Doolin Cave

Very interesting attraction. If you’re around definitely worthy to be visited. There is also a coffee shop but they open it late. What’s the point if I can’t have a coffee and a cake in the morning for breakfast?

This is the one place we all agreed was great! While on our way to Doolin to do Pat’s Cliff Walk to the Cliffs of Mohr, we saw a sign that read «Europe’s Largest Stalagtite». We could not resist and had to check it out.
Doolan cave is privately owned. They do tours every 30 minutes or so. The fee was nominal, maybe 15 Euro per person. The tour lasted almost 30 minutes, they provide hardhats and you can do a nature walk on the grounds afterward. Our guide was very well versed and educated.
The cave is amazing. It is quite deep. They have in recent years, fitted stairs in for the tours. It is a very easy trek down. There are little stools in case you get winded and need to rest on the way back up.
A must do if you are in the area.

Doolin Cave is basically a private startup that carved out a duo of caverns instead of developing an iPhone app. The cave is left as nature intended, with the only alterations being a series of handrails and a little less mud. Although there was still plenty of mud.
Unlike Aillwee Cave — which has been open to the public since the 70’s — Doolin Cave only opened to the public in 2006, and was entirely private funded.
(you can tell I was paying attention during the tour)
If you’ve done Temple Bar in Dublin, the Cliffs of Moher, etc. and are a bit sick of the commercialized tourist sights, then you can breathe a little sigh of relief here. That being said, 15 euros /​person for a 45-​minute tour is a bit steep. I had a LivingSocial coupon that gave me two adult entries for that price (effectively a 2-​for-​1), but without it I think I might have felt a bit shortchanged.

Only € 15 for a 45 minute long trip into a badass cave? Yes please. First of all, I love caves. Second, I love stalactites. And this cave has one hell of a stalactite (see my pic).
The tour guide was incredibly friendly. Unlike some cave tours I’ve been on in the US, this was clearly more of a low budget, family run type of operation. This is a good thing, because I felt less like cattle being herded through.
The tour starts by going down some 12 stories of stairs, which you have to climb on your way back out. In other words, this is NOT wheelchair friendly (or old-​person friendly, or person on crutches friendly, or out of shape fat sack friendly). They said they may put in an elevator someday, but for now its stairs, so keep that in mind. However don’t let the stairs deter you unless you have some physical ailment, because its totally worth it.
Once down the stairs, you get a hard hat and then work your way down a tunnel to main chamber, where you can view the awesome stalactite, which is 23 feet (7 meters) long. It’s really amazing, especially when you consider how old it is.
After taking a bunch of pictures from various angles, they take you to a secondary room that has a bunch of little stalactites. After that, the tour is basically over… there’s not a lot else to this cave. However, they don’t rush you through and give you plenty of time to admire the stuff, take lots of pictures, and so on.
One note if you’re traveling alone: they only take groups of 2 or more down. So the 1:00 tour was canceled because it was just me, and I had to wait until the 2:00 tour when another family came so I could tag along with them. They said it was for safety reasons, which I guess I understand, but it still kind of sucked. I still got to go, though, so its all good.
Anyway, this is a must-​see if you’re in Doolin, in my opinion.