Things to do in Galway with kids

Ireland's national aquarium sits on Seapoint Promenade, and its point is the water outside the door. The tanks hold native species rather than tropical show-offs: rays, dogfish, turbot and thornback rays in the Ray Pool, an octopus, the fish of an Irish river. There is one Tropical Zone, with stingrays and red-bellied piranhas, for the child who needs teeth.

The venue suggests at least 45 minutes, and on a wet Saturday most families take longer. Feeding sessions and talks run at weekends and in the school holidays. There is no re-admission, so finish before you leave for the prom.

The prom is Galway's front garden, the beach on one side and the city on the other, and it is where Galway walks its children. The tradition is to kick the wall at the Blackrock end before you turn back. Nobody knows why, and everybody does it.

Salthill beach has held a Blue Flag since 2006. Out of season it is the walk that matters: a flat path a buggy can manage, the Burren across the bay, and the Atlantaquaria halfway along for when the wind wins.

Free, central and built for small hands. The museum stands beside the Spanish Arch on the river, and it is laid out for families: hands-on exhibits, family trails, a sensory room for children and an underwater submarine area that small children treat as a den. A gallery on the Claddagh explains the ring.

It works as a short stop between the shops and the prom. There are lifts, buggies are welcome and you do not need to book.

Eleven acres of gardens laid out around the Celtic festivals, with native woodland and wildflower meadow between them. Children get a nature trail, a thatched roundhouse to hide in, a crannóg on the lake and an ancient ring fort. The calendar sundial is the largest in Ireland, and a ten-year-old will insist on testing it.

It is the gentlest day out on this list. The paths are level, there is a café, and an hour and a half covers it without hurry.

A pet farm that grew an indoor play barn, and then kept growing. The farm walkway runs 14 acres. Indoors is the reason people drive from the city: Inflatable City, which the farm calls Europe's largest indoor bouncy castle, and the Jungle Town play frame beside it.

Children cost more than adults here, which is not a typo. The child's ticket buys the wristband for the play areas, and that is where the day goes.

Two thousand hectares of bog, heath and mountain, and a day out that costs nothing. Four marked trails leave the visitor centre. The Ellis Wood nature trail is half a kilometre and flat; the Sruffaunboy trail is 1.5 km and easy. Lower Diamond Hill is 3 km with 90 metres of climb, the one to attempt with a seven-year-old who wants a summit. Upper Diamond Hill is 3.7 km, steep, and for older legs.

The playground by the centre has see-saws, slides, a tunnel and playhouses, and the centre shows a free 20-minute film for anyone who needs a sit-down. There is a café.

The big day out. The crossing from Rossaveal takes about 40 minutes, and Inis Mór at the other end is stone walls, bicycles and Dún Aonghasa on its cliff. Hire bikes at the pier or take the minibus; either way the children will remember the boat more than the fort.

Go from Rossaveal. The ferry from Galway city is a 90-minute sailing and, from the end of September, stops for the winter. The company runs a shuttle bus from the city to the pier, which needs 12 hours' notice.