Last Updated: 2026-10-20 20:24:01
Aran Islands
Stone walls, Irish-speaking villages and a prehistoric fort on the edge of a cliff.
Island life, the old way
The three Aran Islands, Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr, sit across the mouth of Galway Bay. They are part of the Gaeltacht, so Irish is the everyday language, and the land is laced with thousands of kilometres of dry-stone walls built to clear the fields and shelter crops from the wind.
The islands' most dramatic sight is Dún Aonghasa on Inis Mór: a semicircle of massive stone ramparts on the edge of a sheer cliff about 100 m above the Atlantic. Its origins go back more than 3,000 years.
Don't miss
- Cycling Inis Mór: hire a bike at Kilronan pier and ride the quiet lanes out to Dún Aonghasa.
- The Worm Hole (Poll na bPeist), a natural rectangular rock pool at the foot of the cliffs.
- Inis Oírr's shipwreck, the rusting Plassy, washed ashore in 1960.
- An Aran sweater, from the islands that made the cable-knit famous.
Quick facts
Where: Galway Bay, Co. Galway
Region: Wild Atlantic Way
Getting there: ferry from Rossaveal (about 40 min) or, in season, from Doolin; short flights from Connemara Airport
From Dublin: about 3 h to Rossaveal
Language: Irish, with English widely spoken
Good for: cycling, history, slow travel
Local tip
Stay the night. Most visitors leave on the afternoon ferry, and an evening on the island, with a pint and a session in the pub, is when Aran feels most like itself.