Cliffs of Moher Facts
Two hundred and fourteen metres at the highest point, almost fourteen kilometres end to end, a tower from 1835 on the skyline and ten species of seabird on the face. The figures below come from the attraction itself, and they are the ones worth knowing before you book an Ireland Cliffs of Moher tour.
214 metres, and where the highest point actually is
The Cliffs of Moher reach 214 metres — 702 feet — at their highest, and that point is not where most people assume. It sits just north of O'Brien's Tower, beyond the end of the main paved path, rather than at the tower itself or at the visitor centre. What you stand on at the busiest viewing platforms is lower, and the wall climbs away from you as it runs north.
They are not the tallest sea cliffs in Ireland; Slieve League in Donegal and Croaghaun on Achill are both higher. What the Cliffs of Moher have is the combination of height, length and three and a half kilometres of paved path along the top of them, which is what makes somewhere this exposed reachable on an ordinary afternoon rather than as an expedition.
Fourteen kilometres of County Clare coast
The cliffs run for almost 14 kilometres, or 8 miles, along the Clare coastline. Of that, 3.5 kilometres is paved path inside the visitor site, and the busiest 800 metres runs between O'Brien's Tower to the north and the South Platform. Everything beyond the paved sections is open cliff top, which is where the coastal trail from Doolin comes in.
What the cliffs are made of
Shale and sandstone, laid down by an ancient river delta and stacked in the horizontal bands you can count across the face from any viewing point. The darker layers are shale, the paler ones sandstone, and the alternation is what gives the wall its striped appearance in low light.
The same rock is quarried a few miles inland at Liscannor, and you are standing beside it long before you notice: the flagstone walls along the cliff path are cut from it, and the ripple marks left by that delta are visible in the slabs. No official source publishes an age in millions of years for the beds, so this page does not print one.
O'Brien's Tower, 1835
Sir Cornelius O'Brien built the round tower on the high point in 1835, as an observation tower for the visitors who were already coming to see the cliffs — which tells you something about how long this has been a destination. It is still the building on the skyline in almost every photograph taken here.
Entry to the O'Brien's Tower Experience and its tour is inside the standard admission price, which surprises a lot of people who assume it is a separate ticket. On a clear day the view from it reaches the Aran Islands out in Galway Bay and the Twelve Bens of Connemara beyond them.
The sea stack and Goat Island
The stack standing off the foot of the wall below the tower is the site's other landmark, and kittiwakes nest on its upper sections. Goat Island, offshore to the south, carries the puffin colony, and the South Platform is the place to look at it from.
Ten seabirds, and when each is there
The cliffs are a Special Protection Area and the face is a working seabird colony for most of the year. Puffins are the seasonal one, and the window is narrow.
| Bird | When | Where to look | What to look for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puffin | Late May to mid-July | Goat Island, from the South Platform | The one everybody comes for. Winters at sea and comes ashore only to nest. |
| Razorbill | Spring and summer | Ledges across the cliff face | Black above, white below, with a blunt bill marked by a white line. |
| Guillemot | Spring and summer | Packed onto open ledges | Nests shoulder to shoulder in the densest colonies on the wall. |
| Kittiwake | Spring and summer | The sea stack below O'Brien's Tower | Builds untidy nests on the upper sections of the stack. |
| Fulmar | Most of the year | High on the face, spread out | Stiff-winged, and the bird you will most often see riding the updraught. |
| Shag | Year-round | Low on the rocks and the water | Dark, long-necked, and often seen drying its wings on a rock. |
| Cormorant | Year-round | The waterline and offshore rocks | Larger than the shag and more likely to be seen out over open water. |
| Gannet | Spring to autumn | Offshore, passing | Does not nest here, but fishes off the cliffs and dives from height. |
| Chough | Year-round | The cliff-top grass | A red-billed crow, and one of the specialities of this coastline. |
| Raven | Year-round | The cliff top and the higher ledges | Deep croak, and usually the first bird you hear rather than see. |
Puffins are a late-May-to-mid-July booking
If the birds are the reason you are coming, the month matters more than the tour. Fares start at $40.
The Burren next door
Inland from the cliffs the ground changes completely. The Burren is a limestone karst landscape — bare grey pavement, cracked into blocks, with alpine and Mediterranean plants growing side by side in the fissures. Almost every day tour out of Galway crosses it, and the stops that distinguish one fare from another are all on it: Poulnabrone Dolmen, Aillwee Cave, Caherconnell Stone Fort.
Poulnabrone Dolmen is a portal tomb standing on the open pavement, free to visit, with nothing between you and it. It is a twenty-minute stop on two of the Galway days here.
One UNESCO Geopark, two landscapes
The cliffs and the Burren sit inside a single designation: the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark. That is why a Clare day tour usually gives you both, and why the two are sold together rather than as competing attractions. They are the same geology seen from two angles — the limestone above and the delta rock below, at the western edge of the same shelf.
Ticket prices, hours and access are on visiting the cliffs, the approaches on how to get there, and every fare is compared on Cliffs of Moher Tours.