12 Iconic Photo Spots in Ireland for your Road Trip

Oct 1

In this blog post, I share some of the best photo spots of Ireland I photographed during a 10-day road trip along the Wild Atlantic Way, other parts of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. I'll guide you through these well-known locations and provide practical tips on capturing images using just your iPhone.

Table of Contents

Two ways to visit the best photo spots in Ireland
12 Iconic Photos Spots in Ireland
Tips for visiting Ireland from my own experience
Summary

Two ways to visit the best photo spots in Ireland

The first option to see all the iconic photo spots in Ireland featured in this blog post, I did a road trip. Starting from Dublin, with approximately 3 hours of driving each day, you can explore all the mentioned photo spots within 10 days, including enough time to take photos.

The second option is to book tours from the major cities like Dublin, Belfast or Limerick. Dublin is the best option to see the photo spots either in the south of Ireland like the Rock of Cashel, Hore Abbey, the Cliffs of Moher or the Gleninchaquin Waterfall. Optionally, you’ll find tours that will take you to the northern photo spots like the Dark Hedges or the Giant's Causeway (which I didn’t cover in this blog post because I found them to be underwhelming).

From Belfast, you can explore the north of Ireland and visit the Dark Hedges, Giant’s Causeway, the House of Tyrone, the Cliffs of Moher or Downpatrick Head.

From Limerick, you can explore all the beautiful photo spots in western Ireland, from the Kerry Cliffs to the Gleninchaquin Waterfall, Ballycarbery Castle, the Ennis Friary, the Bad Eddie Shipwreck and much more.

12 of the best Photos Spots in Ireland I visited

Trinity College Library in Dublin, also known as the Long Room

Built in the 18th century, the old library at the trinity college is an impressive photo spot in Dublin. Unfortunately, when I visited in August 2024, all the books were already removed, digitized and stored in a climate controlled facility. Nevertheless, the long room is an iconic photo spot in Ireland worth visiting.

Long Room Library at Trintiy College, Dublin

If you plan to visit the long room, make sure to book your tickets online in advance. Unlike many other photo spots in Ireland, you won’t benefit much from being there early or late. This spot is always crowded. But you can still get a good photo if you mind the following tips: Take a photo right from the entrance of the long room. Hold your camera above your head or use a selfie-stick to raise your camera above the crowd. As you will need to tilt your camera slightly to capture the room, use one of the recommended apps to fix perspective distortions on iPhone like I did.

Rock of Cashel also known as St. Patrick's Rock in County Tipperary

The Rock of Cashel was the seat of the kings of Munster. On top of the limestone rock you’ll find a medieval cathedral, a smaller chapel, a round tower and a graveyard with numerous famous names like “Kennedy”.

After a 15-minute uphill walk, you’ll reach the main entrance of the area, where you need to purchase a ticket. You can either explore the place on your own or take a guided tour, which is the only way to get into the small chapel. I did both. I first took the tour and then spend another hour to walk around on my own.

From my perspective, the ideal location to photograph the Rock of Cashel and the abbey is talking the 15-minute walk to the rear of the rock. Here you can use the meadow with grazing sheep as a foreground and the abbey as the background. And while you're there, don't forget to turn around and photograph the ruins of Hore Abbey in all its glory.

Hore Abbey, an abandoned abbey in County Tipperary

Net to the Rock of Cashel, you’ll find the abandoned monastery Hore Abbey. If you've followed my recommendations for photographing the Rock of Cashel, simply turn around, and you’ll see Hore Abbey in the midst of a meadow.

Hore Abbey lies in a private property. But in August 2024, you were allowed to enter it. Though it may be interesting to walk around the abbey, I didn’t find it as appealing for a photo as from the distance.

For this photo, I used the rule of thirds composition technique. I placed the main subject in the lower third of the frame, leaving room for the dramatic cloud formation.

Gleninchaquin Waterfall, an impressive Waterfall in County Kerry

The Gleninchaquin Waterfall is a 140 meters high waterfall in the Gleninchaquin park, a national park in Kerry. To visit Gleninchaquin Park, be prepared to take a narrow and winding road. As parking is limited in the park, I recommend arriving early.

Once you arrived, decide which of the three routes to hike. I opted for the one which would take me past the waterfall to a beautiful lake and back to the valley. The round trip will take you around 90 minutes.

The best place to get a photo of the Gleninchaquin Waterfall is from the opposite side of the valley. From there, you’ll get a scenic view over the valley, the sheep and the waterfall. For composing this photo, I used the rule of thirds, placing the summits of the mountains at the upper third of the frame.

Kerry Cliffs, a spectacular landscape in County Kerry

If you plan to visit the Cliffs of Moher, the Cliffs of Kerry are a foretaste. The impressive photo spot rises over 1000 feet from the Atlantic Ocean. You’ll find two viewpoints there.

The best view point for taking a photo is the right one (looking towards the sea). From here you’ll see the rugged Kerry Cliffs stretching to the horizon. Use either the standard wide lens or even the ultra-wide lens of your iPhone to capture the beauty of this view.

If there is ever no wind here, try a long exposure with your iPhone. The moving clouds and the waves crashing at the cliffs should be a great subject. I tried it, but the wind was too strong to hold the iPhone steady for capturing a long exposure with Reeheld camera app and if’d used a tripod, it probably would have been blown away.

Ballycarbery Castle, a medieval castle ruin in County Kerry

The origins of this castle date back to the 14th century. The medieval castle ruin resides on a grassy hill overlooking the sea behind it. The ruin is on a privately own property which was off limits as of August 2024. But that didn’t matter to me. You can take a walk around the castle and see and photograph it from three sides. One side totally overgrew!

In my opinion, the best play to take a photo of the castle is of you take the path to the left. There you’ll get a beautiful foreground with wild grass and flowers. If you want to capture a photo of the castle in the hill only, I’d recommend walking along the shore of the sea to the right.

Ennis Friary, an abandoned friary in County Clare

You’ll find the friary next to the center of Ennis, the county town of Clare. Established in the 14th century, the friary had an eventful past. In 1871, the friary was abandoned. Today you can visit the friary in Ennis for a small fee.

In my opinion, the best spot to take a photo of the friary is from the back of the graveyard. I recommend using the pathway as a leading line when composing the photo, additionally placing a few tombstones in the foreground to add depth to the scene.

Cliffs of Moher, the best known cliffs of Ireland in County Clare

The Cliffs of Moher are probably the best known photo spot in Ireland. According to a study, it’s even the most photographed place in Ireland.

My tip for getting great photos of the Cliffs of Moher is to be there as early as possible. I arrived shortly before 9 am, which allowed me an hour to take photos before all the tourist busses arrived. The best place to take photos of the Cliffs is to take the hiking route to the left of the tower. On this route, you’ll get stunning views of the iconic cliffs.

The photo is also a good example of using the rule of thirds for composing a photo. The rocks cover two thirds of the frame, while I placed the horizon in the upper third. This places the massive cliffs in the foreground while leaving room for some context and background like the sea and the sky.

House of Tyrone, an abandoned manor in County Galway

I consider the House of Tyrone being an insider tip. It’s located in the residential area on a private property, which is off limits. But again, the best view is from the road, photographing the abandoned manor house.

Please mind, that there’s no parking near the House of Tyrone. I parked my car in the gateway of the property. To photograph the house, I recommend taking a photo from either the left or right corner of the property. This will give you the angle you can see in the photo above.

I didn’t find a frontal view of the building very scenic, but you may want to give it a try.

Downpatrick Head, a scenic headland in County Mayod

The huge outcrop makes Downpatrick Head an iconic photo spot in Ireland. At this spot, you’ll also find the remains of a World War II lookout post that yoyu can see in the photo.

There are actually two great photo spots here: the left and right side of headland. I captured the house on it to provide a bit of a context to the views about the size of the head.

Bad Eddie, a shipwreck in County Donegal

You’ll find many shipwrecks along the coast of Ireland. But Bad Eddie, a washed up fishing boat, is probably the most iconic. The ship wreck was washed up to the beach in the 1970s and decayed since then. The wreck is only accessible during low tide.

The photo I took is the typical viewpoint for this photo spot for a simple reason. It hides that there’s not much left of the ship. But that's precisely what could be interesting. Try capturing the wreck from different angles and view points and see which appeals most to you.

This photo also illustrates what I meant by incorporating the clouds into your frame. I had to lower my angle a bit to capture the wreck against the blue sky, while the cloud formation adds a natural frame to the composition.

The Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland

In addition to the Cliffs of Moher, the Dark Hedges are among the best known and most iconic photo spots. The 250-year-old avenue of beech trees became famous as a filming location for Game of Thrones.

When you arrive there by car, do not turn on the sign saying Dark Hedges! Continue to the dedicated (and paid) parking. From there, it will take you 5–7 minutes to get to the avenue.

When I visited the dark Hedges, I saw many people taking photos at the beginning of the avenue, which, in my opinion, is not the best place. I recommend walking the avenue until you get to the top of the small hill and then photograph towards the entrance of the avenue on your way back.

If you want to get a photo without people, you have to be there early, like around 6-8am. I used the artificial intelligence of Lightroom Mobile to remove the people from the photo.

Tips for visiting Ireland from my own experience

As you’re on this page, you probably have already researched and read dozens of tips about going to Ireland - and so did I. I culled the list to a handful of tips that I found to be useful.

Use the popular time feature in Google Maps to plan your visit

If you search for a photo location in Google Maps, you’ll see a chart highlighting the popular times. For some places, you’ll need to select “the official location”; e.g. for the Cliffs of Moher you have to select the visitor center (“the business”) to see them.

Popular times feature in Google Maps for the Cliffs of Moher

You may want to use this feature to plan your trip to any of the photos spots I’ve mentioned in this blog post.

Be prepared for the weather

It’s true. The weather can change fast and often within the day. It happened more than once that it was raining when I left the hotel. But an hour later, the rain stopped, the clouds disappeared and the sun shined. So my tip is to dress in layers when in Ireland.

If you visit photo spots near the sea, like the Kerry Cliffs or the Cliffs of Moher, be prepared for strong winds. I experienced a stiff breeze at the Kerry Cliffs which made it impossible to use a tripod for capturing long exposure photos. It would have been blown away.

Ireland is a bit more expensive than continental Europe

Similar to England and Scotland, Ireland is a bit more expensive than continental Europe. That applies to food, gas, hotel rooms, just to name a few examples. Plan at least EUR 60,- for meals for two people, including one drink for each in a pub. And speaking of pubs and meals: My favorite dish in Ireland was Irish Stew! I ate it almost every other day!

Don’t rely on traveling times from Google or Apple Maps

Be prepared for narrow and winding roads in Ireland, particularly along the Wild Atlantic Way. While Google and Apple Maps use the official speed limit to estimate travel times, these limits may be much too high for many of the roads in this region for an average driver. For driving at the posted speed on these roads, you’d probably need a rally racing training. Therefore, add 20% to 30% to the estimated travel time to account for the challenging roads.

Data Roaming for Smartphone

The Republic of Ireland is in the European Union and as I’m as resident of the EU, I wouldn’t have to worry about data roaming - unless you go to Northern Ireland to see e.g. Giant’s Causeway or the Dark Hedges. Northern Ireland is not in the EU, and thus data roaming costs will apply.

Moreover, I had a stopover in Switzerland, which is also not part of the EU. To avoid data roaming costs, I purchased a travel eSim from Holafly for Europe (which included Switzerland and Northern Ireland). To read about may experience with this travel eSim, head to my Holafly review.

Summary

Ireland is a photographer's paradise, offering a wide range of iconic spots. If you plan your road trip along the wild Atlantic way wisely, you’ll be able to see and photograph many of them.

From the historic Trinity College Library in Dublin to the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher to the mystic Dark Hedges near Belfast, you’ll have countless opportunities to take unforgettable images during your Ireland road trip.

The weather in Ireland, with its dramatic cloud formations, can add an extra layer of beauty to your photographs.

Photo SpotsLandscapesIreland

Chris F.