Gallarus Oratory Visitor Centre

EDIT 9/4/25: I added a pin for the free parking on Google, but the place keeps getting removed. I suspect someone is reporting it to Google! Guess who I think they are :) --- Don't fall for this tourist scam. There is a free parking spot 300m from there and a public 2 minutes walk to get to the Oratory. When we got there a lot of people got scammed for 5€/each, we were the only one that didn't fall for it! The right place is up the road, before the turn to the scammy operation, just look at the map! I provided an image of the actual free parking.

Interesting place to visit worth 5euro for the info film and looking at the oratory

An Oratory built between the 7th and 8th century and still intact, well preserved!

The entry fee is reasonable and the staff super friendly and helpful. Opened a gate so we could drive closer so my disabled friend wouldn't have to walk so far. Small but interesting building with lots of history.

This is a very unique monument, I haven't seen the likes of it before. Definitely watch the audio visual first as there's no interpretation on the site itself. The coffee shop does a great carrot cake!

Skip the entrance at the visitors center and go directly to the main public street entrance… if you don’t, you end up paying 5 euros for your entry. For the same experience. Weird.

What a beautiful day to visit such an ancient site! The location is a bit off the beaten path, but it's well worth the trip. It's a bit of a walk/ride up to the site from the visitor's center, but you'll be glad you did. From what I remember, they offered to let us drive up to the entrance of the site, but we declined and enjoyed the sunny (and yes windy) afternoon. The church itself is wonderfully preserved, and wheelchairs can get up to it and the area around the church is very wheelchair friendly. Alas, the small door into the church was too small for my wife's wheelchair, but I bet someone in a manual chair could get in. The inside is so calm, and even though the wind gusted around outside, the rest of us were able to enjoy a bit of peace for a few minutes.

They have a short film you can watch that gives a history of Gallarus and the time period it was built. It talks about some of the other local sites and their history as well. It's a short, uphill walk from the visitor center to the oratory itself. The site is well maintained and they give you an informational hand out when you pay. They also have restrooms on site.