County Galway and Clare

Some of Ireland's most picturesque scenery fans out from Galway, particularly along the breathtaking Connemara Peninsula. Tiny roads wander along a coastline studded with islands, dazzling white sandy beaches and intriguing villages; the interior shelters heath-strewn boglands, glassy lakes, looming mountains and isolated valleys. Offshore, the wild and beautiful eroded swathes of the Aran Islands possess a desolate and windswept yet entrancing aura. Clare combines spectacular windswept landscapes where the ocean relentlessly pounds the coast year-round, eroding rock into fantastic formations, and fashioning sheer rock crags including those at the iconic Cliffs of Moher and at ends-of-the-earth Loop Head.