I am wondering if it would be easy to do as a day trip from either Doolin or Galway. I'd rather stay in a smaller city than Galway. Considering staying in County Clare or County Galway for a couple nights and I would really like to see Clonmacnoise before flying home from the Shannon Airport. It seems a little out of the way but I'm very interested in it. Any tips on the best way to get there or the best town to stay in would be appreciated!
Posted by
San Jose, CA
1994 posts
It's beautiful and definitely worth the effort. Since it is a little out-of-the-way, it's also less crowded. We just stayed in the nearby town, and I remember a really beautiful walk along the river at sunset; it was very enjoyable. You ask about getting there – we drove; I'm not sure if there's public transportation.
Posted by
Chicagoland
279 posts
We drove up from Kilkenny to Clonmacnoise and then into Athlone, where we stayed the night. However, I did just google "Clonmacnoise tour from Galway" and found several options for day tours from the city, if you don't want to drive yourself.
It is a drive down a single-track road, but we had no problems finding it since we relied on our GPS to point us in the right way. It was the only time on our entire trip where we saw peat being cut, although it was being done by heavy-duty equipment, not by locals with a shovel.
Posted by
Massachusetts
398 posts
We did a day trip from Galway to Tullamore (for the whiskey!) and stopped at Clonmacnoise on our way back. It is definitely worth it, and definitely doable. You'll be on one of the few excellent highways for a good portion of that drive too, so it won't take as long as normally driving in Ireland.
We stayed in Galway, but I didn't really care for it. If your plan is to fly out from Shannon the next day, I would recommend finding a small town somewhere in between Athlone and Shannon (this will be mostly highway driving for you).
Posted by
OP
Seattle, WA
359 posts
Thank you everyone. We will be renting a car. It sounds like this is doable for a drive to and from in a day from various different bases. Also glad to know it's worth it. We will also be staying for a couple days in Kilkenny so I'll have to decide if I want to do the day trip from there or from the western coast.
Posted by
Chicagoland
279 posts
FYI, it was about a three hour drive from Kilkenny to Clonmacnoise, so it might be closer to Galway, especially since you will be on a motorway most of the way from the west coast. We did drive through some nice small towns on the way. (The day before, on our way from the Wicklow Mountains to Kilkenny, as we were driving through some small town, we had to wait for a convoy of local tractors that were all decorated for a display, not for work, so there was a big parade happening nearby, apparently!)