History & cultural tour of Inishmore, Aran Islands. Galway. Private. 2 ½ hours
Description
Step off the ferry/plane onto Inis Mór island and meet your native Irish speaking guide, who is a gifted storyteller and a national food champion. In his entertaining company, gain insights into the culture and history of this remote island on a tour that includes spectacular coastal scenery with stop offs at the World Heritage Site of Dún Aonghus, the monastic site of The Seven Churches, a seal colony viewing point and a visit to local craft village to meet the locals and see Celtic inspired crafts. Your guide will share his remarkable insights into the customs and traditions of an island that has been home to his ancestors for as long as time can remember.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Perched on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic ocean, Dún Aonghasa is the largest of the prehistoric stone forts of the Aran Islands. The fort consists of three massive dry-stone walls and a chevaux-de-frise, a dense band of jagged, upright stones, surrounding the fort from cliff to cliff, designed to impede attackers. Originally constructed c.1100BC, it was re-fortified around 700-800 AD. Excavations revealed significant evidence of prehistoric metalworking, as well as several houses and burials.
The seal colony is situated on the northern side of the island close to Kilmurvey Beach, on the road to Dún Aonghasa and is clearly signposted with a small cabin selling snacks at the viewing point. At low tide, a dozen seals congregate on the beach and rocks, creating a beautiful sight with the mountains of Connemara as its backdrop.
Aran Island Goat’s Cheese is a family run goat farm on Inish Mór – the largest of the Aran Islands - producing a range of soft cheeses and a barrel aged goats feta. The Island tour that also includes a stop at the cheese factory with people given the chance to meet the goats, watch cheese being made, have an educational commentary and taste the cheese. Aran Goats Cheese produces a soft cheese with or without Dillisk (a seaweed harvested on the island), a Gouda which also comes infused with sea lettuce, or Dillisk, a medium hard cheese that looks like Brie and a Summer Cheese not unlike Feta. Their Dillisk is harvested on the shores of Inis Mór. The pigs on the farm are also fed whey, a by product of cheese making, so nothing goes to waste.
Kilmurvery craft village is located at the foot of Dun Aonghasa and contains a handful of eclectic Irish arts and crafts shops. Many visitors to the island browse or refresh at the cosy cafe before entering Dun Aonghasa.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Please note max people per booking is 6 people. Max 3 bookings / up to 18 people
- All baggage is taken off the bus at main stop at Dun Aonghasa fort On request to the driver baggage can be left on the bus at clients own risk.
Reviews(13)
History and culture is good but not with the guides there. They entice you to restaurants in Dun Aengus which is miles away so you have to use the transport provided..horse €50 each, Shared packed minibus €25 each. Ebike €40 each and Bike €30 . I was there for 3 hours and these were the rates.
This review concerns the bus tours offered by locals when you arrive rather than anything pre booked. There are literally dozens of minibus drivers trying to get you on board saying " let me show you what we do". We had the misfortune to get on the bright yellow bus with Mike. He turned out to be a most disagreeable and rude individual literally screaming at some passengers as they couldn't get off his bus in time as he had to rush off to do another tour while we were dropped off at the fort for an hour and a half. It was very hot and he couldn't be bothered to open the roof lights so was driving around with the back door open. In addition his driving was abysmal, nearly hitting many cyclists who dared to get in his way. He was a danger on the road and all he was interested in was getting as many people on the bus and as many tours in as he could. He ran out of time with us so we missed the stop at the seal colony. It was a rip off and we refused to pay. AVOID THE BRIGHT YELLOW BUS.
Gabriel was an entertaining guide and certainly knew the island. Other than that it was the worst value tour I have taken in years and that includes private tours in Italy, Scotland, France, Norway, and Sweden. We prefer private tours but in this case the Hop On Hop Off would have been the better choice.
We enjoyed the short hike up to the fort and the beautiful views. We appreciated that Gabriel shared his goats and some goat cheese but would have liked to see how it is made and understand the process better. Gabriel gave us some good insight into island life but not a lot of history of the island. 1 1/2 hours of the trip were spent on our own exploring the fort and the small shopping area and having lunch leaving about an hour of actual time on the tour, which made it a very over priced hour.
Hi Cynthia. Thank you for your feedback. I know we were 10 mins late in collecting your party on the day, but fortunately we managed to accomodate your late minute ferry change. Normally we dont offer the goats cheese on this history tour, but Gabriel included this as well as some extra time at the 7 churches on the island where he also spent time detailing this site Just a note, the time visiting Dún Aonghasa fort is self-guided on this tour. So in the end your party actually got extra time with Gabriel ! Trust that makes more sense now. Gald you enjoyed the tour and this unique Aran Island.
We had a great tour of Inishmore with Gabriel. We spoke the day prior and I informed him of my wife's limited mobility and he customized the tour to our needs and threw in a few special stops for us. The tour was a little pricey, but given that we were only on the island for a few hours and may never return, it was worth it to make sure we saw everything we wanted to see. Highly recommend this tour if you're doing a day trip to Inishmore and want to see as much as possible.
Gabriel Faherty was an awesome tour guide he has lived on Inishmore all his life and comes from a long line of full-time residents there so he knows everything and was so entertaining with his tour of the island for our family. Gabriel also runs Aran Islands Goat Cheese Company which makes award winning goat cheese--he was kind enough to show us around the cheese production facility as part of our tour and even gave us samples which were delicious. There are lots of longer tours but our 2.5 hour tour was really plenty to get a good feel for Inishmore.
Provided transport to interesting places and provided interesting commentary on goats cheese farm and manufacturing . Guide did not provide any historical or cultural information as per advertised title of tour. Interior of bus was wet as roof windows had been left open overnight. Not recommended.
I'm not sure why they included Galway in the title if they were not going to pick us up in galway which was the whole purpose of us booking this tour. There was no communication after booking or indication that we would need to get to the islands on our own.
Walking up to the fortress and seeing the cliffs. Lunch at the cafe. Watching the Ryder Cup in a bar waiting for the ferry.
We had a great time on Gabriel's tour of the island. We toured the island by minibus stopping at points of interest, hiked to Dun Aonghasa, did some shopping, and met Gabriel's goats! It was a great way to get the local perspective and see the island with zero stress.
