Skip to content
The 3D model of Carna: every building standing up, with the shops and services pinned

Carna, street by street

The focal point of Iorras Aithneach, far to the west of Galway in the strongest Gaeltacht, where in 1935 it was agreed there were more unrecorded folktales than anywhere else in western Europe.

Carna is a village of County Galway, 53 km west of Galway city. This page is a working model of it: every one of its 356 buildings stands on the map above, and 134 shops, cafés, schools, churches and services have a page each, with the street, the hours where recorded, the nearest bus stop and car park, and a plan of the streets around it. Everything comes from open map data and says so.

Today
Weather in Carna

Live forecast for the centre, hour by hour and the week ahead.

Buses, roads, parking
Getting to Carna

53 km from Galway, 26 km from Aerphort Chonamara, 0 bus stops, 0 car parks.

See and do
Things to do

The church, the emigrants' centre, Ard Castle, Mace Head, Maínis.

Since 1650s
The history of Carna

To hell or to Connacht, the Famine, the Folklore Commission, Joe Heaney, the All-Ireland of 1998.

Facts
About the town

where it is, what is here.

What is in Carna

1 restaurants, 1 pubs, 2 supermarkets, 1 pharmacies and 3 schools and more, by kind. Each kind has a page listing every one, closest to the church first.

All 25 kinds of place

Guides to Carna

All 1 guides
Food and drink

Where to eat in Carna

2 cafés, restaurants, takeaways and pubs on the map, 1 of them within 300 m of the church. 1 have hours on record.

  1. Tigh MhóráinPubs
  2. Tigh MheaicRestaurants

Restaurants · Pubs

Plan of Carna with every place to eat marked

Every place to eat and drink as a pin; tap one for its page and directions.

Street by street

All 2 streets
  1. Bruach na Mara
    residential street · 288 m
    3 places

Things to see around Carna

Beach on the island. Equatorial tropical thunderstorm clouds over the Lombok Strait, Gili Meno Island,…
Beach on the island. Equatorial tropical thunderstorm clouds over the Lombok Strait, Gili Meno Island,…
Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Coffee shop and cafe in Carna
Coffee shop and cafe in Carna
Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Carna Church
Carna Church
Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Castles, abbeys, old churches, beaches, viewpoints and parks within 12 km, closest first and 2 holy wells on their own pages.

  1. Loch an GhearraidhLakes · 309 m
  2. Loch an tSrutháin DheirgLakes · 490 m
  3. Loch an ChaoráinLakes · 830 m
  4. Lough NahownbiggaLakes · 1.1 km
  5. Lough DoholaLakes · 1.1 km
  6. Lough AteeskyLakes · 1.2 km
  7. Loch Céim na CaillíLakes · 1.4 km
  8. Lough ClooshgirreaLakes · 1.7 km
  9. Lough TawnaghboyLakes · 1.8 km

Holy wells · Beaches · Hotels

Carna in pictures

Photographs of the place and the country around it, each from an open archive and credited to the person who took it.

Beach on the island. Equatorial tropical thunderstorm clouds over the Lombok Strait, Gili Meno Island,…
Beach on the island. Equatorial tropical thunderstorm clouds over the Lombok Strait, Gili Meno Island,…
Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Coffee shop and cafe in Carna
Coffee shop and cafe in Carna
Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Carna Church
Carna Church
Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
County Galway, Carna Quay.
County Galway, Carna Quay.
Newbert12, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
County Galway, Carna Quay.
County Galway, Carna Quay.
Newbert12, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
County Galway, St Mary's Church.
County Galway, St Mary's Church.
Newbert12, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
County Galway, St Mary's Church.
County Galway, St Mary's Church.
Newbert12, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
At Carna, Connemara. On this moorland both Mackay's and Praeger's heaths occur.
At Carna, Connemara. On this moorland both Mackay's and Praeger's heaths occur.
Dr Charles Nelson, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Questions people ask

Where is Carna?
Carna is in County Galway, in the west of Ireland, 53 km west of Galway city and 237 km west of Dublin.
How far is Carna from Galway?
53 km in a straight line from the church to the centre of Galway city; the road is a little longer.
What is Carna known for?
Sean-nós singing and Joe Heaney, the folklore of Éamon a Búrc, its Irish, Mace Head, and the Carna-Cashel footballers.
What is the weather like in Carna today?
The weather page shows the live forecast for the centre, hour by hour for the next day and day by day for the week.

How the model is built

The buildings are OpenStreetMap footprints, read on 2026-09-18, stood up to the height the map records or a plain two storeys where it records none. Streets, water and the base map come from the same project through OpenFreeMap. Places are the named shops, services and public buildings on the map; each has its own page.

A building takes the colour of the kind of place inside it: restaurants in red, pharmacies in green, schools in yellow. Nothing is invented to fill a gap: a missing fact is shown as missing, with a link to add it to the map. More about the model.