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From Dublin: Connemara,Kylemore Abbey,Sheepdog show & Galway
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From €90 per person
Thirteen hours is a full commitment, but this trip from Dublin earns every one of them. You travel west through the Irish midlands and into Connemara, with a stop at a working farm along the way for a real sheepdog demonstration and a look at traditional turf cutting - the kind of thing that’s hard to find without local knowledge.
Kylemore Abbey is the centrepiece stop. Built as a private castle in the 19th century in the Gothic Revival style, it sits right at the edge of a lake with the Connemara mountains rising behind it - a genuinely remarkable sight. There’s time for lunch here before you continue through the Inagh Valley, tucked between the Twelve Bens and the Maamturks, two of Connemara’s most distinctive mountain ranges.
Galway city is the final stop, and you’ll have two free hours to explore. The Latin Quarter, the pubs, the waterfront - it’s worth spending a few minutes with a map before you arrive to make a plan.
The tour departs from Dublin city centre. Free WiFi is available on some coaches. Lunch and attraction entrance fees are not included.
Kylemore Abbey is ten kilometres west of Letterfrack on the Pollanabawn lake road - the village is the gateway to Connemara National Park and Diamond Hill. If you have any time around the Kylemore stop, the park headquarters is in the village itself, and the Diamond Hill upper loop (442 metres, 7km, two and a half hours) starts from the visitor centre car park with the Twelve Bens, Killary Harbour and the Atlantic all visible on a clear day. The Letterfrack village pub, Gaynor’s, does a pint and not much else - which is often exactly the right thing after Connemara.
The route through Oughterard is your last chance for coffee before Connemara opens up. Buach Beag café is the only proper café in the village and does soup and sandwiches made that morning - close by four. The N59 west from Oughterard is the main gateway into Connemara: nothing on the road west until Clifden, ninety minutes away.
Two free hours in Galway goes faster than you think, so it’s worth having a loose plan before you arrive. The medieval core is compact - from wherever the coach drops you, Shop Street and Quay Street are within a few minutes’ walk, and both streets narrow into laneways worth turning down at random.
If you haven’t eaten since Kylemore, Quay Street has the best concentration of options close together. Ard Bia at Nimmo is on the quayside and does a locally-led menu that changes with what’s available - it’s not a tourist spot. If you just want something quick and good, the Gourmet Tart Company does counter seating, hand pies, and coffee, and the queues move fast.
The Claddagh neighbourhood - the old fishing village the city absorbed - is a ten-minute walk from the centre. It’s worth passing through as part of a loop rather than treating it as a separate destination; the harbour walk from there back along the Long Walk is the best short route in the city.
If you like trad music and the timing works out, Tigh Coili and the Crane Bar both run sessions most nights - the Crane Bar in particular has a village-pub feel that sits well with a day spent in Connemara. Sessions typically start around nine, so if the tour gets you in with time to spare and you’re making your own way home, it’s worth knowing about.