Galway's shopping happens in a half-square-kilometre of stone-flagged lanes where a 1750 goldsmith, a 1925 food hall and a Saturday street market share the same block. Buy Aran wool, Connemara marble and Irish design straight from the makers.
Stalls wrap around the 1320 Collegiate Church on Churchyard Street every Saturday 08:00–18:00 (Sundays too, plus daily in summer). Look for Connemara wool hats, bog-oak carvings, raw honey and Sheridans' cheese toasties from €7.
Ireland's benchmark cheese shop sits on Churchyard Street with Cashel Blue, Durrus and raw-milk Coolea stacked to the ceiling, plus a first-floor wine bar. Wedges from about €6; vacuum-packing for flights is done at the counter.
Family-run since 1925 at 38–39 Shop Street: a ground-floor food hall of Irish whiskey, Burren smokehouse salmon, Connemara sea salt and own-label preserves, with a busy restaurant upstairs. Hampers built to order from €35.
Galway's own perfumer and chandler, hand-pouring candles and blending fragrances such as Lorgnette and Sonnet in the west of Ireland. The High Street shop stocks the full range; candles from roughly €38, eau de parfum from €95.
Trading on High Street since 1938 and the shop that dressed the cast of The Quiet Man. Genuine hand-knit Aran sweaters from Connemara knitters, tweed caps and Donegal jackets. Hand-knits run about €160–€280, machine-knits from €70.
Around 100,000 titles crammed into the Cornstore Mall on Middle Street, run by Charlie Byrne since 1989. Strong Irish-language, Connacht history and secondhand poetry rooms, with a bargain table where paperbacks start near €3.
The narrowest of Galway's surviving medieval lanes, running off Quay Street, now lined with small ceramics, jewellery and gallery units. Hand-thrown pottery typically €25–€90; several makers work at the wheel behind the counter.
The Four Corners at William Street, selling bodhráns, tin whistles, concertinas and sheet music to Galway's session players for over a century. Tunable goatskin bodhráns from about €90; a Feadóg whistle costs around €12.
Number 1 Quay Street, established 1750 and the original maker of the Claddagh ring, with a free back-room museum holding the earliest surviving examples. Silver rings start near €55; 14ct gold climbs past €400.
A one-window cabinet of curiosities facing the Spanish Arch: Georgian mourning rings, ship's instruments, Victorian paste jewellery and taxidermy oddities, individually priced and largely one-off. Small pieces from about €40.
Twenty minutes west along the Gaeltacht coast road, a cluster of working studios where weavers, a glassblower, a potter and a leatherworker sell at the bench. Handwoven scarves from roughly €45; most units open 10:00–17:00.
A blue-and-white Georgian corner building holding four floors of Irish giftware: Belleek parian china, Newbridge silver, Connemara marble and linen. Marble pendants from about €30, Belleek pieces from €45.