OPW Heritage Ireland places in County Clare

The ruined Augustinian abbey of about 1189 founded by the King of Thomond beside the River Fergus on the edge of Ennis, with a square belfry tower, cloister and tracery windows; free, open-air, graves inside, a few spaces at the lane end.

A Cistercian abbey of about 1200 in a quiet valley of the north Burren near Bellharbour, with a rib-vaulted chancel, carved capitals and the effigy of a 13th-century O'Brien king; free, open-air.

A 12th-century church with a Romanesque doorway of nineteen carved heads, a round tower stump and St Tola's high cross on an early hermitage north of Ennis in County Clare; free, open-air.

The O'Briens' medieval Franciscan friary in the centre of Ennis, famed for its limestone carvings of St Francis and the bound Christ and its five-lancet east window; OPW guided welcome, open mid March to early November.

The MacNamaras' Franciscan friary of 1350 built within the ruins of Thomas de Clare's castle at Quin, with a tall tower and one of Ireland's best preserved cloisters; free, open-air, open daily 09:30 to 17:00, limited village parking.

St Senan's monastic island in the Shannon estuary, with a round tower, a cathedral and churches, reached by ferry from Kilrush Marina in summer; free to land, closed until the 2027 season.