Ireland by campervan: sleeping and camping
Where you may legally sleep in a campervan in Ireland: parking, camping, campsites, stopovers and possible fines. What to know before you go.
Published 18 September 2026Last checked 18 September 2026
Currency
Euro
EUR. In the EU, but not in the Schengen area
Language
English
Irish is the first official language
Driving
Left
Motorway 120 km/h, rural local roads 60
Power
230V, type G
The three-pin British plug, not the European two-pin
Tap water
Safe to drink
Boil water notices do happen, and are published
Emergency
112 or 999
Both work, both free
Sleeping
Sleeping
There is no right to roam in Ireland and no general right to sleep in a parked vehicle. Wild camping needs the landowner's permission. There is also no single national camping law to point at. What governs a night in a van is the landowner on one side and the county council's byelaws on the other, and neither is collected anywhere you can check from the road.
Where a night is usually fine
- A campsite, which in Ireland is the default rather than the fallback
- A pub, farm or guesthouse car park where you asked inside and were told yes
- Designated motorhome parking, where a council has provided it and signed it
- A town car park with no overnight or camping restriction on the sign
- Anywhere a landowner has given you permission, which is the only thing that makes private land legal
Where it is not
- A coastal car park covered by an overnight camping byelaw, which names campervans by vehicle type
- Beaches, dunes and the roads and car parks beside them in County Galway
- National park car parks, which are signed for daytime visits only
- Coillte forest car parks, which have closing times and are not camping sites
- A layby on a national road, where stopping is a traffic matter before it is a camping one
The three things that decide
- The landowner. All land in Ireland has an owner and there is no public right of access to it. Permission is what makes a field legal, and asking is normal and usually answered warmly.
- The Occupiers' Liability Act. It defines a recreational user as someone present without charge for a recreational activity, and cuts the duty owed to them to not injuring them intentionally and not acting with reckless disregard. It is the reason gates are left open rather than a reason to drive through one.
The byelaws you can read
- Clare, four separate instruments from 2023. Doughmore Beach Car Park, Loop Head Lighthouse Car Park and Illaunamanagh Car Park each prohibit overnight camping outright, and Lisdoonvarna does it across the entire village, on every road and in every public place. All four define overnight camping as erecting a tent or shelter, or arranging bedding or parking a campervan or caravan or mobile home for the purpose of remaining overnight.
- Clare, the Kilkee parking byelaws from 2024. The positive version of the same power: overnight campervan parking is allowed in one marked area only, capped at 8 campervans and 48 hours, and prohibited everywhere else in the byelaw area.
Where to sleep, and what to check first
| Option | What you get | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Campsite | The default answer in Ireland rather than the last resort. Pitch, electricity, showers, water and waste. | Many are seasonal. Outside roughly May to September, ring ahead rather than arrive |
| Designated motorhome parking | Council-provided bays, sometimes with services. Cork publishes a county map of them. Kilkee has eight bays with a 48 hour cap. | Whether the bay is marked for campervans specifically, and any posted time limit |
| Pub, farm or guesthouse car park | A spot with permission, which is the thing that makes it legal, and usually a meal attached. | Ask inside. Then do not drive in the morning, because the threshold is 50 mg |
| Town car park | A legal place to stand while you walk into the town. | The byelaw sign at the entrance. The camping and caravanning clause is standard and often unsigned |
| Coastal car park | The view you came for, and the place councils have legislated about. | Read the sign properly. On the Clare coast and at Galway's beaches, a named byelaw may already cover you |
What it costs when it goes wrong
Emptying waste water on the ground is the fastest way to a fine, and the fine went up this month. On-the-spot litter fines rose from €150 to €250 on 1 September 2026, with up to €3,000 on conviction in the District Court and up to €600 for every day the offence continues. Litter wardens and Gardaí can both issue them. Cork County Council's motorhome code of conduct asks users in terms not to empty waste water at beaches, public toilets or waterways, and that request is the difference between a council that provides parking and one that legislates against it.
The national parks allow wild camping, and not to you. Wicklow Mountains and Connemara both permit wilderness camping only, each under its own Wild Camping Code, and each code opens with a distance rule: pitch at least 500 metres from a road capable of carrying a vehicle in Wicklow, and at least 400 metres in Connemara, with no campfires and the tent moved every second night. That is a walker's rule and it excludes a vehicle by definition. Neither park has a serviced camping or caravan site, no camping of any kind is allowed at Glendalough, and Connemara posts an explicit notice that its car park is for daytime visits only. Coillte is the same story in a forest: camping at two caravan and camping parks, Lough Key and Curragh Chase, and five designated wild camping spots for long-distance hikers.