Féile na gCloch 2026 takes place on Inis Oírr from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September, and this year marks a special milestone: 20 years of celebrating stone, traditional skills and the people who keep them alive.
For anyone who knows Inis Oírr, it is difficult to imagine a more fitting home for a festival of stone. Our fields, and bóithríní, the little island roads, are shaped by limestone and the generations of hands that have worked with it.
Féile na gCloch 2026
Over four days, Féile na gCloch brings craftspeople, learners and visitors together through practical workshops, demonstrations, talks and cultural exchange. Dry stone walling remains at the heart of the festival, alongside other traditional stone skills and creative ways of looking at our landscape.
This year’s festival also has a particularly strong European connection. International partners from Croatia, Greece and Austria will join the festival through the ECHOES project, sharing knowledge and experience of traditional building heritage across different communities.
You can find the full timetable, workshops and practical information in the Féile na gCloch 2026 festival brochure.
A Living Stone Landscape
We have a particular affection for this festival at Rothaí Inis Oírr. Our own bike hire is housed in a purpose-built dry stone building just above the pier, and every day our bikes head out along roads bordered by the walls that give the island so much of its character.
Those walls are more than scenery. Dry stone construction is a living skill, passed from one generation to another. Ireland’s inclusion in UNESCO’s multinational recognition of the art, knowledge and techniques of dry stone walling in 2024 gave that tradition important international recognition. You can read more in our post about Inis Oírr’s dry stone walls and UNESCO recognition.
Féile na gCloch is a chance to see that heritage at work rather than simply looking at it. If you’re on Inis Oírr for the festival, take a little time between events to explore by bike. Follow the stone walls, turn down a quiet bóithrín, and you’ll soon understand why stone and Inis Oírr belong together.
We’d be happy to help you plan a cycle around the island while you’re here.