industry passenger transportation vehicles transportation founded 1969 headquarters killimer ireland area served river shannon website www.shannonferries.com shannon ferry group also known as shannon ferries is an irish private company that operates a ro ro ferry crossing of the river shannon between the counties of clare and kerry . the company is based in killimer co. clare with the service operating between killimer and tarbert co kerry . it currently operates two ro ro ferries the shannon dolphin and the shannon breeze . it is the busiest domestic ferry service in ireland . prior to the introduction of the service the quickest way to travel between the two locations was via limerick city a 137km 85mile journey . the service therefore saved hours on the travel time between kerry and west clare . it is a very popular tourist route as it is the fastest route between the popular tourist destinations of kerry i.e. dingle killarney and north to clare i.e. the cliffs of moher the burren and galway i.e. galway city connemara . the river shannon is the largest and deepest river in the british isles making a bridging very difficult and expensive . the crossing takes approximately 20 minutes and operates on an hourly basis all year round except christmas day with additional services during the summer doubling frequency . 1 there are toilet facilities on the tarbert side and a gift shop cafe and toilet facilities on the killimer side . 2 the service was inaugurated in 1969 with six families based on both sides of the crossing investing to create the company . 3 vessel history 4 edit shannon breeze shannon dolphin july 2010 . name years builder cars pax note shannon heather 1969 1997 dartmouth 30 250 sold to passage east ferries shannon willow 1979 2003 bowling 44 300 sold to lough foyle ferries shannon dolphin 1995 present appledore 52 350 shannon breeze 2000 present appledore 60 350 references edit http www.shannonferries.com ferry timetable 2 cms.html http www.discoverireland.ie activities adventure shannon ferries 12119 http www.irishtimes.com business sectors transport and tourism shannon ferry group goes into the red 1.531910 http www.irish ferries enthusiasts.com local operators shannon ferries v t e river shannon ireland basin counties cavan leitrim roscommon longford westmeath offaly galway tipperary clare limerick settlements dowra carrick on shannon roosky athlone shannonbridge banagher killaloe limerick city major tributaries abbey boyle brosna deel inny maigue mulkear nenagh suck flows into shannon estuary atlantic ocean linked canals shannon erne waterway jamestown canal river suck canal boyle canal lecarrow canal royal canal grand canal headrace canal ardnacrusha major crossings dowra bridge carrick bridge jamestown bridge drumsna bridge roosky bridge n6 athlone bypass shannonbridge banagher bridge portumna bridge killaloe bridge the living bridge university bridge o briensbridge shannon bridge limerick tunnel shannon ferry all crossings of the river shannon retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title shannon ferry & oldid 701555981 categories river shannonferry companies of the republic of ireland navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 25 january 2016 at 06 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view