ONE OF THE OLDEST CAVES IN IRELAND

Book Tickets

INSPIRING AWARENESS OF THE BURREN UNDERGROUND LANDSCAPE

ALONG THE WILD ATLANTIC WAY
Located in the heart of The Burren, County Clare. Forty minutes from Galway and Shannon. Perched high on its Burren terraced hillside with what has to be one of the most spectacular views of Galway Bay. Aillwee Cave is a must visit for all who find themselves in The Burren.
Let the team at AILLWEE CAVE welcome you to the dramatic underworld of this area.
Expert guides will accompany and inform you during your leisurely tour. The tour consists of a 45-minute stroll through the beautiful caverns – over bridged chasms, under weird formations and alongside the thunderous waterfall which sometimes gently sprays the unsuspecting visitor! Marvel at the frozen waterfall and learn about the now extinct brown bears’ bones (ursos arctos).

The guides will bring you back to the overground world where you can browse and shop in a distinctly different gift shop which is housed in the award-winning complex that guards the entrance to the Burren underground.

Tours depart regularly, all you need to do is present your prebooked admission to the team on arrival and they will look after you.

TIP: We say to keep aside an hour total for check-in and Guided Tour of the Cave.

The guided cave tour has been sympathetically developed five times over 45 years and now takes visitors on a round trip of 850 meters into Aillwee Mountain, with 90 meters of limestone overhead at its deepest point.

An underground experience that encapsulates the Geological History of The unique Burren region. Geographical facts provide insights into how underground chasms, caverns and various calcite structures form. Time and Water are the most prominent features of this Natural Wonder. Aillwee’s Guided Cave Tour captures the attention of all ages. It is a 45-minute stroll over bridged chasms, under weird formations and alongside impressive waterfalls. Explore and learn about the hibernation chambers and appreciate remains of the European Brown Bear, dating from 10,500 years ago to 4,500 years ago – an impressive timeline of Cave inhabitation.

Alongside the enjoyable and educational guided tours, the cave has played host to theatrical plays, opera and ballad singers, traditional concerts, mountain bike races, endurance race competitors, ghost tours and even an underground fashion show. Santa and his elves set up their workshop annually in the cave and meet with families of all generations in the run-up to Christmas. 2020 was Santa’s 21st year with us.

10,400

YEARS OLD

OUR BEAR BONES

453

BONES FOUND

IN TOTAL AT AILLWEE

1 - 5 years

APPROXIMATE AGE

A MID-LIFE BEAR 🙂

2,100

YEAR OLD HORSE TOOTH

ALSO FOUND AT AILLWEE CAVE

Book Tickets
The bear skull from Aillwee Cave has been radiocarbon dated to the Early Mesolithic Period and is 10,400 years old.
The population of Ireland at this time was quite low, with probably fewer than 1.000 people in the entire country.

These groups would have been nomadic hunter-gatherers who did not live in permanent settlements but moved around the landscape during the year following food sources. Wild pig, salmon, eel and hazelnuts formed an important component of their diet.

The Mesolithic bear from Aillwee indicates that the Buren was forested at this time as a brown bear could not have survived in the exposed limestone Buren that we know today. This bear was male and a sub adult, 1 to 5 years old). He may have been using the cave as a den, or for hibernation, and died there.

A bear bone from Glencurran Cave in the Burren National Park, approximately 7km from Aillwee has also been radiocarbon dated to the Early Mesolithic and is 9,000 years old — making the Aillwee bear older by 1,400 years. A bear tibia (leg bone) from Aillwee has been radiocarbon dated to the Late Neolithic Period and is just over 4,600 years old. This bone came from an adult bear and has a chop-mark that suggests the bear carcass was butchered by humans.

It was during the Neolithic Period that monuments such as the Newgrange passage tomb were built. Poulnabrone portal tomb, just down the road from Aillwee Cave, was also constructed during the Neolithic but is almost a thousand years older than the Aillwee bear.

However, Poulnabrone would have still been a focus for religious rituals when the Neolithic Aillwee bear roamed the surrounding forests.

ailwee-cave-burren4-600x460
Book Tickets