Experience the best of Liscannor

Liscannor sits on the northern shore of Liscannor Bay on the west coast of County Clare, a row of low houses and pubs gathered around a small quay. The village gave its name to Liscannor stone, a dark flagstone quarried nearby and laid as paving across Ireland. John Philip Holland, who designed some of the first practical submarines, was born here in 1841, and a memorial in the village recalls him.

The road north climbs to the Cliffs of Moher, where O'Brien's Tower stands on a headland above sheer rock faces that fall as much as two hundred metres into the Atlantic. St Brigid's Well, a small shrine beside the same road, is another landmark. Lahinch, with its surf beach and links golf course, lies just south, and Doolin, where boats leave for the Aran Islands, is further up the coast beside the Burren.

Seafood chowder, crab and brown bread with butter are the standard orders in the village pubs. County Clare is among the strongest regions in Ireland for traditional music, and sessions are common on summer evenings. The weather comes straight off the ocean, so showers can arrive in any month, and the cliffs look best in the long light of late spring and early summer.