1 Best Sight in County Clare, Galway, and the Aran Islands, Ireland

Thanks in part to its central location, NUI Galway has become an inextricable part of Galway life since its construction in 1845, as only a handful of other universities, such as Oxford, have done. In fact its Tudor Gothic–style quadrangle was modeled on Christ Church in Oxford. It houses Galway's "hidden museum," the James Mitchell Geology Museum, which has a collection of 15,000 rocks, gemstones, and fossils.