Small Group Kylemore Abbey, Sheepdog Demo & Connemara Tour
Recommended by 99% of travelers
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Galway, Ireland
- 7 hours 30 minutes (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Book this hassle-free small-group tour to see some of the best of West Ireland, where all your transport, guides, and logistics are all taken care of for you. You have several activities in this tour, including a trip to Aughnanure Castle, spending time in Connemara and its surrounding villages, and a chance to watch a sheepdog demonstration.
- Enjoy round-trip pickup from hotels in Galway
- Learn about Ireland’s sheepdog heritage from a demo
- Visit several villages and experience the local lifestyle
- Stop for lunch in Leenane to see Ireland’s only natural fjord
What's Included
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Local Guide
- Hotel pick-up (contact the operator directly at least 24 hours before the tour to request)
- Food and drinks
- Gratuities
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- HYDE HotelForster St, Galway, H91 PY7E, Ireland
We meet outside the HYDE Hotel, Forster Street, at 10.15am. Look out for the Lally Tours Team in their blue jackets!
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Start time.10:30 am
Itinerary
1
Maum
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Connemara (Pass By)
2
Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Garden
2 hours • Admission Ticket Included
3
Joyce Country Sheepdogs
1 hour 10 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking, unless booked within 1 hours of travel. In this case confirmation will be received as soon as possible, subject to availability
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- Minimum numbers apply. There is a possibility of cancellation after confirmation if there is not enough passengers to meet requirements. In the event of this occurring, you will be offered an alternative or full refund
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 25 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.9
based on 217 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Great tour. Our guide Michael was excellent. Probably the highlight for us was watching the dogs work the sheep. Joe Joyce was great and the interaction we had with the dogs was a lot of fun. A little more time at Kylemore was needed. Bus was in very good condition
Michael was a wonderful tour guide.He gave us detailed information as we drive past sites as well as answering all of our questions. This tour is a must to some of the beautiful sites in Ireland. Loved holding the 10 day old puppy.
Kylemore Abby and its gardens are straight out of a fairy tale! Breathtakingly beautiful! The sheepdog demonstration was outstanding. Joe was phenomenal in his humorous presentation but the puppies, sheep and dogs took first place! I would advise if you sit in the back of the bus the step is easy to miss, be careful!
Michael our driver was great! Very witty and fun with good tips on our stops and history of the area. Loved the sheepdog experience!
This is a fantastic tour with a great tour guide, Michael! He was very informative, full of history, and explained all of the details along the way! The Kylemore Abbey and beautiful gardens were so amazing. All of the scenery throughout Connemara was lovely. The sheep dog demonstration was so much fun! We even got to bottle feed the 4 month old goats!! Thank you again Michael for a wonderful day and very safe driving!!
A beautiful drive through amazing country side, even in the rain. Joe the sheep guy was a highlight. Great stories from Michael and the small size of the group made for a personal experience.
Visit to a local farmer to see the sheep herding dogs was one of the best experiences. Highly recommended!
Connemara and Kylemore Abbey are beautiful places to visit and our guide and driver, Michael, was outstanding! Very knowledgeable and a great driver through some tricky terrain. The highlight of the day was a visit to Joyce Country Sheepdogs for an amazing demonstration and opportunity to bottle feed and interact with the lambs! Highly recommend!
You can’t go wrong spending the day with Michael on this tour! My sister and I had a fantastic day riding through Galway and the little towns and countryside as well as historic stops along the way. Michael was extremely knowledgeable, fun and brought the history to life. It may seem like a long day, but it flew by. The bus was very clean and comfortable as well. Highly recommend his tour!
The Kylemore Estate was beautiful and interesting to learn about. The sheep dog demonstration was interactive and we all got to pet and feed the sheep! Our guide Michael made this experience even better with deep insights into the region.
This tour allowed us to see the beauty of the Connemara area. The sheepdog experience was so much fun and our guide Michael was very informative. I highly recommend this trip.
Michael was an awesome tour guide and driver! Sheepdog demonstration was a major highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, the itinerary listed on Viator, with the stop for lunch in Leenane never happened and it was part if the reason I booked this tour.
From go, this was such a great tour. Michael was our tour guide and he gave us so much great information. The views on the drive and in Connemara are just amazing. Michael made stops along the way for photo opportunities and to take it all in. Kylemore Abbey, the gardens and the entire location was beautiful. Pictures can’t really capture the true beauty, but we took many! Then Michael took us to meet Farmer Joe - what a nice guy! He did the sheep dog demonstration, which my family loved, and we also enjoyed his puppies and sheep! And the sheep - they are everywhere throughout the drive.. up on every hill. It’s a wonderful trip to take!
A great day - the abbey is worth the trip - and the sheepdogs are a hoot
The driver.provided plenty of interesting and informative dialogue
We enjoyed the day visiting the abbey and the sheepdog demonstration as well as the stops to take in the beautiful views along the way. The tour guide Kenny was very friendly and provided great information about the sites visited. The time at each stop was adequate and we never felt rushed. The tour group size was a full van of 15. Highly recommend to see this area of Ireland, time well spent.
Our tour guide was Michael and just wonderful. It was an incredible day with spectacular vies of Connemara and the sheep herding was the cherry on top,,,,just a wonderful day for my two young adult grandchildren and me…thanks so much
Michael was a great guide!
Be sure to visit the gardens, we enjoyed them more than the abbey!
The sheepdog visit was awesome!
This tour is a long day but there are several stops along the way. The abbey was beautiful - it was a private home for a long time and that was of more interest to me. His gardens were amazing for their time. Be away that the lower cottage was under construction and not worth the walk down. The shuttle to the gardens was most welcome - it's a long walk when you have limited time. The food was awesome. Our stop for the sheep herding was awesome. The puppies made it even better. Kenny was an excellent guide. He talked non stop and sang in the way home
The highlight of this tour for my daughter and I was the sheepdog mountainside demonstration at Joe Joyce’s place! We got to hold 1mo old puppies and feed bottles to baby sheep.. Joe is so friendly and even Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson, Calista Flockgart, and Harrison Ford have been there too!
The Kylmore Abbey - make sure you go downstairs to the kitchen. That’s where kitchen scenes from Downton abbey were filmed! Take the walnut to the gardens if you can. The trees and plants are stunning and from all over the world. I could finally breathe there the air is so full of oxygen! Definitely eat there at the abbey.
We made some stops along the way for pictures but it was a lot of driving. Countryside is stunning with lots of history.
If you can figure out the logistics (train from Galway to Connemara), I would do a pony ride on the beach in Connemara, play 9holes, check out the town for lunch, 1.5hrs at Kylmore Abbey, and go see the sheepdog demonstration.
Michael is an excellent guide - knowledgeable, personable, a wealth of information, and was able to make small adjustments based upon the interests of the group. Joe Joyce’s sheep dog demo was a definite highlight - puppies, lambs, and laughs!
This was a great tour! Smaller group with
special attention and time for everything! Our guide, Michael was fabulous!!
The tour of Kylemore Abbey was absolutely amazing. The landscape during the drive to the Abbey was stunning. The sheep dog demonstration was exceptional. Plus we got to play with some of the 10 week old puppies which was a big hit with the family. Our guide, Richie, was very knowledgeable and ensured we did not miss anything.
The bus ride is comfortable and Michael, the driver and guide is a safe driver and very knowledgeable. The views are spectacular throughout the tour. He took us through some small towns and told the history. Kylemore abbey is stunning. But you’ll just be allowed to tour the downstairs. The gardens are lovely, the lunch was very tasty at Mitchell’s. The sheepdog demonstration was very entertaining. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience.
Connemara is a beautiful place and our driver offered nice commentary. Kylemore has an interesting history and can be heard by a staff member in the house. The sheepdog demo was excellent. Joe is the farm owner and he is a delight. The dogs are rockstars.
Torch’s was out driver and tour guide for this amazing experience and she was wonderful. This is an all day trip and is so worth it. Kylemore Abbey and the gardens was so beautiful, as was the drive through the mountains and fjord. But the highlight was the Joyce sheepdog farm with lambs and puppies. Then we stoped in Cong to see where the movie The Quiet Man took place. It’s a long day but I can’t recommend this tour enough. And definitely ask for Sorcha. She is a fabulous driver and wonderful tour guide. This tour was a highlight of our trip to Ireland!
No matter the weather when you leave Galway be sure to always pack your rain coats and proper waterproof footwear. I would also suggest taking some cleansing wipes as you may be handling muddy puppies and sweet baby lambs.
Incredible experience for the family. Plenty of time to explore the whole grounds at Kylemore Abbey and the sheep dog experience was incredible. Joe Joyce was an amazing host and it was a pleasure seeing the relationship he has with his dogs.
Beautiful day trip. Very happy I picked this particular tour. Conveniently leaving from center city Galway (other sheepdog demonstration options didn’t leave from Galway). All stops were breathtaking.
Michael was a fun, informative guide. He drove safely and narrated facts and famous locations as we went. Enjoyed the trip.
Awesome experience with knowledgeable guide.
We learned a lot about the history of the region.
The sheepdog demo was fun and interesting.
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per personWas $133.55(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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