Tarbert to Killimer Ferry: 20 Minutes Across the Shannon, Not 137 km Round Limerick
Tarbert to Killimer Ferry: 20 Minutes Across the Shannon, Not 137 km Round Limerick
Twenty minutes, or 137 km. The Shannon estuary is more than three kilometres wide between the slipway on Tarbert Island and the pier at Killimer, and the boat crosses it in 20 minutes; the road alternative, the figure both the operator and Discover Ireland quote, is a 137 km detour through Limerick city. The ferry end of that arithmetic needs no planning at all. There is no booking system, no reservation and no seat number: you drive to the ramp, join the queue and pay a crewman or show a barcode.
Sailing times
| Period | From Tarbert (Kerry) | From Killimer (Clare) | Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| June, July, August | 07:30 – 21:30 | 07:00 – 21:00 | Hourly, plus a second ferry giving half-hourly departures 09:30–18:30 from Tarbert and 09:00–18:00 from Killimer |
| May and September | 07:30 – 20:30 | 07:00 – 20:00 | Same half-hourly daytime band, but the evening sailings stop an hour earlier |
| April | 07:30 – 20:30 | 07:00 – 20:00 | Hourly only — the second ferry is not on the April timetable |
| October to March | 07:30 – 19:30 | 07:00 – 19:00 | Hourly only. Thirteen sailings each way, Monday to Saturday |
| Sundays, every month | First sailing 09:30 | First sailing 09:00 | The early-morning departures are weekday-and-Saturday only; last sailings are the same as the rest of the week |
Compiled from the operator’s twelve monthly timetable pages at shannonferries.com. Killimer always sails on the hour (and, in season, on the half hour); Tarbert always sails 30 minutes later. The boats work 365 days a year, with Christmas Day the single exception, according to the operator’s FAQ. Shannon Ferries does not publish a separate bank-holiday column — the monthly pages carry only a Monday–Saturday and a Sunday timetable — so on a public holiday it is worth assuming the Sunday pattern and ringing +353 65 9053124 if the 07:00 or 07:30 sailing matters to you.
Times change with the season and the weather. Check the operator before you travel:
Fares
| Ticket | Online | On board |
|---|---|---|
| Car, including everyone in it — single | €22.50 | €25.00 |
| Car, return | €36.00 | €40.00 |
| Car, 6-trip book | €81.00 | €90.00 |
| Car, 12-trip book | €135.00 | €150.00 |
| Car, weekly ticket (12 trips in 7 days) | €112.50 | €125.00 |
| Foot passenger or cyclist, single | €5.40 | €6.00 |
| Foot passenger or cyclist, return | €8.10 | €9.00 |
| Motorbike including rider, single | €11.70 | €13.00 |
| Dormobile or camper, single | €30.60 | €34.00 |
| Trailer or caravan up to 6 m, single | €15.30 | €17.00 |
| Small trailer up to 4 m, single | €9.90 | €11.00 |
| Minibus up to 6 m, single | €31.50 | €35.00 |
| Coach over 9 m, single | €76.50 | €85.00 |
| Commercial van up to 6 m, single | €22.50 | €25.00 |
Buying online is exactly 10% cheaper in every category — the on-board column is the operator’s list price and the online column is 90% of it. Commercial vehicles are priced by length in one-metre steps, from €23.40 online for a 7 m vehicle up to €70.20 for 24 m. Educational tours have their own rate, €25.11 online. Ordinary tickets stay valid for 12 months; the weekly ticket dies 7 days after first use or one month after purchase, whichever comes first. One oddity: the operator’s home page advertises travel “from only €10.88 per trip with bar multi-buy option”, and that figure appears nowhere in the published fare tables — the cheapest per-crossing rate we could actually find is the online car weekly ticket, €112.50 for 12 trips, which works out just under €9.40 a crossing.
Prices move with the date and demand. Get a live quote and book direct:
Route map
The ferry runs roughly north-west across the Shannon estuary from Tarbert Island in north Kerry to Killimer on the south Clare shore, a little over three kilometres of open water between the two slipways.
Planning a day visit
Easily, in either direction, and what limits you is the last boat rather than the first. In June, July and August the last sailing back from Tarbert is 21:30 and from Killimer 21:00, which leaves a full day in Kerry or Clare. October to March shrinks that hard. The last boat leaves Tarbert at 19:30 and Killimer at 19:00, and on a winter Sunday nothing sails before 09:00. The classic use is not a day trip at all. It is a link in a longer drive, Dingle or Tralee to the Cliffs of Moher, or Doolin to Ballybunion, where the twenty minutes on the water replaces about an hour and a half of driving.Continuing your journey
- Kerry side: the N69 runs east from Tarbert to Limerick via Glin and Foynes, and south-west to Listowel and Tralee.
- Bus Éireann 314 links Tarbert with Limerick Colbert in one direction and Listowel and Ballybunion in the other; see our route 314 timetable.
- TFI Local Link Kerry 274 continues from the Tarbert Ferry stop to Ballybunion, Ballyduff, Tralee bus station and University Hospital Kerry.
- Clare side: TFI Local Link 337 covers Killimer Ferry Terminal to Kilrush in about twelve minutes, and on selected journeys carries on to Ennis bus and rail station via Kildysart.
- From Kilrush the N67 runs on around the Clare coast towards Kilkee, Lahinch and Doolin. That coast is why most visitors are on this boat in the first place.
Sailing conditions
The crossing sits inside a sheltered estuary rather than out on the Atlantic, and the operator’s own line is that it is “rarely impacted” by bad weather. It also points out, fairly, that when Irish news reports ferry cancellations it is normally talking about the Irish Sea ports, not the Shannon. The terms and conditions still reserve the right to change or cancel sailings for weather, port closures or operational reasons. On a rough day the quickest check is the live update bar on the company’s home page, or its social media accounts.Accessible travel
Shannon Ferries does publish something on access, which is more than many Irish operators manage. Its terms state that the ports and the ships are wheelchair accessible, and that there are adapted public toilets at the terminals. They also state it explicitly, in these words: “The toilets onboard the ferries are not wheelchair accessible”. Passengers with reduced mobility are asked to tell the crew before boarding so the vehicle can be positioned in a suitable spot on the deck, and the company recommends contacting it in advance on +353 65 9053124. What it does not publish: ramp gradients, deck-to-lounge access, or anything on assistance dogs beyond the general line that they are permitted.What you are sailing to
Both ends are mainland, so this is not an island run. The boat exists because of a gap in the map: between Limerick city and the Atlantic, the Shannon has no crossing at all. Tarbert Island, on the Kerry side, is dominated by the old generating station. It stopped producing power at the end of 2023 under EU emissions rules, and SSE has consent for a 300 MW replacement burning hydrotreated vegetable oil, due around the end of 2027. Killimer is smaller again: a scatter of houses, the ferry terminal and Burrane graveyard, where a bronze memorial marks the grave of Ellen Hanley, the Colleen Bawn, murdered on the Shannon in July 1819 and buried here by a local schoolmaster who gave up his own plot. Kilrush, the nearest town of any size, is about twelve minutes up the road by Local Link bus.Things people get wrong
Killimer sails on the hour
Every Killimer departure is on the hour, and from May to September on the half hour as well. Tarbert always leaves 30 minutes after Killimer. Hold on to that and you can time the crossing without a timetable.
Book nothing, ever
Shannon Ferries takes no reservations at all. The one thing worth doing in advance is buying the ticket online, for the flat 10% discount.
Buy online for exactly 10% off
€22.50 instead of €25.00 for a car, and the same 10% gap in every other category, so there is no ticket where paying on board makes sense.
Dogs stay in the car
The operator’s terms require all animals to remain inside the vehicle for the entire crossing. No pet deck, and no exception for small dogs.
Two boats, two seasons
The MV Shannon Breeze (2000, 60 cars) and MV Shannon Dolphin (1995, 52 cars) both work the route in summer, which is what makes the half-hourly band possible. From October to March only one is scheduled and the service is hourly.
Winter finishes early
From October to March the last boat leaves Tarbert at 19:30 and Killimer at 19:00. Miss it and the alternative is a 137 km drive round through Limerick.
Watch for dolphins
The Lower River Shannon is a Special Area of Conservation for bottlenose dolphins, Ireland’s only known resident population, roughly 140 animals. Surveys identify the water between Tarbert and Killimer as one of two areas they use most.
Tickets in advance
No reservation is required or even accepted. The operator’s terms say it outright: “No reservation required or taken”. All they ask is that you arrive 5 to 10 minutes before departure. Then the operator contradicts itself. The FAQ and ticket pages carry a line in capitals saying tickets must be bought 30 minutes before boarding, while those same pages tell you to turn up 5 to 10 minutes early. Read together, the 30 minutes covers the online purchase, because the barcode has to reach your inbox; it is not a deadline for joining the queue. Arrive without a valid barcode and you simply buy again on board, at the higher on-board price, and the operator says the original ticket is not refunded.Vehicles on board
One car fare covers everyone in the car, so a family of five pays €22.50 online rather than five times anything. The two vessels take 60 and 52 cars respectively, which is why queues clear quickly even in August. Cyclists pay the foot-passenger rate, €5.40 online, with no separate charge for the bicycle. Trailers and caravans are charged on top of the towing vehicle: €9.90 online up to 4 m, €15.30 up to 6 m. Campers are a hole in the operator’s own paperwork. The summary table prices a dormobile or camper at €30.60 online for a single crossing, but the dedicated camper page returns a 404, so the return and multi-trip rates for a camper could not be checked. Dogs and all other animals must stay inside the vehicle for the whole crossing, which the operator states plainly in its terms. That rules out walking a dog on deck, and it leaves foot passengers with pets facing a problem the operator does not address. Hazardous goods are not carried at all.Finding the harbour
Neither terminal is in a town. Tarbert’s slipway sits out on Tarbert Island, signposted off the N69 between Glin and Listowel. Killimer’s is on the N67 east of Kilrush, at Eircode V15 FK09. Both are drive-on, drive-off, and what you join at each is a queueing lane, not a booking desk.
- Killimer (Clare): free car parking, and a visitors centre more useful than most ferry terminals manage: books, souvenirs, CDs, tea and coffee, sandwiches, sweets and ice cream, plus a bureau de change. The operator lists its hours as 09:00–21:00 in summer and 09:00–19:00 in winter.
- Killimer has a 47 kW EV fast charger at the terminal — useful, because the Loop Head peninsula beyond it is thin on charging.
- Payment: buy online in advance (Visa, Visa Debit and Mastercard), or pay a crewman on board by card or cash. Online tickets arrive by email and have to show a machine-readable barcode, printed or on a phone.
- Buses to Killimer: TFI Local Link Limerick Clare route 337 (Ennis – Kildysart – Kilrush) has a scheduled stop called “Killimer Ferry Terminal”, stop number 10516, with a handful of journeys each way Monday to Saturday and on Sundays and public holidays.
- Buses to Tarbert: TFI Local Link Kerry route 274 (Tarbert – Ballybunion – Ballyduff – Tralee) serves a stop named “Tarbert Ferry”. Tarbert village itself is also on Bus Éireann route 314, Limerick Colbert to Ballybunion, and on Local Link route 595 to Croom.
- Ignore route 300. If you have seen Bus Éireann route 300 attached to this ferry, it is the wrong number: the 300 links Ennis, Killarney and Tralee with Dublin and comes nowhere near either slipway. What actually stops at the piers is Local Link 337 on the Clare side and Local Link Kerry 274 on the Kerry side.
- There is no through ticket. No bus runs across the water. A foot passenger gets off one bus, pays the ferry separately, and picks up a different operator’s bus on the far shore.