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Northern Lights in Ireland

Best places to stay with views . Anyone had success seeing the northern lights?
Many thanks!

Posted by
6418 posts

Ireland is pretty far south, so don't count on seeing the Northern lights. But it is certainly not impossible. Best place to stay would be in the northern parts with a good view of the sky to the north.

Posted by
1857 posts

You want somewhere with very little light pollution - so away from setltlements with street lights etc.

It needs to be a clear night with no cloud cover and also avoid full moon!

Posted by
6788 posts

Ireland is really not very far north - it's roughly the same latitude as the central UK, the Netherlands, or Poland. None of which are particularly famous for being great places to see the northern lights.

Many people have hopeful but not entirely realistic expectations about seeing the northern lights. To see the aurora, you need a few things to all happen at the same time, and getting all those things aligned requires most of all patience, and luck, no matter where you go. If you are lucky enough, you can substitute more luck for patience, location, and other factors...but most people can not guarantee that much good luck on demand.

Here's an old thread that I think provides a worthwhile -- and realistic -- explanation of what all needs to happen for any traveler to see the big sky show, anywhere. I think it's worth a look for anyone contemplating a trip to go see the northern lights:

Northern Lights

Ireland is a wonderful destination, with countless great things to see and do. But I would never make a trip there expecting to see the northern lights. If you want to visit Ireland for other reasons (and there are plenty of good ones), go enjoy Ireland, have a great time, and sure, while you're there at night, look up at the sky, maybe you will get lucky (but probably not). If you go expecting a vivid auroral display, you will almost certainly be disappointed. Unless you spend a long, long time there (like, years). I'm guessing most people living in Ireland have never seen the northern lights, something to consider if you're going there for a few days.

Hope that's helpful.

Posted by
1857 posts

We were self catering in Shetland many years ago and a previous visitor had written in the visitor’s book how excited they were as they had seen northern lights from the cottage. We went out to look one dark night and realised what they thought were northern lights were in fact car head lights flashing across the sky as the car came up the hill overlooking the cottage....

Posted by
11 posts

I've never heard of seeing the Northern Lights in Ireland. This would be more of a Norway thing.

Posted by
1857 posts

Everyone immediately thinks of Norway or Iceland for Northern Lights, but in fact they can be seen in UK and Ireland, especially in years when there are high levels of solar activity (and 2023 is predicted to be one). Check out the link in Claudia's post at the top of the thread.

Posted by
94 posts

Iceland not Ireland, I think you will leave disappointed if you come here looking for the Northern lights we all go to Iceland for them