Shannon: the gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way

Home of the world's first duty-free airport shop, Shannon remains primarily the most convenient gateway for exploring the cliffs and castles of Ireland's western coast.

A rental car remains necessary to reach regional attractions.

The nearby Bunratty Castle, a fourteenth-century Norman fortress restored with period furnishings, hosts evening medieval banquets featuring live music and traditional Irish food.

Next to the castle, Bunratty Folk Park reconstructs an entire late-nineteenth-century Irish village with cottages, shops, and farm animals grazing freely among the pathways.

In the afternoon, one should venture to the Cliffs of Moher, which plunge over two hundred meters straight into the Atlantic Ocean along the Clare coast.

As evening falls, the fishing villages of the Burren region, a nearly lunar limestone landscape, offer a traditional pub where one can listen to live Irish folk music.

Shannon was the first airport in the world to introduce a duty-free shop in 1947, a model later copied by airports across the planet.

The Cliffs of Moher, among Ireland's most photographed destinations, have also served as a filming location for various international productions, including scenes from a Harry Potter film.