Ireland: Cliffs of Moher To Galway Through The Burren

Posted on May 15, 2026May 22, 2026 by jim

Leaving the Cliffs of Kerry heading north toward Galway, you only have one solid option – take the N67 scenic route through the Burren.
The Burren is one of those landscapes that takes a minute to process.
It’s essentially a limestone plateau that covers a huge chunk of County Clare, and at first glance it looks like the surface of the moon – grey, cracked, treeless, almost eerie.
Then you start to notice the wildflowers pushing up through every crack in the rock, and the whole thing starts to make more sense. It’s not barren at all, it just does things on its own terms.
Tucked into a quiet valley in the middle of all that limestone is Corcomroe Abbey, and it is absolutely worth a stop.
Founded by Cistercian monks around 1194, it’s a beautifully preserved ruin – or mostly preserved anyway, as the roof checked out sometime in the 16th century and never came back.
What’s left is the shell of a proper medieval church, with some genuinely impressive Romanesque stonework and carved details that have survived eight hundred years of Atlantic weather. The monks buried inside apparently included kings, which explains why some of the cool kids got interred right inside the walls rather than in the yard with everyone else.
It’s free, it’s quiet, it’s photogenic, and it adds maybe 30 minutes to your drive time.
That’s a perfect road trip stop.

Place of Honor

The cool kids get buried INSIDE the abbey

Different Times, Different Sizes

I had to duck through every one of these doorways, humans definitely have evolved over time.

Corcomroe Abbey

This old abbey is definitely worth a stop if you’re headed to Galway from the south.

Not far from the abbey, keep an eye out for the Muckinish West Tower House.
From a distance it looks mostly intact – a solid little 16th-century tower house doing its thing on the landscape.
Get closer and you realize roughly half of it is just… gone.
Whether it was a cannonball, centuries of neglect, or some combination of both is unclear, but the remaining walls have that look of a building that was interrupted mid-sentence.
It’s a quick roadside curiosity rather than a destination, but worth slowing down for and maybe snapping a photo or three.

Where’s The Rest?

The Muckinish West Tower House looks mostly good from a distance, until you get closer and notice that half of it is missing!

Holy Walls Batman

This looks like it took a direct hit from a cannonball

Well Framed

From a distance the window framing looks like modern dimensional lumber

Continuing north, the village of Kinvara makes for an easy stretch-your-legs stop, anchored by Dunguaire Castle sitting right at the edge of Galway Bay.
It’s another compact 16th-century tower house that photographs beautifully from the road.
Unless you happen to be there on a tour date, there isn’t much to do beyond walk around the exterior and take your photos, but the setting on the water earns it a few minutes.

Dunguaire Castle

Dunguaire Castle is an easy roadside stop in Kinvara, although there’s not much to see unless you’re there on one of the tour dates.

Galway itself is a proper city with a lot going on.
Lots of traffic, people going about their regular city lives, noise, and congestion.
No quaint small town charms here.
The Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven (Galway Cathedral) is the obvious landmark – a massive domed structure that went up in the 1960s and manages to look older than it is.
The view of it from O’Brien’s Bridge over the River Corrib is the shot everyone goes for, and for good reason.
From there, the walk along the Long Walk section of the city gives you the colorful painted row houses across the water that show up on every Galway postcard.
The Latin Quarter is the compact, cobblestoned pedestrian center of the city and it’s lively – plenty of pubs, plenty of buskers, plenty of Guinness signage: because apparently it is legally required to have Guinness artwork on every available surface.
It’s fun for a wander, though it leans heavily tourist.
The Eglinton Canal area is worth a quick detour too – a small sea lock where the canal meets the bay, with colorful small boats leaned against the walls high and dry while the tide is out.
If you’re traveling the Wild Atlantic Way northbound, do your research before traveling this stretch between Doolin and Galway and you will definitely find it more rewarding.