks the approach to the sound between Inisheer and the Burren coast, a stretch of water notorious for its unpredictable currents, submerged rocks, and the sudden squalls that blow in off the Atlantic. It is a structure that speaks directly to the maritime dangers inherent in life on the westernmost fringe of Europe. The lighthouse was constructed by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, the body responsible for managing aids to navigation around the Irish coast, and it became operational in 1857. It was built during a period of sustained lighthouse construction along Ireland's western seaboard, as growing transatlantic trade and emigration traffic made safe navigation ever more urgent. The tower is relatively modest in height — approximately 34 metres above sea level at the focal point of its light — but its position on a low-lying island means it is highly visible to vessels approaching from both the south and west. Like many Irish lighthouses of its era, it was originally kept by resident keepers and their families, a way of life that shaped the social fabric of island communities. The lighthouse was later automated, removing the need for permanent keepers and leaving the tower as a largely mechanical sentinel. Physically, the lighthouse presents as a white-painted cylindrical tower attached to a compact keeper's dwelling, forming the classic ensemble of Irish Lights stations along the western coast. The stonework is solid and weathered, built to endure the relentless battering of Atlantic storms that define life on the Aran Islands between October and April. The light itself rotates with a distinctive characteristic that mariners use to distinguish it from other lights in the region, and on clear nights it casts a sweeping beam across the dark water. Standing beside the tower, the soundscape is dominated by the crash and hiss of waves on limestone rock, the cry of seabirds wheeling overhead, and on quieter days the soft whisper of wind through coarse island grass. The wider setting of the lighthouse is defined by the extraordinary limestone karst landscape of Inis Oírr, which shares the geological character of the nearby Burren on the Clare mainland. The island is tiny — barely three kilometres at its widest — and intensely intimate, with its fields divided by ancient dry-stone walls that predate written record. Just a short distance from the lighthouse lies one of Inisheer's most poignant landmarks, the wreck of the MV Plassy, a cargo vessel that ran aground in 1960 during a fierce storm. Remarkably, all crew were saved by the islanders who formed a human chain to drag them ashore. The rusted hulk of the Plassy has since been pushed high above the waterline by successive storms and is now one of the most-photographed sights in all of Ireland, made famous internationally as the opening image in the television series Father Ted. The area around the lighthouse and the southern shore offers some of the island's most dramatic coastal scenery. The water in the sheltered cove near the lighthouse can take on remarkable shades of turquoise and aquamarine when sunlight strikes the sandy seabed, giving the impression of a Mediterranean setting that surprises most first-time visitors. Beyond the immediate shoreline, the island rises slightly toward its centre where the medieval tower of Caisleán Uí Bhriain (O'Brien's Castle) crowns a low hill, and the ancient oratory of Teampall Chaomháin is half-buried in the sand — a site of ongoing pilgrimage and folk veneration. The Clare coast and the Cliffs of Moher are visible on clear days to the east, and the larger Aran island of Inis Meáin lies to the northwest. Getting to the lighthouse requires first reaching Inis Oírr itself, which is accessible by ferry from Doolin in County Clare or from Ros an Mhíl (Rossaveal) in County Galway, with crossings typically taking between twenty minutes and one hour depending on the port of departure. Aer Arann also operates small aircraft flights from Connemara Airport to the island's grass airstrip, making for one of the most scenic short flights in Ireland. Once on the island, the lighthouse is easily reached on foot in under thirty minutes from the pier, following a well-worn path around the southern and eastern shore. There are no vehicle rental services for visitors, and walking or cycling are the primary means of exploring. The island has a small number of guesthouses, a hostel, and a campsite for those wishing to stay overnight and experience the lighthouse after dark. The best time to visit is late spring or early summer, when the wildflowers colour the limestone pavements, the Atlantic is somewhat calmer, and the ferry services run at their most frequent. July and August bring more visitors and livelier evenings in the island's single pub, while September retains warmth and quieter paths. Winter visits are possible but require careful planning around weather-dependent ferry cancellations. The lighthouse itself is not generally open to the public for interior access, as it is an automated operational aid to navigation, but the exterior and surrounding grounds are freely accessible and the short coastal walk to reach it is one of the loveliest on the island. Visitors with mobility difficulties should note that parts of the path are uneven limestone, though the general route is manageable for most walkers. One of the more haunting and little-known facts about the lighthouse vicinity is that the seabed around the southern tip of Inisheer is scattered with the evidence of centuries of shipwreck, as the sound between the island and the Clare coast claimed countless vessels before the lighthouse was built. The oral traditions of the island preserve stories of lights deliberately set to mislead ships — the practice known as wrecking — though historians treat such accounts with caution. What is unambiguous is that the lighthouse ended an era of maritime catastrophe in these waters and became an emblem of the state's commitment to safe passage along one of the most challenging stretches of coastline in western Europe. Today the lighthouse stands as a quietly powerful symbol at the edge of the Irish-speaking world, a place where modernity and ancient landscape coexist with unusual grace.

Slyne Head lighthouse stands at one of the most dramatic and remote promontories on the west coast of Ireland, occupying a cluster of small rocky islets known as the Slyne Head Archipelago at the very tip of the Connemara peninsula in County Galway. The lighthouse marks one of the most significant navigational turning points on the Irish coastline, where the Atlantic approaches shift for vessels rounding the corner between the open ocean and the sheltered waters leading toward Clifden and Galway Bay. It is a place of wild, elemental beauty, far removed from casual tourism, and it rewards those who make the effort to reach its vicinity with some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in all of western Europe. The lighthouse itself was established in 1836 by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, the authority responsible for all aids to navigation around the Irish coast. The structure was built in response to the persistent danger the headland posed to shipping, as the treacherous rocks and unpredictable Atlantic swells had claimed many vessels over the centuries. The light was originally operated by a resident keeper and his family, who lived in the adjoining keeper's cottages in extraordinary isolation, separated from the mainland by tidal channels and rough sea conditions for much of the year. Like most Irish lighthouses, Slyne Head was eventually automated, removing the need for permanent human habitation, and the keepers' era came to a close in 1990. The main lighthouse tower is a striking white painted stone structure rising from the bare rock, and there are twin towers on the site — an unusual arrangement reflecting the particular navigational challenges of the location. In person, Slyne Head is a place of raw sensory intensity. The wind is almost constant and can reach ferocious speeds during Atlantic storms, when waves of extraordinary height crash against the black Connemara granite. Even on relatively calm summer days, there is a persistent swell rolling in from thousands of kilometres of open ocean, and the sound of the sea is omnipresent — a deep, rhythmic booming punctuated by the cries of seabirds. The air carries a clean salt-heavy freshness that feels unlike anything found inland. The rocks themselves are ancient, worn smooth in places by millennia of wave action but jagged and sharp-edged where they rise above the tide line, encrusted with barnacles, limpets, and vivid orange lichen. The surrounding landscape is quintessential Connemara: a vast, low-lying bog and rock terrain stretching eastward toward the town of Clifden, roughly 20 kilometres away. The Twelve Bens mountains form a dramatic backdrop on clear days, their quartzite peaks catching the light in constantly shifting ways. The waters immediately around Slyne Head are extraordinarily rich in marine life, and the area is known among divers and wildlife enthusiasts for its clarity and biodiversity. Dolphins, grey seals, and basking sharks are regularly spotted in the surrounding waters during warmer months, and the skies are populated with gannets, fulmars, choughs, and various species of gull. The road to Slyne Head runs southwest from Clifden along the famous Sky Road and then continues down through the townland of Ballyconneely, eventually reaching the small settlement of Bunowen near the coast. From there, access becomes more challenging — the lighthouse itself sits on an islet separated from the mainland, and it cannot simply be walked to at will. Visitors typically come to appreciate the headland from the nearby coastal roads and viewpoints, and while the lighthouse tower itself is not open to the public as a visitor attraction in the conventional sense, the dramatic seascapes visible from the surrounding area make the journey entirely worthwhile. The Commissioners of Irish Lights do occasionally facilitate limited access for heritage and educational purposes. The best time to visit is late spring through early autumn, when the weather is most manageable, the days are long, and the coastal flora — including sea campion, thrift, and heather — is at its most vivid. That said, Slyne Head in winter storm conditions is an almost overwhelming spectacle for those properly equipped to experience it safely from the mainland shore. Photographers in particular are drawn here at all seasons, as the quality of Atlantic light at this latitude, especially near sunrise and sunset, produces conditions that are almost impossibly beautiful. The area around Ballyconneely and the Slyne Head peninsula is also close to the famous Coral Strand beach, which offers a gentler coastal experience as a complement to the drama of the headland itself. One of the more poignant hidden stories of Slyne Head concerns the lives of the lighthouse keepers and their families, who endured profound isolation in what was effectively a self-contained world on the rocks. Provisions had to be brought by tender boat, and during prolonged storms the keepers could be cut off entirely from the mainland for days or weeks. Letters and accounts from keepers' families describe both the hardships and an acute, almost mystical relationship with the sea and sky that few modern people will ever experience. The lighthouse also played a role in the early history of transatlantic wireless communication, as Marconi conducted radio experiments along this stretch of the Irish west coast in the early twentieth century, and the general area around Connemara was central to the development of long-distance wireless telegraphy.