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Connemara and Galway City Day Tour from Dublin
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From €75 per person
Connemara is one of those parts of Ireland that stays with you. The landscape was devastated by the Great Famine of 1847-1851, leaving behind a stark, beautiful wilderness - lakes, stone walls, boglands, and valleys that have barely changed since. It’s appeared in films like The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, and The Guard with Brendan Gleeson, and it’s easy to see why filmmakers keep coming back.
This full-day tour from Dublin takes you deep into that landscape, then drops you into Galway city for two hours to explore at your own pace - a good balance of wild west coast scenery and lively city streets.
Cong, County Mayo - The tour heads west across the midlands with a comfort stop for refreshments. First stop is the picturesque village of Cong, a national Tidy Towns winner and the filming location for The Quiet Man. Worth a wander.
Glengowla Mine (60 min) - A working family farm with underground show mines. The mines are atmospheric and genuinely interesting below the surface, while above ground you can learn about traditional turf cutting and watch sheepdog demonstrations.
Connemara landscape drive (120 min) - A spectacular road trip through Joyce Country and the Twelve Bens mountain range, past the Deserted Maam Valley, through Gaeltacht communities where Irish is still the everyday language, and along the Atlantic coastline through Spiddal with views across Galway Bay towards the Aran Islands.
Galway city (120 min) - Two free hours to explore Ireland’s most vibrant city at your own pace. Worth tracking down the Spanish Arch, St. Nicholas Cathedral, the colourful Shop Street, or a plate of Galway Bay oysters if the timing’s right. Departs Galway at 17:00.
Return to Dublin - Back in Dublin at approximately 19:30.
Meeting point: Bus Stop 1171, Lower Gardiner Street (at number 42, beside Trinity Church)
The coastal drive through Spiddal is one of the highlights of the Connemara leg. As the coach passes through, look out across Galway Bay towards the Burren and the Aran Islands - on a clear day the view runs all the way to the Cliffs of Moher. Spiddal is the eastern edge of the Connemara Gaeltacht, and the Irish you’ll see on the shop signs and road signs here is the working language of the community, not a heritage gesture. The craft village, Ceardlann an Spidéil, clusters potters, weavers and jewellers into a row of workshops above the main beach - worth a stop on a return visit with more time. If you’re back with a car, An Crúiscín Lán down at the water doubles as a small hotel and the bar looks straight out at Clare across the bay.
The route west passes through Oughterard on the N59 - the last proper village before the landscape opens up into bog and mountain. If the coach stops here, the village main street runs right down to Lough Corrib, the second-largest lake in Ireland. Aughnanure Castle, an O’Flaherty tower house from around 1500, is three kilometres east on the shore and is run by the OPW. Worth noting for a return visit with more time and a car.
The Connemara landscape drive heads through Joyce Country and the Twelve Bens toward Clifden - the capital of Connemara, built from scratch by John D’Arcy in 1812 on 17,000 acres of bog. The tour typically passes through rather than stopping, but the bog south of Clifden at Derrygimlagh is where Marconi sent the first transatlantic wireless signal in 1907 and where Alcock and Brown crash-landed after the first non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919. Both are still out on the bog. If you’re back with more time, the Sky Road loop west of Clifden takes in the Atlantic headland in 16 kilometres.
For your two free hours in Galway, the coach typically drops near the city centre, which puts the medieval core within easy walking distance. The best use of two hours: walk Shop Street down to Quay Street, turn left at the Spanish Arch, follow the river for ten minutes, then pick a laneway back. The Gourmet Tart Company on Shop Street is fast if you are hungry. Ard Bia at Nimmo on the quay is worth it if a proper sit-down lunch fits the timing.
Galway is departure point for the Aran Islands ferries from Rossaveal, 40 km west - a trip that needs at least a full day to do properly, so worth planning as a separate excursion. The main village on Inis Mór is Kilronan, where Dún Aonghasa sits on a cliff edge a hundred metres above the Atlantic and JM Synge came repeatedly from 1898 to learn Irish and collect the stories that became Riders to the Sea. If the oysters are right on the menu anywhere between the Spanish Arch and Quay Street, order them - Galway Bay oysters in Galway city are about as local as food gets in Ireland.
Fuel up before the coach departs Galway at 17:00 - the comfort stop on the return journey will have tea and coffee, but the two hours in the city are your main meal window.