Ireland’s busiest walking attraction will remain closed to visitors for the entire 2025 season unless an agreement can be reached over the next seven days between local landowners and Clare County Council.
The Cliffs of Moher walking trail, located on either side of the main Cliffs of Moher Experience, closed in August following a safety audit by Sport Ireland.
The audit was prompted by the death of two tourists in separate incidents on the trail last year.
The trail, which attracts 400,000 visitors each year, is owned by 38 local farmers and managed by Clare Local Development Company, in conjunction with Clare County Council, Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Rural and Community Development.
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The audit identified 39 separate issues which it described as “significant” safety problems on the trail. Remedial action to address these will include a partial rerouting of the walkway, significant improvements to fencing and improvements to signage.
Clare County Council has been granted funding by the Department of Rural and Community Development to undertake these works, but cannot proceed until agreement is reached with the landowners.
Many of the landowners are unhappy with the current trail arrangement, under which they receive a modest annual sum under the national trails scheme. Some farmers receive a bonus ‘sustainability’ payment of €1,000 a year from the county council.
The trail had been expected to attract 10,000 people each year, but with annual visitors now close to half a million, this has created unexpected issues for landowners in terms of maintenance of the trail itself and impact on their adjoining farms.
Both the council and Clare Local Development Company have conceded the southern section of the trail will not reopen this year. Significant rerouting of the trail is required on this section with the consent of a large number of landowners needed before works can commence.
But there had been hopes the northern section, which connects Doolin to the Cliffs of Moher Experience, could be opened. According to Siobhan McNulty, the county council’s director of services for tourism development, work involving diggers and heavy machinery needs to begin on this section before March 1st if it is to stand any chance of being opened this year. It is estimated that one month of work is required to fix the northern section and, under the Habitats Directive, all such work must be finished by April 1 as the area around the Cliffs of Moher is a critical nesting ground for many birds, including puffins, and is a special area of conservation.
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“Ideally we would be in there now,” said Ms McNulty.
“They [the landowners] have valid concerns and that is their right, it is their land. It is not our intention to undermine that and we don’t want to antagonise the landowners. They have tolerated an awful lot,” she added.
One of the key obstacles in the way of reaching an agreement between landowners and Clare County Council is the lack of a clear vision for the long-term future of the trail. The four State agencies involved contracted Tobin Consultants to draw up a plan for the management of the walking trail last year. This report was delayed first by the fallout from the Sport Ireland audit in August and then by the addition of extra questions by Clare County Council earlier this year, and is now expected to be published in early March.
The walking route was originally conceived by local farmer, Pat Sweeney, who is one of the 38 landowners and operates a walking tour business on the trail.
“There is only 500 metres that need to be fixed on the northern side of the trail. It is very important that this happens. In Doolin village and the surrounding areas in north Clare, the businesses depend on this trail being open,” he said.
The Cliffs of Moher trail is classified as a grade 5 walking route by Sport Ireland, the most dangerous designation possible. It is about 18km of cliff edge, running from Liscannor in the south to Doolin in the north.
Last May a Belgian medical student fell from the 700ft cliff when the group she was travelling with tried to walk around another group of walkers on the trail. In July a 12-year-old boy, who was travelling in Ireland with his parents, also fell to his death from the trail.
