Visit Moher's Falaises in Ireland: tickets, prices, schedules

You're going to Ireland? Don't miss Moher's cliffs! Here are the essentials to know for your visit: tickets, rates and times!

Top place of Irish tourism, Moher’s cliffs — Cliffs of Moher in English — are Ireland’s most visited natural site. Located in Liscannor on the west coast, south of Galway , they are a set of steep and dizzying cliffs that rise to 214 metres above the North Atlantic Ocean, and extending over 8 kilometres long . Or how to pass the cliffs of Etertat for a small rock!

Moher’s cliffs are a mass of limestone and shale, eroded by elements (wind, rain) and the ocean tapping them by the waves. In addition to their natural beauty, they contain a very rich fauna, including marine birds. Because of their assets, more than a million tourists come to visit Moher’s cliffs every year.

Do you want to crowd the floor of these cliffs overlooking the ocean? You're gonna take a full view of it. Here is our tour guide to visit the Moher cliffs!

History of Moher Cliffs

The Cliffs of Moher formed about 320 million years at the mouth of a river during the Superior Carboniferous (between 358 and 298 million years before our era) in a warm climate. The rocks of the cliffs would consist of sediments of sand and mud, charred and deposited by the river at the time.

Several legends enchant the history of Moher’s cliffs. One of the most common is that they tell a story of love that would have gone wrong. One of the protagonists would be a woman who gave the shape of her face to a rock located south of the cliffs: Hag’s Head. Note that the term Hag means "old", "wild" or "witch". This woman, called Mal, would have fallen in love with an Irish hero named Cu Chulainn, who would have fled jumping over the sea. The following evil would have crashed at the foot of the cliffs and would have spilled his blood into the sea on 8 kilometers long, dyeing the red ocean.

Protected by UNESCO, this natural site — yet threatened by the hundreds of thousands of visitors trampling it — is home to many species of birds, including macareux, guillemots, petrels, cormorans, but also seagulls, falcons, or red beak craves.

The cliffs also allow to observe seals and dolphins. Extended along the Irish Atlantic facade, they offer a cozy landscape, at the top of which you can make beautiful hikes, until you reach the best point of view at the Hag’s Head southwest of the Visitor Center.

What to see and do at Moher's cliffs?

Classical Tour

What to see when visiting the Moher cliffs, if not water and rocks? The site offers a total change of scenery and breathtaking views, along a footpath that leads up to the emblematic monument of the site: tour O’Brien , built in 1835 , by Sir Cornelius O’Brien in order to offer an observation point for hikers who were already in the hurry at the time.

Even if the path is not on the edge of the precipice, a feeling of vertigo could invade you. If the void scares you, please from the Hag’s Head point of view where you have the best view on the cliffs. The hiking trail, very well marked, is called Burren Way but it is very frequent (easy power). Most tourists start their walk from Doolin or Hag’s Head.

We have to count about 2 hours to join the Visitor Center, perched on the cliff where tourists arrive on the site. The hike is easy, as you walk on a plateau. However, in times of rain and strong winds, the path can be literally flooded, which induces to make deviations near the edge. But the wind can destabilize and give sensations of fear.

It is therefore necessary to watch weather before visiting the Moher cliffs. In any case, if we have the chance to visit the site in clear time, the probability of going in the rain is strong (we are in Ireland). But the waves that reject fine water particles in the atmosphere and the green coating of the cliffs add charm to the excursion.

Visit otherwise

To visit the Moher cliffs otherwise, another alternative is available to you: visit them from the ocean, by landing on board a ferry from the port of Doolin Pier. Many are boat trips that also allow to go, after seeing the cliffs, to the Aran Islands .

In order to enhance the tourist attraction of the site, the cliffs of Moher have been installed a shopping center — the Atlantic Edge - officially placed under the ground not to distort the site. Atlantic Edge houses a small museum dedicated to the cliff ecosystem, as well as its fauna and flora (entrance included in the parking price), a panoramic restaurant and souvenir shops.

Note : Unofficially, this shopping centre—operating mass tourism— makes Moher's cliffs less authentic. Since Moher’s animal species and cliffs are already weakened by tourist hyper-fréquentation, the commercial exploitation of the site is sometimes described by locals and some tourists.

How to go to Moher's cliffs?

Access to the cliffs is easy because from the road, these are very well indicated from Clare County.

By car

By car, 3 parking options are possible.

• Main parking

Join the N67 From Galway along the coast. Follow “Doolin/Cliffs of Moher” from the north or go to “Ennistymon” from the south. Then borrow it R478 to the main parking lot. You can park at the Visitor Center, but this is not where you will have the best view, because you will walk on the cliff and not beside it.

• Private parking in Liscannor

Located in 15 minutes from the first point of view, 2 hours From the Visitor Center, it allows a better view.

• Parking of a Pub

The last option is to park for free on the parking lot of one of the Doolin pubs if there are still places. But we'll have to walk even more!

By train

Many trains serve Galway Station. You will then have to take a bus to reach the Moher cliffs:

• Line 350, starting from Ennis : €19.50 (ticket return)
• Line 350 starting from Galway : 24,50 € (travel ticket)

There is no sense of compulsory visit, one can walk in both directions, from Visitor Centre to Hag’s Head or in the opposite direction.

Timetables and rates of Moher cliffs

Car parks to park near the cliffs are unfortunately paying, and their schedules are regulated. Here are the schedules and rates of the site.

HORARI

Parking of the Visitor Centre:

• November to February 9h-17h
• March, April, September and October9h-19h
• May to August9:21.

Other car parks do not have hours.

RATES

• Parking Visitor Center : 6€ per passenger
• Private parking of Liscannor : 2€
• Access to the O’Brien tower: 2€