A clump of tall pines on an island in Derryclare Lough, with bracken in front and the Twelve Bens under a bright, cloudy sky

Getting married in Galway & Connemara

A small harbour city of music and painted houses at the head of Galway Bay, and beyond it Connemara: bog, lakes and mountains running down to the Atlantic, with the Aran Islands offshore.

Photographers When to marry here

Galway is compact and lively: the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter, the Spanish Arch of 1584 where the Corrib runs into the bay, and across the river the Claddagh, the old fishing village that gave its name to the ring of two hands holding a crowned heart. West of the city the road runs out into Connemara — brown bog and scattered lakes, the peaks of the Twelve Bens, white-sand coves and the little town of Clifden. Offshore lie the three Aran Islands, all limestone and stone walls, with the stone fort of Dún Aonghasa on the cliffs of Inis Mór.

Many couples who come from abroad elope or marry with a small group: a short ceremony, then an afternoon and evening out in Connemara for portraits — by a lake below the mountains, on the bog road, on a beach or high on the Sky Road above Clifden. Others marry in the city and walk its lanes and quays before dinner.

Connemara from the top of Diamond Hill: bog and woodland, a village, sea inlets and islands, and a cone-shaped hill by the Atlantic

Kylemore Abbey’s grey battlemented front among trees and gardens, mirrored in its lake below a wooded mountainside

A row of painted houses along the stone quay where the Corrib meets the bay, seen across the water from the Claddagh

Through the year

When to marry in Galway & Connemara

May, June and July are the easiest months: the mildest — average highs of about 15 to 17.5 °C on the Connemara coast and a degree or two more in the city — and the calmest, with the longest evenings. Rain is the honest question here, and it comes in every month: on the coast about 11 days in June bring 1 mm or more, and about 19 in December, but on most of them less than 5 mm falls — passing showers more often than lost days. Wind matters as much: gales blow on eight or nine days in December and January, and on fewer than one in June and July. April has the fewest wet days but is still cool; August and September stay mild while the showers and the wind come back.

January: Quieter
February: Quieter
March: Quieter
April: Good with planning
May: Best
June: Best
July: Best
August: Good with planning
September: Good with planning
October: Quieter
November: Quieter
December: Quieter

SpringThe days lengthen fast — by mid-May the sun sets at about half past nine — and April has the fewest wet days of the year on the coast. The air is still cool, around 12 to 15 °C, and May is usually the sunniest month in the west of Ireland.
SummerThe mildest, calmest weeks, and the busiest: the city’s international arts festival fills two weeks in July, and the Aran ferries and the road to Clifden are at their fullest. In late June the sun sets after ten and the dusk lasts until eleven. Showers still blow in from the Atlantic, so keep a covered place in mind for the rain — a church, a room with a view, the car itself.
Autumn and winterSeptember often stays mild, with a soft, low light over the bog. From October the Atlantic storms set in — on the coast gales blow on four to nine days a month until March — and by midwinter the day is only seven and a half hours long. A winter elopement works with a flexible date, a calm day between two fronts and somewhere warm to retreat to.

In numbers

Hottest month, average high: July and August · 17.5°C; Met Éireann
Average high in the best months: May 14.7°C · Jun 16.6°C · Jul 17.5°C; Met Éireann
Days with 1 mm of rain or more, best months: May 12.2 · Jun 11 · Jul 12.8; Met Éireann
Sunset on 21 June: 22:08 (Galway); NOAA

Weather station: Mace Head, normals 2004–2025 · Checked 24 October 2026

Places

Where couples marry here

The kinds of places — ask your photographer which ones they know well.

Galway city and the Claddagh
The lanes of the Latin Quarter, the Spanish Arch and the quays where the Corrib meets the bay, and the Claddagh across the water: portraits on foot between a ceremony and dinner, with street musicians never far away.
Connemara National Park
Some 2,000 hectares of mountain, bog and heath by Letterfrack, with trails up Diamond Hill for the view over the Twelve Bens, Kylemore and the sea. Photographs for your own use are welcome; a hired photographer needs the park’s commercial permit, applied for at least seven working days ahead, and drones are banned without a special permit.
Kylemore Abbey
The Benedictine nuns’ abbey, a castle begun in 1867, mirrored in its lake below the mountain, with a neo-Gothic church built from 1877 to 1881 and a Victorian walled garden. It is a living monastery as well as a place to visit: professional photography and drones need the Kylemore Trust’s written approval, asked for at least two weeks ahead.
The Sky Road and the Aran Islands
The Sky Road, a 16 km loop high above Clifden Bay and its islands, made for sunsets; and the Aran Islands, 40 minutes by ferry from Rossaveal all year, or a flight of under ten minutes from Inverin. On Inis Mór, Dún Aonghasa stands on an 87 m cliff with no fence or rail at the edge, and drones are not allowed there.

Light

How the light falls

At midsummer the sun rises at about ten past five and sets at about ten past ten, out in the north-west, and the sky stays light until about eleven. At midwinter it is up only from about ten to nine until twenty past four, never more than 13 degrees above the horizon — a low, raking light all day. Cloud is the usual sky in the west — even in May the sun shines for only about six hours a day on average — and the light it gives is soft and even; when the sun breaks through after a shower, the bog and the mountains can glow for a few minutes, so stay ready to go out.

Travel

Getting there

Shannon Airport is about 85 km south of Galway — an hour and a quarter by car — and Dublin Airport about 220 km east, around two and a half hours by motorway. Clifden is about 80 km west of the city through Connemara. Ferries to the Aran Islands sail from Rossaveal, 40 km from Galway, all year, and from Doolin in Clare from late February to early November. Drones with a camera or over 250 g must be registered with the Irish Aviation Authority, and national parks and OPW heritage sites forbid them without permission. Check Met Éireann’s warnings before any day on the coast.

Photographers