Galway City Museum

Exhibits at this contemporary, three-floor museum engagingly communicate the town’s archaeologicalcultural, political, cultural and social heritage. Keep an eye out to an iconic Galway hooker fishing boat, a selection of currachs (boats made using a framework of laths covered with tarred canvas) and segments covering Galway’s function in the revolutionary events that shaped the Republic of Ireland.

Spanish Arch

The Spanish Arch is also believed to be an expansion of Galway’s medieval town walls, made to shield boats moored at the nearby quay while they unloaded products from Spain. This was partially destroyed by the tsunami that followed that the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Today it reverberates with buskers and drummers, and the lawns and riverside make a gathering place for locals and people to bright days, as kayakers negotiate the tidal rapids in the River Corrib.

Galway Market

Galway’s bohemian soul comes alive at its street market, which has put up in this place for decades. Saturdays are the standout for meals, when farmers market fresh produce alongside stalls selling arts, crafts and ready-to-eat dishes. Additional markets take place from noon to 6pm on bank holidays, Fridays in July and August and each day throughout the Galway International Arts Festival. Buskers add to the joyous atmosphere.

Eyre Square

Galway’s central public square is occupied in all but the harshest weather. A serene open green space with sculptures and pathwaysand its own lawns are formally named Kennedy Park in commemoration of JFK’s June 1963 trip to Galway, although locals always call it Eyre Sq.. Guarding the top aspect of the square would be your Browne Doorway, an imposing, even in case forlorn, fragment in the residence of one of their town’s merchant rulers. Dating from 1627, it was relocated here from Abbeygate St from 1905.

The road running along the northwestern side of this square is pedestrianised and lined with seating, whereas the eastern side is taken up almost completely from the Victorian-era, gray limestone Resort Meyrick.

Hall of the Red Earl

From the 13th century, if the de Burgo family dominated Galway, Richard — that the Red Earl — built a large hall as a seat of power, where locals would arrive at curry favour. After the 14 tribes occurred the hall fell into ruin. It was missing before the 1990s, after expansion of the town’s Custom House found its foundations, along with more than 11,000 artefacts such as clay pipes and stone cufflinks. The Custom House was constructed on stilts overhead, leaving the previous foundations available.

Interpretive panels detail the background of this town, the de Burgo family, and also the replica artefacts on display. Volunteers are usually on hand to provide a verbal explanation of their ruins and their significance, and an insight to Galway lifetime some 900 years ago.

Galway Cathedral

Rising within the River Corrib, imposing Galway Cathedral is one of the town’s best buildings. Cabinets include a beautifully decorated decoration, attractive Romanesque arches, intricate mosaics and rough-hewn stonework emblazoned with buttery stained glass. Regular musical occasions showcase the excellent acoustics; watch outside for concerts, organ recitals, Gregorian chanting and Sunday morning Mass (11am), even once the choir sings.

Concert dates and ticket information are submitted online. In the Spanish Arch, a riverside path runs upriver and across the Salmon Weir Bridge into the cathedral.

Atlantaquaria

Greater than 150 freshwater and sea-dwelling creatures from local waters float in Ireland’s largest native-species aquarium, such as seahorses, sharks and rays. There is also a floor-to-ceiling ocean tank, fin whale skeleton and design submarine. Talks, tours and feeding sessions take place daily; assess occasions on the internet.

Fishery Watchtower

Constructed from the 1850s, this butter-coloured Victorian tower was utilized to track fish inventory amounts (and poachers). Now revived, the exceptional trilevel construction contains a very small museum that provides an overview of Galway’s salmon-fishing business through displays such as photographs, along with fantastic views across the waterways.

Salthill Promenade

A favourite pastime for Galwegians and people alike is walking along the Salthill Prom, the 2km-long seaside promenade running by the border of town along Salthill. Local tradition dictates’blowing off the wall’ across in the diving boards (a 30- to 45-minute wander from city ) before turning around.

Salmon Weir

Upstream out of Salmon Weir Bridge, that spans the River Corrib only east of Galway Cathedralthe river cascades down the great weir, one of its final descents before reaching Galway Bay. The weir controls the water levels above it, and once the salmon are running you can frequently see shoals of these waiting at the waters prior to hurrying upriver to spawn. The salmon and sea-trout seasons usually span February to September, however many fish pass during May and June.

Collegiate Church of St Nicholas of Myra

Crowned with a pyramidal spire, the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas of Myra is now Ireland’s largest medieval parish church in use. Completed by 1320, it has been reconstructed and enlarged over time, although retaining much of its original type. Seafaring has been associated with the church the St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors. Really, Christopher Columbus reputedly worshiped here in 1477.

Lynch Memorial Window

James Lynch Fitzstephen was the mayor and magistrate of Galway at 1493. So the story goes when his kid was convicted because of the murder of a romantic rival Spanish merchant sailor, Lynch Sr personally acted as executioner, hanging him out of his window (that is supposed to be the source of the saying’to lynch’).

Lynch’s Castle

Now an AIB Bank, that superb example of a city castle was built around 1500 (the exact date is unknown). Even the facade’s stonework incorporates ghoulish gargoyles and the coats of arms of Henry VII, the Lynches (the most powerful of this 14 judgment Galway tribes) and the Fitzgeralds of Kildare. On the ground floor, interpretive panels protect its own history and architecture; the magnificent fireplace is still a highlight.

Oscar Wilde & Eduard Vilde Statue

An earnest conversation takes place involving Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and Estonian writer Eduard Vilde (1856–1933), sitting on a granite seat, inside this bronze-cast statue by Estonian artist Tiiu Kirsipuu. A replica of her original 1999 job, it was a present to the town from Estonia as it joined the EU in 2004. Buskers frequently join themperforming the seat between the 2 figures.

Browne Doorway

Guarding the top facet of Eyre Square, this out-of-context doorway (1627) is an imposing, even in case forlorn, fragment in the residence of one of this town’s merchant rulers, relocated in from Abbeygate St at 1905.