Doolin Rent-a-Bike

This 16th-century tower house is nowadays a private holiday home and not open to the public, but there are great views from the single-track lane that runs by it. Don't try to park along there.

Show cave with a remarkable stalactite 7.2 m long, one of the longest in the world. And actually that's all there is, the cave is otherwise undecorated. 125 steps down, and 125 steps to get back up. 50-minute tours start on the hour with the last at 4PM.

The cliffs stretch away north and south for several km, but here they reach 214 m above the sea. There are three main viewing areas, free if you can get here without a car (see "Get around"). The charge covers parking, use of the visitor centre and viewing from O'Brien's Tower, built in 1835 as an observation tower for tourists. Views take in the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, Maum Turk Mountains and the Twelve Bens to the north in Connemara, and Loop Head to the south. The cliffs were built 320 million years ago by the silt of a river delta, compacted into beds of shale and sandstone. Watch for puffins, hawks, gulls, guillemots, shags, ravens and choughs. Cheaper admission in the morning, but you need the westering sun to light up the cliff face.