County Dossier
Clare
A western county of limestone, music and Atlantic edges.
Clare stands on the west of Ireland between Galway Bay and the Shannon estuary, with the great limestone plain of the Burren in the north and the Atlantic coast sweeping southwards to Loop Head.
At a glance
Clare at a glance
A western county of limestone, music and Atlantic edges.
- Province of Munster
- Strong music tradition
- Most famous landmark: Cliffs of Moher
- Area: 1,330 sq miles / 3,445 km²
- Population: 117,196
- County top: Moylussa 1,745 ft / 532 m
County Geography
Clare meets Galway to the north-east, Tipperary to the east, and Limerick across the Shannon to the south-east, while the Atlantic forms the west and south-west. The county is shaped by the Burren plateau, the lower Fergus basin, the estuary and lough side of the Shannon, and the long outer Atlantic coast.
Clare is easy to recognise through the Burren limestone, the Fergus plain, the Shannon edge, and the Atlantic coast.
Map Reference
View Clare on the map
Clare is the county. The map shows its boundary, places, and neighbouring counties.
The county.
The county boundary.
Nearby counties and places.
Places and routes
Ennis, Ennistymon, Kilrush, Killaloe, and Lisdoonvarna show the county from its central plain and eastern river side to its western coast and Burren district.
Connections
The county’s routes have long crossed through Ennis, followed the Fergus and Shannon side toward Killaloe, and run west and south toward Ennistymon, Lisdoonvarna, and Kilrush. Movement follows the same central plain, estuary, and coastal pattern.
Names
- Clare
- County Clare
- County of Clare
An Clár is the Irish form of Clare. County Clare is the formal historical style, the county’s older background lies in Thomond and the O’Brien sphere, and Clare became the county form within that western Munster setting.
Clare was a county by the sixteenth century, but Thomond and the county’s geography of Burren, estuary, and Atlantic coast long predate that formal step. That western Munster landscape still reads as one historic county.