Cliffs of Moher
Interesting facts
- The cliffs played the Cliffs of Insanity in the 1987 film The Princess Bride.
- In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sea cave where Harry and Dumbledore hunt for a Horcrux was filmed at the cliffs.
- Below the cliffs breaks Aill na Searrach, known to surfers as Aileen's, a giant wave first ridden in October 2005 by John McCarthy and Dave Blunt.
- According to legend, the sea-witch Mal chased the hero Cú Chulainn here; he leapt across the sea stacks, but she fell to her death on the rocks.
- Hag's Head takes its name from a rock formation at the southern tip that looks like a woman's head gazing out to sea.
- The shale and sandstone beds were laid down between about 313 and 326 million years ago, in the Namurian age of the Carboniferous period.
- With around 1.5 million visits a year in the late 2010s, the cliffs ranked among Ireland's most visited paid attractions.
- A coastal walk of about 14 km follows the cliff top all the way from Hag's Head to Doolin.
Why it is worth it
The Cliffs of Moher are a 14 km wall of dark rock along the Atlantic coast of County Clare, at the south-western edge of the Burren. At their southern end, at Hag's Head, they rise 120 m above the sea; eight kilometres north, just beyond O'Brien's Tower, they reach 214 m before falling away again towards Doolin. The rock is a layer cake of shale and sandstone laid down more than 300 million years ago at the mouth of a great river delta, and the individual beds, some a few centimetres thick and some several metres, stand out as horizontal stripes along the whole face. The rock preserves fossil worm trails, burrows and ripple marks from that ancient seabed.
The sea is still cutting the cliffs back, and its work is visible everywhere: caves, arches and stacks. Below O'Brien's Tower stands Branaunmore, a 67 m sea stack that was once part of the cliff, and a large sea arch opens beneath Hag's Head. The ledges are an Important Bird Area, with an estimated 30,000 pairs of birds of more than twenty species in peak season, including razorbills and colonies of Atlantic puffins, especially on little Goat Island. From the top you can look out to the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, the mountains of Connemara to the north and Loop Head to the south.
The cliffs take their name from an old promontory fort, Mothar, that stood on Hag's Head until 1808, when it was pulled down to build a signal tower against a feared French invasion. O'Brien's Tower, a round stone tower near the highest point, was built in 1835 by Sir Cornelius O'Brien, and from its top the view is wider still. The visitor centre opened in 2007 is built into the hillside so that it barely shows. The cliffs are part of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark and a signature point on the Wild Atlantic Way, and ferry trips show them from sea level.
Getting there
The nearest villages are Liscannor, about 6 km to the south, and Doolin, about 7 km to the north; the town of Ennis is about 34 km away. Bus Éireann route 350 links the cliffs with Ennis, Doolin, Lisdoonvarna and Galway. The nearest airport is Shannon (SNN), about 45 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Cliffs of Moher are sea cliffs located at the southwestern edge of the Burren region in County Clare, Ireland. They run for about 14 kilometres. At their southern end, they rise 120 metres (390 ft) above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag's Head, and, 8 kilometres to the north, they reach their maximum height of 214 metres (702 ft) just north of O'Brien's Tower, a round stone tower near the midpoint of the cliffs, built in 1835 by Sir Cornelius O'Brien, then continue at lower heights. The closest settlements are the villages of Liscannor 6 km to the south, and Doolin 7 km to the north.
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