Galway: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Galway was an Anglo-Norman walled town on the Atlantic, ruled for centuries by fourteen merchant families — the Tribes of Galway — who grew rich trading wine and salt with Spain and France, while the Irish outside the walls were kept out. Ninety minutes; take a raincoat.

A short history of Galway

In the 13th century the Anglo-Norman de Burgh family built a castle at the mouth of the River Corrib, and a walled port town grew up around it. Fourteen merchant families, the "Tribes of Galway", ruled it for centuries and traded wine and salt with Spain and France. In 1484 King Richard III granted it a charter that gave it almost complete independence. In 1652, after a long siege, the town surrendered to Cromwell's army, and the merchants lost their property. In 1845 a college was founded here that is now the University of Galway, and in 2020 the city was European Capital of Culture.

The ten best sights in Galway

1
Eyre Square
The green square where Kennedy spoke
2
Shop Street
The pedestrian street of buskers
3
Lynch’s Castle
A merchant’s stone house, now a bank
4
St Nicholas’ Church
The great medieval church of the town
5
Quay Street
Pubs with traditional music every night
6
High Street
The old street of the Latin Quarter
7
Spanish Arch
A piece of the town wall on the river
8
Galway City Museum
A Galway hooker hangs in the hall; free
9
Wolfe Tone Bridge
Where the Corrib rushes into the bay
10
The Claddagh
The fishing village of the ring

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Tours in Galway →

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Free walking tours in Galway

The City of the Tribes

Eyre Square · In June 1963, five months before he was killed, President John F. Kennedy spoke to a great crowd in this square, joking that on a clear day from the bay they could see Boston. Its park is officially named after him.
Lynch’s Castle · The stone town house of the Lynches, the most powerful of the Tribes, carved with gargoyles and coats of arms; it is now a bank. Legend says that in 1493 the mayor, James Lynch, hanged his own son for murdering a Spanish guest, when no one else would — and some say it gave English the word lynch.
St Nicholas’ Church · Founded in 1320 and dedicated to the patron saint of sailors, it is the largest medieval parish church in Ireland still in use. Tradition holds that Christopher Columbus prayed here when he visited Galway in 1477.
Quay Street · The heart of the Latin Quarter, a lane of painted pubs where traditional music sessions — fiddles, flutes, bodhrán drums — start in the afternoon and go on late, open to anyone who plays.
Spanish Arch · An extension of the town wall built in 1584 to guard the quays where Spanish ships unloaded wine. In 1755 the tsunami of the great Lisbon earthquake crossed the ocean and partly destroyed it.
Galway City Museum · In its hall hangs a Galway hooker, the black-hulled sailing boat with red-brown sails that carried turf from Connemara to the Aran Islands and the city. The museum, free, tells the story of the town and the Claddagh.

River and bay

The River Corrib, one of the shortest and fastest rivers in Europe, rushes through Galway from its lake to the bay, and along the bay runs the promenade every Galwegian walks. Two hours; windy.

Salmon Weir Bridge · From this bridge, in spring and early summer, you can see salmon lying in the clear water below the weir, waiting to leap upstream to Lough Corrib to spawn.
Galway Cathedral · Built on the site of the old city jail and finished in 1965, among the last great stone cathedrals built in Europe. In a side chapel a mosaic shows John F. Kennedy, whose visit was still fresh in the city’s memory.
Wolfe Tone Bridge · Here the Corrib pours into Galway Bay, and swans gather in their hundreds in the calm water at the river mouth beside the Claddagh.
The Claddagh · The old Irish-speaking fishing village outside the walls, with its own elected king. Its ring — two hands holding a heart under a crown, for friendship, love and loyalty — is said to have been made by Richard Joyce, who was captured by pirates, learned goldsmithing as a slave in Algiers and came home in the 1680s.
Salthill Promenade · A seaside promenade of about three kilometres along the bay, with the hills of the Burren across the water. Galwegians walk it in every weather.
Blackrock Diving Tower · At the end of the prom it is the custom to kick the wall before turning back. Beside it the diving tower, used all year, is where swimmers jump into the cold Atlantic even on Christmas morning.

The Burren, the cliffs and the islands

South of Galway the Burren is a moonscape of bare limestone where flowers of the Arctic and the Mediterranean grow side by side, ending at the cliffs of the Atlantic; west lie the Aran Islands and Connemara. A full day by car or tour; a ferry for the islands.

Dunguaire Castle · A tower house of about 1520 on a rock in the bay at Kinvara, one of the most photographed castles in Ireland. In the twentieth century it belonged to a friend of the poets Yeats and Lady Gregory, and today it holds medieval banquets in summer.
Aillwee Cave · In 1944 a farmer followed his dog, which was chasing a rabbit, into a hole in the hillside and found this cave, with an underground waterfall and the bones of brown bears, extinct in Ireland for thousands of years.
Poulnabrone Dolmen · A portal tomb of great slabs standing on the bare limestone, built about five thousand eight hundred years ago. When it was excavated in the 1980s the remains of more than thirty people were found inside.
Cliffs of Moher · The cliffs rise up to about two hundred and fourteen metres straight out of the Atlantic and run for about fourteen kilometres. Puffins nest on them in early summer, and they played the Cave of Horcruxes in a Harry Potter film.
Dún Aonghasa · On Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands, a prehistoric stone fort of three rings of dry-stone walls stands on the very edge of a cliff about a hundred metres above the ocean, with no wall on the sea side. Outside it is a band of sharp upright stones set to stop attackers.
Kylemore Abbey · A castle on a lake in the mountains of Connemara, built in the 1860s by a rich Englishman, Mitchell Henry, for his wife Margaret, who died a few years later; he built a little Gothic church for her nearby. In 1920 Benedictine nuns who had fled their abbey in Ypres in the First World War made it their home.

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Getting to Galway and getting around

Shannon Airport · About an hour by road; Dublin is two and a half hours
Galway Ceannt Station · Trains from Dublin in about two and a half hours
Rossaveal ferry · Ferries to the Aran Islands; a shuttle bus from town

Cheap eats in Galway

Galway eats from the Atlantic: oysters from the bay with brown soda bread and a pint of stout, seafood chowder, and fish and chips on the quay. At the Saturday market there are crêpes, curries and farmhouse cheeses; a chowder with brown bread in a pub is the cheap warm lunch.

Quay Street · Oysters and chowder in the pubs
Galway Market · Saturday street food
Spanish Arch · Fish and chips by the river
Shop Street · Bakeries and cafés
Dunguaire Castle · Seafood in Kinvara

Museums in Galway

Galway’s history is mostly in the streets, with a free city museum and the prehistoric monuments of the west.

Galway City Museum · The hooker and the Claddagh
Kylemore Abbey · The castle and the walled garden
Dún Aonghasa · The cliff fort
Poulnabrone Dolmen · A Stone Age tomb

Nature and day trips near Galway

The west of Ireland is the wild Atlantic: cliffs, limestone, bogs, lakes and mountains, under weather that changes every half hour.

Cliffs of Moher · Puffins and the cliff path
Connemara National Park · Diamond Hill
Aillwee Cave · Into the Burren
Salthill Promenade · The bay at sunset
Menlo Castle · A riverside walk to a ruin

Things to do in Galway with kids

With children: a playground by the river, the prom and diving tower, a cave with bear bones and a castle banquet.

Millennium Children’s Park · The riverside playground
Aillwee Cave · The cave and the birds of prey
Blackrock Diving Tower · Kick the wall
Dunguaire Castle · A medieval banquet

Holy places in Galway

Galway’s churches run from the medieval church of the Tribes to one of the last stone cathedrals of Europe, and an abbey of nuns in the mountains.

St Nicholas’ Church · Columbus’s church
Galway Cathedral · The Kennedy mosaic
Kylemore Abbey · The Gothic church

Nightlife in Galway

Galway’s nights are its music: traditional sessions in the pubs of the Latin Quarter, buskers on Shop Street, and in July the arts festival and the races.

Quay Street · Trad sessions every night
High Street · Pubs of the Latin Quarter
Shop Street · Buskers into the evening

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Frequently asked questions about Galway

What is there to see in Galway?

The top sights in Galway are Eyre Square, Shop Street and Lynch’s Castle. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Galway?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Galway without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Galway?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Galway, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The City of the Tribes.

How do you get to Galway and get around?

The main ways are Shannon Airport, Galway Ceannt Station and Rossaveal ferry. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Galway, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Galway that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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