Cliffs of Moher 4.02

The Cliffs of Moher are located at the southwestern edge of the Burren region in County Clare, Ireland. They rise 120m above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag's Head, and, eight kilometres to the north, reach their maximum height of 214m just north of O'Brien's Tower, which is a round stone tower near the midpoint of the cliffs that was built in 1835 by Sir Cornelius O'Brien. From the cliffs, and from atop the tower, visitors can see the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, the Maumturks and Twelve Pins mountain ranges to the north in County Galway, and Loop Head to the south. The cliffs rank amongst the most visited tourist sites in Ireland and receive approximately one million visitors a year. The closest settlements are Liscannor (6 km south) and Doolin (7 km north).NameThe cliffs take their name from an old promontory fort called Mothar or Moher, which once stood on Hag's Head, the southernmost point of the cliffs, now the site of Moher Tower. The writer Thomas Johnson Westropp referred to it in 1905 as Moher Uí Ruis or Moher Uí Ruidhin. The fort still stood in 1780 and is mentioned in an account from John Lloyd's A Short Tour Of Clare (1780). It was demolished in 1808 to provide material for a lookout/telegraph tower that was intended to provide warning in case of a French invasion during the Napoleonic wars.