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New Private Day Tour to Cliffs of Moher from Dublin
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From €1300 per person
A private door-to-door day trip from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher, with your guide James collecting you from your chosen location in the city. The route west takes in some brilliant stops through the Irish countryside, and you’ve got the flexibility to shape the day around what interests you most.
The Cliffs themselves are the centrepiece - no rush, no group timetable, just time to take it in at your own pace.
The Curragh, Co. Kildare (pass by) - One of Europe’s oldest and most extensive tracts of semi-natural grassland, covering 4,870 acres. It’s been open, unenclosed land for over 2,000 years. You’ll also pass the world-famous Curragh racecourse on your way through.
Bunratty Castle (20 min) - Built around 1425, Bunratty was the stronghold of the O’Brien Clan, High Kings of Munster and later Earls of Thomond. Restored to its former state in 1954, it’s a great photo stop and well worth a moment to take in the scale of it.
Cliffs of Moher (60 min) - Rugged cliffs, dramatic drops, and a huge variety of birdlife. They’ve featured in films and attract over a million visitors a year, but standing on the edge with no time pressure is a different experience altogether. Take your time.
The Burren (20 min) - “Boíreann” in Irish means a rocky place, and it delivers. Internationally known for its unusual limestone landscape, rare flora, thousands of archaeological sites, and a farming tradition unlike anywhere else in Ireland. A stop for photos before moving on.
Dunguaire Castle (30 min) - Built in 1520 by the O’Hynes clan, this restored 16th-century tower house sits on a rocky outcrop right on the shores of Galway Bay.
Sean’s Bar, Athlone (60 min) - Officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as Ireland’s oldest pub, with a documented history going back to 900 AD. Halfway between Dublin and Galway, it’s the perfect last stop - time for a pint before the drive home.
The Curragh pass-by tells its own story. The plain stretching away from you as you drive west is 4,870 acres of open limestone grassland that has been common land for over two thousand years. All five Irish Classic horse races are run here - if you’re passing on a race day, you’ll see the crowd from the road. The word Curragh means “place of the running horse” in Irish and the whole landscape earns the name.
At Bunratty, the Folk Park is worth knowing about even on a 20-minute stop. Bunratty Castle was a roofless ruin when Lord Gort bought it for £1,000 in 1954 and spent a decade putting it back together with 15th and 16th-century furniture sourced from across Europe. The 30-acre Folk Park beside it has thirty-odd buildings moved stone-by-stone from sites that were about to be lost - cottages, a forge, a recreated street. Your 20-minute stop at the castle is a decent photo stop; if you want longer here, mention it to James when you’re planning the day.
At the Cliffs, the back-door walk from Liscannor is the one. The Cliffs of Moher visitor centre handles over a million people a year and most of them arrive between 11am and 3pm. With a private departure from your door, you have real flexibility over when you land. If you approach from the south on the R478, you’re in Liscannor village - a working pier, three pubs, and the trailhead for the Hag’s Head path that delivers you to the same cliff with no car-park fee and no turnstile. Vaughan’s Anchor Inn in Liscannor has been serving seafood since 1979; it’s the right spot for a bowl of chowder if you want one before or after the walk.
The Burren stop is a good moment to know about Doolin. Eight kilometres north of the Cliffs visitor centre, Doolin is where the coastal path ends - three hamlets, four pubs, and trad sessions most nights of the year. If you have any flexibility in the day’s timing, this is worth a forty-five-minute stop: Gus O’Connor’s has been pouring since 1832, and the Homestead Cottage restaurant earned a Michelin star within seven months of opening in 2023. If the day allows it, ask James about working Doolin into the route.
Ballyvaughan is a different Burren entirely. The village sits where the Burren limestone meets Galway Bay, on the N67 north of Lisdoonvarna. If you’re passing through on the Burren section of the route, the coast road north from here out to Black Head is the view that most people miss - limestone running into the sea, Connemara on the far side of the bay. Monk’s Pub at the pier does a seafood chowder that the locals call the best on the bay.
Sean’s Bar is a proper ending. Athlone sits dead in the middle of Ireland, and Sean’s Bar on Main Street has been a pub on this site since around 900 AD - the Guinness World Record is genuine, the wattle-and-wicker section behind the glass panel is old enough that the National Museum took coins from the rebuild. Order a pint, ask James what it was like driving this route ten years ago, and let the day settle. It’s about 90 minutes back to Dublin from here.