Stargazing hotspots on the island of Ireland
The Northern Lights have put on quite a show this year and in Ireland they have been easy to see thanks to the low levels of light pollution across the island outside the cities.
Moreover, the island has three International Dark Sky Parks – accredited sites where you can be sure of a certain level of darkness or sky quality – making it one of the best places in Europe to gaze at the stars.
The OM Dark Sky Park and Observatory in County Tyrone combines a fabulous outdoor stargazing experience with an indoor interactive exhibition space featuring holographic installations and virtual reality headsets. A guided tour of the facility explains the links between astronomy and the archaeological heritage of the surrounding Sperrin mountains.
Special events take place throughout the year in the observatory, which has a state-of-the-art telescope. There is also a Stars and Stones experience which features a guided tour of the nearby Neolithic Beaghmore Stone Circles, which are believed to be aligned with the stars, a look at the stars through the telescope and a spectacular film experience projected on to the outside of the observatory building.
The Mayo International Dark Sky Park, which encompasses Ballycroy National Park and the Wild Nephin Wilderness, offers three viewing areas for astronomers to observe the stars under clear night skies. There is also a visitors’ centre and exhibition space. The Mayo Dark Sky Festival (1–3 November) presents talks, walks, exhibitions, musical performances and family friendly events to celebrate the celestial wonders visible in the park. This year there will also be a special exhibition of photographs of the aurora sightings of 2024.
The island’s third dark sky place is Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve which covers most of the Iveragh Peninsula. Here the skies are so dark in winter that the Milky Way can be seen with the naked eye. Tours can be booked which provide an introduction to the night sky and sky maps are downloadable from the website to help people navigate the sky they see above them.
Away from the dark sky reserves there are plenty of places to star gaze or see the aurora borealis across the island of Ireland. In 2023 Lonely Planet named the Wild Atlantic Way as one of the top five stargazing places in the world and across the north-west headlands and northern coast of the island there are many popular stargazing places.
With the sun now at solar maximum, which gives rise to the magnetic storms that cause the aurora, there will be plenty more opportunities to view the Northern Lights over the next six months presenting another great reason to book a break in Ireland.