Skip to content
GalwayOnFoot.ieClifden
County Galway · Connacht · An Clochán

About Clifden

Clifden is a town in County Galway, 69 km west of Galway city, with 1,259 people at the 2022 census. A town one landlord drew on a bog in 1812, a quay by Nimmo, Marconi's wireless to America, and the field where Alcock and Brown came down: the capital of Connemara.

Population
1,259 (2022 census)
Where
69 km from Galway, 250 km from Dublin
Position
53.4885° N, 10.0211° W, 50 m above sea level
In Irish
An Clochán
On the model
1,633 buildings, 28 streets, 356 places in 66 kinds
Read more
Clifden on Wikipedia
The 3D model of Clifden with every named place pinned
Main Street, Clifden, County Galway - May 1994
Main Street, Clifden, County Galway - May 1994
Jeff Buck, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Main Street, Clifden in 1985
Main Street, Clifden in 1985
John Baker, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Clifden: view from D'Arcy Monument, County Galway, Republic of Ireland.
Clifden: view from D'Arcy Monument, County Galway, Republic of Ireland.
Bert Kaufmann, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Main Street, Clifden
Main Street, Clifden
Gareth James, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

  1. 1804 to 1812
    D'Arcy's idea. John D'Arcy inherited the estate in 1804, when it held little but fishermen and farmers, and in 1812 first spoke of building a town on the coast.
  2. 1843
    O'Connell's monster meeting. Daniel O'Connell spoke at Clifden for repeal of the Union to a crowd put at 100,000.
  3. 1853 and 1879
    Two churches. Christ Church, the Church of Ireland church, was built in 1853 in place of one of 1810; St Joseph's, the Catholic church, was finished in 1879.
  4. 1919
    Alcock and Brown. On 15 June 1919 the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic ended in Derrygimlagh bog beside the Marconi station.
  5. 1924 and 1947
    The pony show. The Connemara Pony Show, run by the Connemara Pony Breeders' Society on the third Thursday of August since 1924, has been held in Clifden since 1947.

The full history, 15 moments in order

What to see

  1. The Station House194 m

    Clifden's railway station from 1895 to 1935, now a hotel, shops, flats and a museum of the line and the town.

  2. Clifden Castle2.4 km

    John D'Arcy's house of about 1818, the seat of the man who drew the town, a ruin above Clifden Bay on the Sky Road.

  3. The Sky Road5.2 km

    An eleven-kilometre loop along Clifden Bay and Streamstown Bay, climbing more than 150 metres, with the Atlantic, the castle, the coastguard station, Inishturk, Turbot and the town below.

  4. Derrygimlagh bog4.7 km

    Blanket bog six kilometres south of the town, where Alcock and Brown came down in 1919 and where the Marconi station sent the first wireless words to America in 1907.

  5. The Marconi station4.7 km

    The site of the first high-power transatlantic wireless station, opened in 1907, burned in 1922.

  6. Thomas Whelan's monument297 m

    The memorial to the Clifden man hanged in Mountjoy in 1921, one of the Forgotten Ten, commemorated in the town every year.

All the things to see and do

Questions people ask

Where is Clifden?
In County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 69 km west of Galway city and 250 km west of Dublin, on the N59 from Galway, 64 km from Westport.
What is the population of Clifden?
1,259 people at the 2022 census.
What is there in Clifden?
On the map, 356 named places in 66 kinds: 26 places to eat and drink, 34 shops, 12 schools, churches and public buildings, and 213 things to see within 12 km.
Why is Clifden called the capital of Connemara?
Because it is the largest town in the region and holds its services: the Garda headquarters for Connemara, the main fire station, the library, and the shops and pubs the surrounding country uses.
What is Clifden known for?
Marconi's transatlantic wireless station of 1907, the crash-landing of Alcock and Brown after the first non-stop Atlantic flight in 1919, the Sky Road, the Connemara Pony Show every August, and the burning of the town by Black and Tans on St Patrick's Day 1921.

Getting around

Clifden sits on the N59 from Galway, 64 km from Westport. 2 bus stops and 2 car parks are on the map.

History, sights and civic facts summarise Wikipedia, "Clifden" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-19). Population is the CSO census as listed there. Distances and everything on the model are OpenStreetMap.