Clare County Council has described a new bus service that it intends to establish at the Cliffs of Moher this year as a “give back” to the people of North Clare.
The Cliffs of Moher Experience attracted almost 1.5 million visitors to Clare last year, many of whom travelled by bus to and from the site and were of little financial benefit to businesses in the area. In addition, traffic issues in the North Clare area have been growing in recent years, with the proliferation of large tourist busses causing significant disruption to the local population.
Clare County Council announced plans for a free shuttle bus service to the Cliffs of Moher Experience earlier this year, which would connect the world famous visitors site to local towns and villages.
In parallel to this, the tourist attraction has increased the price of non-booked cars parking at the visitor’s centre by 25% as part of a new dynamic charging structure.
According to Clare County Council’s Director of Services for Tourism Development, Siobhan McNulty, these two measures together will encourage tourist to stay longer in Clare and experience local towns and other attractions.
This will come at a cost to the local authority who will have to fund the new bus service and also absorb lost revenue from the expectant drop in parking charges at the site.
The recent price increase the cost for an unbooked adult parking at the centre to €15.
“This is about a give-back to the community and an economic benefit for the local people. We want to lift all boats,” said Ms McNulty.
“We still have a very robust business model [at the Cliffs of Moher Experience] around booking and online and people will still book and pay to park at the Cliffs of Moher site, but there are other who will seek value and experience the local towns and villages.
“We acknowledge that this is a loss-leader for Clare County Council but it is a payback for the local communities. We are doing it as a pilot for 2025 and 2026 and after that we will review it to see if the model is successful, whether it needs to be expanded, there will be ongoing reviews of the model.”
Clare County Council is hoping that the trial bus service will be up and running in June of this year.
“The shuttle bus service that we will have in operation for June, please God, and we hope to have a tender in place for May, this is a sustainable transport model and the aim is to get people travelling to the site on a small mini-bus and spread the economic benefits to all the towns and villages in North Clare and the surrounding region,” said Ms McNulty.
Clare County Council is currently developing a long term strategy for the Cliffs of Moher and elements like a shuttle bus service and interactions with the Cliffs of Moher Walking Trail are expected to be key parts of that strategy.
“The Cliffs of Moher strategy for 2040 looks at the value of the Cliffs of Moher to the region and how that can be managed. We are looking at various elements of that. I am a recent enough appointment to the role and we are reviewing where we are with this strategy before it is published,” said Ms McNulty.
“We have that and the Cliffs of Moher Management Plan and we need to insure that there are synergies between these documents. We want to see how we can harness the natural and iconic beauties that we have for the betterment of the region, and make sure that they line-up in terms of sustainability, traffic and management and the challenges that are around the site.”
The world famous tourist attraction is a major cash generator for Clare County Council with the local authority recording revenue of €13.8 million from the facility in 2023, an increase on the €10.8 million it recorded in 2022.
As there is a public right of way to visit the Cliffs of Moher themselves, the entry to the Cliffs of Moher Visitors’ Experience entitles visitors to parking, access to the visitor centre, audio guides and access to the on-site theatre and other facilities.
The tourist facility is operated by Clare Tourism Development, a subsidiary company owned by Clare County Council.
A total of 1,495,069 people visited the Cliffs of Moher Experience in 2024, close to the record 1.6 million who visited in 2019, before the outbreak of Covid-19.
Andrew Hamilton is a journalist, investigative reporter and podcaster who has been working in the media in Ireland for the past 20 years. His areas of special interest include the environment, mental health and politics.