Home > Touring Ireland > Sample Itineraries > Walking Tour of Galway City

Walking Tour of Galway City

Tour Type: 1.5 to 2 hours, walking Distance: About 1.5 miles

Galway lends itself to walking, the city centre is compact and it is always lively and a pleasure to be in. There are also excellent shops, especially craft shops, which make window shopping and browsing an essential part of any walk here.

Galway has been something of a boom town in recent years and is now a busy and modern University city. Unfortunately not all development has been well thought out and there are some that jar particularly badly with the old town, particularly in the area around the Spanish Arch.

 

Drag the map, zoom in and click markers for more information.

Eyre Square

There is not that much to see here now, recent 'improvements' to the once gracious Eyre Square (A) have not in fact improved it in my opinion. The land here was given to the city 1710 by Edward Eyre, then mayor of Galway. In 1965, the square was officially renamed "Kennedy Memorial Park" and there is a bust of J.F. Kennedy in the park.

However it's worth dropping into the Tourist Office if you will be touring in this area and the Eyre Square Shopping Centre, a modern mall, may be of interest for picking up some souvenirs.

Lynch's Castle

Lynch's Castle (B), once home to an important family who supplied the city with more than 80 mayors between the 15th and 17th centuries, now houses the AIB bank.

The castle dates to the early 1300's, though the current building was mostly built in 1503, following a catastrophic fire in the original some years previously. Later it was extended and added to over the years, with the current doors added in the 1930's.

Inside the bank there are a series of panels which tell the story of the castle.

City of the Tribes

Galway is still often known today as the City of the Tribes, the name referring to 14 important Anglo-Norman merchant families, including the Lynch family, who lived there and dominated the life and trade of the city during the middle ages.

Aside from the Lynch family, the others were: Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, D'Arcy, Deane, Ffont, Ffrench, Joyes, Kirwan, Martin, Morris and Skerrett.

From 1232 when Richard de Burgo drove out the ruling Gaelic O'Flaherty's, until the end of the 1600's Galway flourished as a centre of trade. During the 15th and 16th centuries ships from Spain, France, the Carribean and South America crowded its harbour and the town was a wealthy one.

It all went wrong in 1692 when the city gave its support to James II in the English Civil War. He lost. When the victorious William of Orange sent Cromwell to restore order in Ireland Galway was firmly in his sights. The city was taken, its families relieved of their power and influence and the city sank into an economic depression from which it has only really emerged in the last 30 years.

St Nicholas of Myra Church

Towards the end of Shop St down a side street on the right is the 14th century Collegiate Church of St Nicholas of Myra (C), built from Connemara Marble and local limestone and named for the saint otherwise known as Santa Claus.

The north and south aisles were added in the 1600's but otherwise the church is more or less as it was originally built and has been serving its people for more than 650 years. The only interruption to this came in 1652 when Cromwell's forces seized the church and used it as stabling for horses.

Inside there is a very ornate 16th century baptismal font and several decorated tombs, including some of members of the Lynch family from the nearby Castle. There is also a mass grave which contains several hundred skeletons.

The importance of Galway as a trading centre is evident from the tombs which have symbols of trades included in their decoration - with a stone mason, a wool merchant and a goldsmith among them. A column in the south-east nave has particularly ornate decoration and is believed to be an 'apprentice's piece', a sort of medieval portfolio, created to show the skill of the maker.

Home of Nora Barnacle

This small unremarkable house at No. 8 Bowling Green was the home of Nora Barnacle (D), wife of the famous Irish writer James Joyce.

It has been restored and not only has some interesting material relating the Nora and her husband but is an interesting glimpse into how an ordinary working family in Galway lived during the early part of the 20th century.

It is not always open in the low season and opening times are unpredictable the rest of the time.

Quay St & the Spanish Arch

Once an old and run down area this is now a modernised and trendy part of town, though some not very attractive new development takes away from the look of the area.

Quay St (E) has many small craft shops and restaurants and also two famous pubs, The Quay's which is famed for its traditional music sessions and Tigh Neachtain, where the old interior with its little 'snugs' or booths is a real beauty. Both pubs serve very good lunches and are noted for their seafood.

Humanity Dick

Richard Martin, an 18th century Member of Parliament whose nickname was 'Humanity Dick', lived in the house which is now Neachtain's pub. He was a well known animal lover and early animal rights activist who founded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the RSPCA.

Spanish Arch was once part of the old City Walls, now gone with only remnants here and there remaining. The history of the arch is something of a mystery, as is the reason for its name, though it may be named for the Spanish traders who used the harbour, which was for centuries a busy port.

The Claddagh

The area known as The Claddagh (F), from the Irish 'An Cladach' which means 'flat stony shore', sadly no longer really exists today. The area was settled originally when the occupants of the city were driven there by Norman forces in Medieval times. They fiercely maintained their traditional culture through the centuries, maintaining their own customs and dress, laws and language and even a 'king', the last of whom died in the 1950's.

The Claddagh Ring

This well known style of ring, with its motif of a pair of hands holding a crowned heart, has little to do with the Claddagh area other than bearing its name.

The ring symbolises Friendship (the hands), Love (the heart) and Fidelity (the crown). Traditionally if worn with the crown towards the fingers it means that the wearer was married, if worn the other way it signifies the wearer's availability for matrimony. More about Claddagh Rings

Until relatively recently, up to the 1970's, it was not unusual to see 'citizens' of the Claddagh in the city wearing their traditional black dress and shawls. In 1937 the old thatched cottages and building around the harbour were demolished and their occupants dispersed to various places around the city. In its place modern housing was built, sadly leaving no trace of the Claddagh's proud past.

 

 

More Info about Touring in the Galway City Area

If you are spending more than one day based in Galway, you may like to check out our Connemara Tour, and if you arrive or depart from Shannon, this tour will liven up your journey between there and Galway

The links below lead to more info about places to see and activities you may enjoy within reach of Galway

Delphi Adventure Centre | Thoor Ballylee | The Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas | Galway Cathedral | Leisureland | Killary Adventure Centre | Inishmore | Errislannan Manor | Connemara Golf Links | Gort Golf Club | The Cliffs of Moher | Ennis Friary | Ailwee Cave | Bunratty Castle and Folk Park | The Burren | Loop Head | Lahinch Golf Club |

Where to Stay

Read independent reviews of hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs and other recommended accommodation in the general area of this tour or in Co Galway.

What's on in the Area