Cliffs of Moher overtake Dublin Zoo for tourists

While Dublin's Guinness Storehouse continues to hold onto the top spot, the 214m high cliffs on the Atlantic coast have leapfrogged Dublin Zoo to second place for the first time.

The popular Guinness-themed attraction, located at St James’ Gate, welcomed 1,269,371 visitors in 2014 breaking the previously held record of 1,156,985 in 2013.

Despite exceeding the one million visitor mark for a fourth consecutive year, Dublin Zoo has been knocked from its second place perch.

The final 'footfall figure' at Dublin Zoo reached an all-time high of 1,076,876 visitors in 2014. This makes the zoo Ireland’s most popular ‘family' visitor attraction.

However, the Cliffs of Moher attracted more than 3,600 visitors more that Dublin Zoo last year, after passing the one million number for the first time ever.

In December, the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience confirmed it had reached the the one million visitor milestone, while the final figure for 2014 has been confirmed as 1,080,501 - an increase of 12.5% on the 960,134 visitors in 2013.

Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience Director Katherine Webster said: "I believe it is the first time since the new visitor centre opened that we are in the number two slot. We have always been the most visited natural attraction and by a long way the most visited attraction outside of the capital city."

"It is great to see that so many visitors are drawn to the west of Ireland, to county Clare and to the Wild Atlantic Way,” she said.

The Cliffs of Moher also saw more visitors than the 11 sites run by Ireland’s largest operator of tourist attractions.

Shannon Heritage, now part of the recently established Shannon Group plc, operates seven day-time and four evening attractions which drew a total of 637,000 visitors in 2014.

The 13th century King John’s Castle in Limerick was the most popular of the group’s attractions doubling its visitor numbers to 85,000 last year.