Ireland Guide
Limerick and Clare
The Cliffs of Moher
The petite fishing village of Liscannor, with its trim cottages and tiny harbour, is a grand base for visiting the Cliffs of Moher. A couple of kilometres towards the cliffs, The Rock Shop shows an interesting film recounting the story of Liscannor flag, the local flagstone that peppers the area and used to be used in house building, as well as retailing handicrafts and numerous locally-found crystals and fossils. Liscannor's shoreline is dominated by Logue's Liscannorhotel ( 
065/708 6000, 
www.loguesliscannorhotel.com ; Price: €90-120), with very stylishly furnished rooms overlooking the bay, while opposite is the new and more petite Cliffs of Moher Hotel ( 065/708 6670, www.cliffsofmoherhotel.ie ; Price: €150-200) which provides classy accommodation and service. For B&B try Sea Haven ( 065/708 1385, www.seahaven-liscannor.com ; Price: €60-90), offering comfortable en-suite rooms with sea views. Both the hotels have decent restaurants and Vaughan'spub serves astonishingly good seafood all day, while the bar at the Cliffs of Moher Hotel commemorates locally born John P. Holland, a nineteenth-century pioneer in the development of the submarine.
Some 5km north of Liscannor are the Cliffs of Moher, stretching downwards to the Atlantic for almost 200m. The cliffs take their name from an old promontory fort, Mothar, and extend some 8km from Hag's Head, west of Liscannor, to a little beyond O'Brien's Tower, which was constructed by a local altruist in 1835 at their highest point. Access to the cliffs remains unrestricted, but, if you're travelling by car you'll be compelled to pay Clare County Council's extortionate parking charge of €8 for the privilege. Said sum "entitles" visitors (though exactly the same facilities are available if you arrive on bike or foot) to free entry to the controversial new €31.5million visitor centre (Jan & Feb 9.30am–5pm, March– April 9am–6pm, May & Sept 8.30am–7pm, June– Aug 8.30am–8.30pm, Oct 8.30am–6pm, Nov & Dec 9am–5pm) and to the infrequent "cliff edge" guided tours – enquire at the main desk for details.
Tucked away within the hillside, there's no doubting that the centre is an impressive architectural feat – and its first-floor restaurant does offer panoramic seascapes and a reasonable choice of meals – but to reach it you'll pass a somewhat tacky range of souvenir shops and find more of the same kind of "Oirish" gifts on sale within. The centre also houses the Atlantic Edge exhibition (same hours; €4; Heritage Island) whose interactive touch-screens, computer games and 3-D film (all to the accompaniment of ethereal "Celtic hush"– style music), do in part provide lucid explanations of the cliffs' evolution and wildlife, but overall form a ludicrous electronic counterpoint to the actual glories outside.
All told, the best bet is to head straight past the centre and to the newly erected steps which curve upwards towards the cliff-top. Then you can opt for turning south towards Hag's Head or in the opposite direction to O'Brien's Tower where the latter's viewing platform offers the best sight of the wave-battered cliffs below, enhanced by the resonant roar of the Atlantic waves pummelling the rocks at shore level. The optimum time to visit is around sunset when the heights and sea are spot-lit by the rays of the evening sun. Alternatively, you can gain a different perspective of their prodigious stature from one of the regular boat-trips. Cruises to view the cliffs operate from the pier at Doolin; April– Oct 4 sailings daily; €25; 065/707 5949, www.mohercruises.com ).