County Galway · Connacht · Uachtar Ard

About Oughterard

Oughterard is a town in County Galway, 25 km north-west of Galway city, with 1,846 people at the 2022 census. The Owenriff running into Lough Corrib, an O'Flaherty tower at Aughnanure, a silver mine you can walk into, and the chief angling town on the Corrib.

Population: 1,846 (2022 census)
Where: 25 km from Galway, 203 km from Dublin
Position: 53.4284° N, 9.3226° W, 68 m above sea level
In Irish: Uachtar Ard
On the model: 1,940 buildings, 23 streets, 141 places in 43 kinds
Read more: Oughterard on Wikipedia

Aughnanure Castle
Kevin Forkan, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Aughnanaure Castle in Oughterard, County Galway, Ireland
Ybsocnna, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Main Street, Oughterard
David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

Early times
Forts, wells and stones. Ringforts, holy wells and standing stones lie in the townlands of Ardvarna, Clare, Cregg and Fough West.
1808 and 1829
Two churches. The Church of Ireland church in Fough West was built in 1808 and extended in 1852; the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, finished in 1829, has a stained-glass window attributed to Harry Clarke.
1895 to 1935
The Clifden line. The Midland Great Western Railway opened the station on 1 January 1895 on its Galway to Clifden line; the Great Southern closed station and line on 29 April 1935.
1951
The Quiet Man. The bridge eight kilometres west on the N59, now called the Quiet Man Bridge, was a location for John Ford's film with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.
2020
All-Ireland football. Oughterard GAA won the All-Ireland intermediate club football championship in 2020.

The full history, 10 moments in order

What to see

Aughnanure Castle3.3 km
The O'Flaherty tower house three kilometres from the town, one of the best-preserved medieval tower houses in the country.
Glengowla Mines3.8 km
The lead and silver mine abandoned in 1865, open as a show mine with exhibits on the mining of the district.
Lough Corrib
The lake the town is the chief angling centre for, a few minutes from the centre down the Owenriff.
Inchagoill6.4 km
The island in the lake with its early monastic site, the Stone of Lugnad and St Patrick's church, reached by boat.
The Church of the Immaculate Conception365 m
The church of 1829 with its Harry Clarke window.
The old courthouse196 m
Built in the early nineteenth century and now the library.

All the things to see and do

Questions people ask

Where is Oughterard?

In County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 25 km north-west of Galway city and 203 km west of Dublin, on the N59 from Galway to Clifden.

What is the population of Oughterard?

1,846 people at the 2022 census.

What is there in Oughterard?

On the map, 141 named places in 43 kinds: 12 places to eat and drink, 10 shops, 8 schools, churches and public buildings, and 86 things to see within 12 km.

What is Oughterard known for?

Fishing on Lough Corrib, Aughnanure Castle, the Glengowla show mine, the Quiet Man Bridge, a mention in Joyce's The Dead, and the fastest growth of almost any town in Ireland.

What is the history of Oughterard?

O'Flaherty country taken by the de Burghs in 1256, a barracks town from the eighteenth century, churches of 1808 and 1829, silver mines closed in 1865, a station on the Clifden railway from 1895 to 1935, and a town that grew by forty per cent between 2016 and 2022.

Getting around

Oughterard sits on the N59 from Galway to Clifden. 4 bus stops and 1 car park are on the map.

History, sights and civic facts summarise Wikipedia, "Oughterard" (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.