06-06-2025
Staycations 2025: Walk the sea cliffs
Make this the year you discover just how heart-stopping and incredible our coastline actually is.
There can be little to equal the thrill of walking along a breezy cliff, air as fresh and invigorating as wine, the dancing sea spread out below you, wild flowers waving in the grass, and the most spectacular scenery you can imagine there for the enjoying.
There are many places to live such an experience to the full around our wonderfully indented and enchanting coast, but here are a few that you simply should not miss out on.
The Gobbins
Let's start with the perhaps unusually-named The Gobbins at Islandmagee in Co Antrim.
This could in fact be better described as a 'cliff face walk' rather than a clifftop stroll, since it leads you down on to the sheer rocks themselves and along through tunnels and across bridges.
The Gobbins (don't blame us, it is apparently the result of a public competition to name the attraction) has been known since the 19th century when naturalists, and later day-trippers, began to visit the Antrim coastline. It took its present form when a visionary engineer from Co Wexford, one Berkeley Deane Wise, saw the potential in this area of outstanding natural beauty, and decided to do something about it.
Construction began in 1901, and the first section - a pathway from the nearby village of Ballystrudder to the base of the cliffs - opened in August 1902. Wise's vision of tunnels and bridges spanning the cliffs was more challenging to realise.
The steel girder bridges were actually built in Belfast, brought to Whitehead on barges, and then manoeuvred up the coast on rafts. Workers winched them into place on lines dropped from the clifftop.
The Gobbins at Islandmagee in Co Antrim, leads you down on to the sheer rocks themselves and along through tunnels and across bridges.
Pretty challenging work, but Wise superintended it all with the zeal of a believer. And it worked. The path was an overnight success, attracting visitors from across Ireland and Britain, many coming specially on a steamer to Larne.
'There is, in short, nothing like The Gobbins anywhere else in the world,' wrote a correspondent in the Proceedings of the British Association in 1902. At the turn of the century, as many people walked the path as visited the Giant's Causeway each year.
The dramatic suspension bridge spanning the mouths of the Seven Sisters caves opened in 1908, but it was the last extension to the path. Wise had fallen ill that year and passed away in 1909. The path welcomed visitors for another thirty years, but it was closed during the Second World War. The Ulster Transport Authority reopened it in 1950, but time had taken its toll. Landslips and maintenance problems forced it to close in 1954.
Fifty years later, Larne Borough Council announced an ambitious plan to reopen The Gobbins. They constructed fifteen new bridges and six elevated paths using the latest materials (and, incidentally, working to modern health and safety standards, which was quite probably not the case in the early 1900s).
Replicas of the original Tubular Bridge and the suspension bridge at the Seven Sisters were created, to ensure that the charm of its original, Edwardian design still remained.
The path reopened just ten years ago, in 2015, and now attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.
So is it worth going? Yes. Emphatically yes. The layout is unique, Where else will you find yourself traversing narrow bridges just over the boisterous waves, or treading through dark tunnels in the cliff face? It is an experience like no other.
A couple of facts though. Firstly, The Gobbins is a physically challenging walk, and a moderate standard of fitness is required (not to mention sensible footwear!). 5km (3 miles) long, quite narrow, with many hand-carved and uneven steps, the entire walk is the equivalent of climbing and descending 50 flights of stairs. If you are happy with that, then go for it!
Secondly, there is quite a charge for this unique experience. Adults £21.50, children and seniors, £15.50, with group rates available. To be fair, with the amount of work they have put into its creation (would you call it 'improving on nature'?), it's probably reasonable.
The Cliffs of Moher, near Liscannor, Co Clare
Probably one of Ireland's most advertised and photographed visitor experiences, the Cliffs of Moher tower over the rugged west Clare coast.
As befits a major tourist attraction, it is very well organised, with parking, virtual reality displays, the lot.
You can walk safe, paved pathways, and drink in the spectacular vistas. Their natural beauty has inspired artists, musicians, and poets for generations.
The sheer cliffs are genuinely dizzying, and it's not uncommon to feel a strange sense of being tilted forward, almost falling, as you stare down to the waves far below.
O'Brien's Tower, built in 1835, is a great observation point, where on a clear day you can see down over Liscannor Bay or up to Galway Bay, as well as the Aran islands.
But there is a charge for all this beauty, you can't get away from that (although it's not as costly as The Gobbins).
The Cliffs of Moher's natural beauty has inspired artists, musicians, and poets for generations.
Adults €15.00, students and seniors €12, children under 12 free, when accompanied by a parent or guardian. You are advised to book online for best rates, which gives you access to the exhibition and virtual reality tour as well as the cliffs themselves and the walks.
For a less regimented experience though, why not go up to Doolin and take a boat trip instead, which will give you a real idea of the sheer height of the place?
In fact, for many this proves to be the most awe-inspiring view of the cliffs, as they would have been seen by travellers coming across the sea from ancient times.
And you would avoid the crowds which tend to build up at the tourist site itself.
Slieve League in Donegal
Although the cliffs of Moher get most of the marketing budget, and thus the tourist crowds, every decent Irish wanderer should know that they are nowhere near our highest and most dramatic.
That honour is reserved for Sliabh Liag or Slieve League in Donegal which is in fact nearly three times higher. Rising almost 2,000 feet (598 meters) above the Atlantic Ocean, this is recognised as one of the highest sea cliffs in Europe. And it offers the most breathtaking views - Donegal Bay, stretching toward Leitrim, Sligo, and Mayo, the vast Atlantic Ocean unfolding endlessly to the west, Rathlin O'Byrne Island and Glencolmcille, while at the cliff's base, the famous Giant's Desk and Chair, a striking rock formation tied to local legend.
It is a must-visit destination both for those seeking spectacular scenery and for anyone fascinated by our history and mythology.
From here, you can see Benbulben, that dramatic table mountain linked to Finn McCool and Irish folklore. Nearby, Carrowmore is home to one of the largest Neolithic cemeteries in Europe.
From Slieve League, Dongal, you can see Benbulben that dramatic table mountain linked to Finn McCool and Irish folklore.
Offshore, Inishmurray Island holds the ruins of an early Celtic Christian monastery, while further along the coast in Mayo, Killala marks the landing site of the French forces during the 1798 Rebellion against British rule. Close by, Carrigan Head is home to one of the Napoleonic-era signal towers, built by the British to monitor potential French invasions.
Atop Sliabh Liag itself you'll find the remains of an early Christian monastic site, including Aed Mac Bric's chapel and ancient beehive huts. For the adventurous, One Man's Path offers an exhilarating walk along the cliffs' edge. Revered as a sacred mountain, Sliabh Liag has been a site of Christian pilgrimage for over a thousand years. It's a wonderful place to experience, and once you've been there, you will find yourself yearning to return. It's a place like no other.
Here's an interesting fact of recent history: During World War II, Ireland remained neutral but reached agreements with the Allies, one of which was the Donegal Corridor — a designated air route allowing Allied aircraft to fly over Irish territory from Enniskillen to the Atlantic. As a navigation aid, large stone ÉIRE markers were placed along the coastline. One such marker is still visible near the Sliabh Liag viewing point.
Brow Head and the Mizen, in West Cork
Well, we couldn't leave out West Cork, could we? And the most south-westerly point in Ireland, the last spot of the beloved land seen by emigrants sailing to the New World, combines at the same time a wonderful experience of cliffs and sea, with fascinating history.
Most people believe Mizen to be the furthest point, but that honour is actually claimed by Brow Head (admittedly by only a metre or so). It was on Brow Head that Marconi set up his signal station, and here too that local fishermen would row out to collect barrels of mail dropped overboard by liners bound for England.
In that way, the Cork Examiner often had the latest American news before London did - notably the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
When you climb up and shade your eyes to look out to sea, you will be emulating the gesture of thousands before you who sought a glimpse of an incoming sail, or watched to identify a passing ship so that they could send its details to Lloyds of London.
And Mizen, dramatic, with turbulent waters tossing around it at all times and seasons, justly feared over the centuries by sailors who tried to give it a wide berth, but hugely welcoming today. You can go out across a bridge to the signal station here, and learn how the keepers of the signal lived and carried out their vital work.
Earlier, the captains of the French fleet coming to the aid of Ireland in its fight against England, surely made a poor decision when they arranged to foregather near this point, since they were swept away by the opposing tides which meet at this headland.
Looking down on Dunlough bay and Mizen head on a beautiful sunny afternoon in West Cork. Picture Eddie O'Hare
In ancient legend, it is said that Balor of the Evil Eye, the demonic leader of the Fomorians, fled from battle here but was pursued and killed by Lugh of the Tuatha de Danaan.
Lugh, the story holds, set Balor's head on a rock above the headland, but the rock shattered beneath the terrible load and that is why there is such an expanse of tumbled broken rocks below the cliffs today.
Between the ancient stories and the modern maritime ones, this is a wonderful place to spend the day. Keep an eye out for the red-legged choughs which toss airily in the wind, swooping down over the cliffs and climbing again on the updraft, seeming to need nothing more than space in which to play.
Make this the summer you walk the sea cliffs of Ireland and make memories for all time.
