The Achill Experience Aquarium & Visitor Centre — Attraction in County Mayo

First of all, this is a tiny aquarium. But we know that most precious things in life are tiny as well. I highly recommend visiting this place. Lady that greeted us, made us feeling at home the moment we entered. Information we got from her in the shop about Achill island and the area are real jewels. Aquarium is also great. We were greeted by caretaker - I think his name was Patrick. Love and passion he has for this place is unbelievable. Such devotion and knowledge is hard to find. If you have aquarium at home, this man will be such a huge source of information how to maintain it without chemicals - preciuos piece of info for any nature aware guest. Pool with sharks, shark eggs with baby sharks swimming inside, lobsters of amazing colours, and yes Nemo and Dory for your kids. Tank with fish we buy in the food store but have no idea how it looks in nature is an addition. And support of local community also. There is even a paint exhibition - portraits, then exhibition about the island and famine. And a big shop with everything you might want to buy as souvenir. This maight not be the greatest aquarium you will visit, but experience certainly is. And to my Irish friends - visit and support this gem, so that many more can meet with brilliant staff and learn about fish from Atlantic shores of Ireland. I hope this place will grow even bigger, with...

This place is wonderful we were kindly greater at the door the admission was extremely inexpressible for 2 Adults and 3 children the gift shop has huge selection and was very inexpressive the whole decor of the place was very well thought out and gorgeous you really felt like you were under the sea the tour guides/ speakers are full of information and are extremely kind and friendly they are very personal and involve everyone I couldn’t drag the children away they were so Interested the selection of fish was unreal the little bits I got in the gift shop were cheap and gorgeous and I hope will last for a long time the Achill experience is based in a gorgeous part of the county you are over looking the sea and the mountains and some very friendly sheep the drive to the Achill experience was stunning we got to see lovely beaches mountains sheep and the lovely deserted village which is so infesting I will hopefully come back...

We were lucky enough to spend a couple hours with Daniel, one of the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable aquarium employees we’ve ever met. We learned more about sea life in that time than I’ve learned in my entire life. The coolest thing he showed us (if I had to pick just one thing) was how scallops move by dropping a spiny sea star (their main predator) on top of a couple of them. The scallops shoot water out of their shells to propel themselves and they are fast! Not only does the aquarium not use chemicals, they truck water up from the ocean every couple days to use in their tanks and they keep the water the same temperature in the tanks as the ocean. This is important since they rescue molting crabs, shark eggs, and other sea creatures in need and bring them to the aquarium until they can be released back into the ocean. Our 9-year-old was enthralled the whole time -...