Chief Executive of Clare County Council, Gordon Daly, Director of Tourism Development, Siobhán McNulty, Minister of State, Timmy Dooley (FF), Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) and Cathaoirleach of the Killaloe Municipal District, Cllr Pat Burke (FG). Photograph: Brian Arthur
SENIOR TOURISM officials have said they are not disappointed with the county’s newest attraction welcoming under 6,000 visitors in four months.
Located in the restored rectory in Mountshannon, the Inis Cealtra Visitor Experience opened at long last to visitors this summer with an official opening held in September at the end of the tourist season.
Clare County Council acquired the Rectory in 2021 and the Visitor Centre was part of an overall €5.3m refurbishment project in Mountshannon.
From its opening on June 25th to its closing on October 26th, there was a total of 5,784 visitors to the Inis Cealtra Visitor Experience which had free admission for the 2025 season.
Over the course of sixteen weeks, 419 visitors availed of boat trips to Holy Island which were booked via the Clare Tourism Development DAC operated portals. The boat trips operated from July 7th to September 14th with four sailings per day seven days per week and on weekends only with three sailings per day from September 15th to October 26th.
Theresa Hughes Lannon, Administrative Officer, Tourism. Festivals & Events with the Council detailed that they ran a social media brand awareness campaign from June 9th to October 26th. “This campaign generated a total reach of 166,300, total impressions of 532,211 and total clicks of 1123”. She said a second campaign promoting the boat trips “ran from mid-July 2025 to the end of October 2025 generating a total reach of 45,799, total impressions of 99,126 and total link clicks of 2,452”.
Details on the performance of the Inis Cealtra Visitor Experience were sought by Cllr Pat Burke (FG). “I am one of these politicians that is not on social media of any description so the second half of the reply, I wouldn’t understand it fully,” he admitted. He questioned senior officials in the Killaloe Municipal District if they were happy with the visitors figure “seeing as it was very new”.
Director of Services for Tourism Development, Siobhán McNulty stated, “We opened it late in season, we didn’t do any significant advertising campaign, it is local interest and word of mouth. We’re not disappointed with it. We have a good start made and we have a marketing team working on promoting for 2026”.
She continued, “we’re prepared to grow it, we don’t want to over-task the community with it either, next year we will see an improvement on it but it is a good start”. McNulty said an opening date for 2026 was not confirmed but was aiming for “around St Patrick’s Day”.
Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) noted that his colleague was tuned in with what other politicians were posting on social media, “you’re not on social media but you know a lot of what is on it,” he quipped. “Social media is very important, it is a very important part, sometimes you seem to know what is on it”. Cllr Burke replied, “I don’t have time to be on it” to which Cllr O’Callaghan added, “it is very important whether you like it or not”.
Offering his views, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) commented, “it is interesting on the social media side, the volume of people clicking into it bodes very well”. He maintained, “the boat trips is the key to this going forward, I look forward to a large volume of people experiencing Inis Cealtra and getting onto the island. I hope we continue to invest in the island”.
