Hotels near The Spanish Arch and the Long Walk

The Spanish Arch is a surviving section of Galway's 1584 city wall, built to shelter merchant ships unloading wine and salt from Spain and Portugal. Two of the original four arches remain, the rest lost to the wave that followed the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. It is considerably smaller than photographs suggest, and first-time visitors are often underwhelmed. The reason to come is the grass bank behind it, where the River Corrib empties into Galway Bay and half the city sits out on any dry evening.

Cross the Wolfe Tone Bridge and the Long Walk runs along the far quay: a terrace of narrow houses painted deep red, blue and ochre, facing the water. This is the view that ends up on most Galway postcards. Swans gather at the Claddagh basin beside it, on the site of the fishing village cleared in the 1930s. The full loop takes twenty minutes and costs nothing.

Pro Tip: Photograph the Long Walk from the Claddagh side about an hour before sunset, when the light hits the house fronts directly. Shot from the Spanish Arch side they are backlit and flat for most of the day.