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INVERIN

CO. GALWAY · IE

Inverin
Indreabhán, Co. Galway

The Wild Atlantic Way
STOP 04 / 06

Indreabhán · Co. Galway

A working Cois Fharraige Gaeltacht village that runs a national TV station and flies you to the Aran Islands in under ten minutes.

Inverin (Indreabhan) is a working Gaeltacht village about 30 kilometres west of Galway city, strung along the R336 coast road through Cois Fharraige - the seaside strip of strong Irish-speaking country between the city and the islands. The name means mouth of the river. There is no village centre in the postcard sense: a pub, a shop, a couple of churches, a scatter of houses between Baile na hAbhann and Minna, and the bay always on your left as you drive west.

Two things make Inverin more than a place you pass through. The first is TG4, the national Irish-language television station, which has run from a purpose-built headquarters at Baile na hAbhann since 1996 - built here, in a Gaeltacht, on purpose, because you cannot credibly run an Irish-language broadcaster from somewhere that does not speak Irish. The second is Connemara Airport at Minna, just west of the village, where Aer Arann Islands has flown people out to the Aran Islands since 1970. The flight takes under ten minutes and runs year-round, which is more than the ferry from Rossaveel can always say.

This is living Gaeltacht, not a heritage performance. Irish arrives naturally in the shop and at the bar of Tigh Mholly. Every summer the two Irish colleges fill the village with teenagers and the local houses take them in as bean an ti families. The light sits low over Galway Bay and tells you honestly what the weather intends. Come if you are island-hopping, come if you want to hear Irish spoken as a first language, come for a pint and a session - but come knowing the village wears its working clothes, not its Sunday ones.

Population

~1,108 (Cill Aithnín electoral division, 2022)

Walk score

Village strung along the R336 coast road, no centre to speak of

Coords

53.2333° N, 9.4333° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The broadcaster

TG4 lives here, not in Dublin - and that is the whole point.

Teilifis na Gaeilge launched on Halloween 1996 from a purpose-built headquarters at Baile na hAbhann, a townland of Inverin. A national Irish-language broadcaster, sited in a place where Irish is the everyday language. The offices are not a visitor attraction, but the fact of them is.

Stories & lore → 02 The airport

Connemara Airport flies to all three Aran Islands.

Aerfort na Minne, just west of the village, runs Aer Arann Islands flights to Inis Mor, Inis Meain and Inis Oirr - under ten minutes in a Britten-Norman Islander, year-round, seven days a week. The fastest way onto the Aran Islands there is.

Getting there → 03 The language

Cois Fharraige Gaeltacht. Irish is the first language.

Inverin sits in the Cois Fharraige strip west of Galway city, one of the strongest Gaeltacht areas in the country. Two Irish-language summer colleges, Colaiste Lurgan and Colaiste Ui Chadhain, fill the village with teenagers learning Irish every summer.

Stories & lore →

02 / 09

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Tigh Mholly

Gaeltacht local, trad most nights

Traditional pub, on the R336 in the village

The pub of Inverin, with account books said to go back to 1896 - named Tigh Mholly because Molly was the one who served. Live traditional music most nights of the week, Irish spoken naturally at the bar, and the kind of welcome a working Gaeltacht village still gives. If there is one place to stop in Inverin, it is this one. Thirty minutes from Galway city; treat it as the reason to drive out.

03 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
B&Bs and self-catering cottages	Guesthouses and holiday homes along the coast road	There are no hotels in Inverin - the nearest are in Spiddal a few kilometres east, or in Galway city. What the village has is B&Bs, guesthouses and self-catering cottages strung along the R336, most within walking distance of the shore. Book ahead in summer when the Irish colleges and the Aran traffic fill the rooms, and check opening dates in winter when some of the smaller places close.

04 / 09

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The national Irish-language broadcaster, born here in 1996

TG4 at Baile na hAbhann

Teilifis na Gaeilge launched on 31 October 1996 from a headquarters purpose-built at Baile na hAbhann, a townland of Inverin. The transmission network and the building together cost around IR£16.1 million. In 1999 it rebranded to TG4. Siting a national broadcaster in a Connemara Gaeltacht rather than in Dublin was a deliberate act - the product of the Gaeltacht civil rights movement of the late 1960s, which had already won Raidio na Gaeltachta in 1972. If you have watched Irish-language drama, news or documentary, you have watched something commissioned here. The offices are a working broadcaster, not a tour stop - but the fact that the schedules are made in Inverin and not in Donnybrook is the entire point of the place.

Under ten minutes to the islands, since 1970

Connemara Airport and the Aran flights

Connemara Airport (Aerfort na Minne) sits at Minna just west of the village, built in 1992 with help from Udaras na Gaeltachta to keep the Aran Islands viable. Aer Arann Islands has flown the route since 1970, running Britten-Norman Islander aircraft to Inis Mor, Inis Meain and Inis Oirr - under ten minutes in the air, seven days a week, all year, on a public service obligation contract. When the Atlantic shuts the Rossaveel ferry down, the little plane will often still go. It is also the quietest way to reach the islands: a handful of seats, a low scenic run over Galway Bay, and you are on the stone.

Nine fishermen, one drifting wartime mine

The 1917 mine

In 1917, in the middle of the First World War, a German naval mine washed ashore on the Cois Fharraige coast near Inverin. Local fishermen went down to examine it, thinking - as the story goes - that they had found a barrel of oil or petrol that had fallen from a ship. It exploded. Nine men were killed. In a small fishing community that drew its living from the same bay, it was a loss the place felt for generations. It is the kind of fact the Gaeltacht coast keeps without a plaque.

Colaiste Lurgan and Colaiste Ui Chadhain

The summer colleges

Two Irish-language summer colleges run in the area - Colaiste Lurgan and Colaiste Ui Chadhain - and every summer they fill Inverin with teenagers sent from all over Ireland to learn Irish by living it. Students board with local bean an ti households, speak only Irish for three weeks, and go to ceilithe at night. Colaiste Lurgan in particular became known well beyond the Gaeltacht for its viral Irish-language cover videos. For a few months a year the school-age population of the village multiplies, and the language you hear on the road is teenage Irish at full volume.

05 / 09

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Cois Fharraige coast road West and east along the R336 through the village. There is no loop and no marked trail - this is a working coast road with narrow verges and the bay on the seaward side. Walk it in the morning light, watch for traffic, and turn back when you have had enough. The reward is the low gold light over Galway Bay, not a viewpoint.

~3-4 km one waydistance

About 1 hour one waytime

Local piers and landing spots The shoreline either side of the village is dotted with small stone piers and landing spots where fishermen still work the bay. Pick one off the coast road and walk down to it. Boots in winter - the ground near the water is rough and wet.

~2 kmdistance

30-40 minutestime

06 / 09

Tours, if you want one.

The ones below are bookable through our partners - pick one that suits, or skip the lot and just turn up.

via partner

From Galway: Connemara and Cong Full-Day Tour

day trips

Visit the village where The Quiet Man was filmed, see the grounds of Ashford Castle, and drive through the wild beauty of Connemara including Ireland's only fjord on this full-day tour from Galway.

8 hours From €35

See tour → via partner

From Galway: Connemara and Kylemore Abbey Day Tour

day trips

A full day into Connemara's wild bogland and mountains from Galway, with 90 minutes at Kylemore Abbey and its restored Victorian walled garden included.

8 hours From €35

See tour → via partner

From Dublin: Connemara and Galway Full-Day Tour

day trips

Full-day tour from Dublin into the heart of Connemara, with a stop at Glengowla's 19th-century silver mines and two hours to explore Galway city.

12 hours From €75

See tour →

We earn a small commission when you book through our tour pages. It costs you nothing extra and keeps the village hubs free. All Co. Galway tours →

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet, low gold light, places opening back up by mid-March. The Aran flights run year-round so the islands are always reachable.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Irish colleges fill the village with students and the local houses with them - lively, but rooms get scarce. Book accommodation well ahead. The bay is at its most stable.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The locals favour it. The colleges have emptied, storms roll through clean off the Atlantic, and the light over the bay is unreasonable.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and weather of its own off Galway Bay. Some smaller B&Bs close. The Rossaveel ferry cancels more often - but Connemara Airport keeps flying when it can.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Looking for a village centre

There is not one. Inverin is a string of houses, a pub, a shop and two churches along the coast road, not a square you can walk around. Come for the language, the bay and the island connection, not for a town.

Trying to tour TG4 headquarters

It is a working national broadcaster at Baile na hAbhann, not a visitor attraction. The offices are not open to the public. Admire the fact of it from the road and leave the staff to their jobs.

Assuming the Rossaveel ferry is your only way to Aran

It is not. Connemara Airport at Minna, just west of the village, flies to all three islands year-round in under ten minutes, and often goes when the Atlantic has shut the ferry down. If the sea looks angry, check the flights.

Getting there.

By car

Galway city to Inverin is about 35 minutes west on the R336 coast road through Barna and Spiddal. The road is narrow and local; park in the village or at the airport. Rossaveel pier is a few kilometres further west.

By bus

Bus Eireann route 424 runs Galway to the Cois Fharraige coast, stopping at Inverin. Services are limited and tied to the working day rather than tourist clock times - check the timetable before you rely on it.

By train

No train. Take the train to Galway (Ceannt Station) and change to the bus or drive west.

By air

Connemara Airport (Aerfort na Minne) is in the village itself, flying Aer Arann Islands to the three Aran Islands year-round. For the rest of the world: Ireland West Airport (Knock) is about 1.5 hours by car, Shannon about 2 hours, Dublin about 3.