Why Taylor Swift Is Drawn to Ireland’s Healing Coastlines
Some say that, if you meet someone who doesn’t like Taylor Swift, their heart has never been broken. That can’t possibly be true, of course, but the sentiment holds. When life splits us open, many of us turn to her.
Songs like “All Too Well” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” remind us we’re not the only ones who’ve sat awake at 2 a.m. trying to make sense of things.
And then there are the songs that lift us up like “Style,” “Getaway Car,” and “Opalite” – the bright ones that keep us company on long drives, Saturday cleaning playlists, and nights out with friends.
From “Love Story” to “The Fate of Ophelia,” her music has traveled with us through seasons of loss and return. Ireland works the same way.
If life has left you raw, Ireland will stitch the edges back together again. You’ll feel it when the wind rushes over Malin Head, when the rain settles on your shoulders during a quiet walk across the Aran Islands. The loneliness softens, and the world feels wider again.
Is it any wonder Taylor seems drawn here?
This isn’t about pub crawls or crowded tourist routes. It’s about the softer corners of the country – the cliffs, coves, and wild woodland paths – the places where it’s possible to be quiet with yourself for a while.
Below are the secret places she has been or may have been, depending on which stories you believe. We haven’t spotted her ourselves. But, we understand why she’d come.
Dublin
Dublin is the only confirmed stop, though how much of the city she moved through unseen is unknown. With the right coat, the right hat, she could have walked these streets freely.
We can imagine her trailing fingers along shelves in Hodges Figgis, or tucked into the corner of Books Upstairs with a notebook and a cup of tea. Marsh’s Library, with its oak galleries and locked cages of rare books, feels like something she would understand instinctively.
While Temple Bar draws the loud crowds, Dublin also has its quiet green spaces like St Stephen’s Green in the early morning or Phoenix Park in the late afternoon. Then, there’s the coastline just beyond the city, like Howth Head.
On these cliff paths, the wind and sea speak louder than anything else.
Wicklow
Wicklow feels like a place Taylor wouldn’t just visit, but return to, time and time again.
Locals say she spent time here with Joe Alwyn during filming, and the lyric from “Sweet Nothing” – “Does it ever miss Wicklow sometimes?” – sealed the rumor into lore.
Wicklow National Park is a landscape of tall grasses, the scent of bog, and long horizons. Glendalough, with its 6th-century monastery ruins and gentle lakes, carries a quiet that doesn’t need to be explained. The word “sanctuary” comes to mind, though the place never tries to name itself.
Celebrities come here because no one bothers them. People simply let them be. Which, in the end, is all most of us want.
Donegal
Up in the northwest, Donegal feels like the edge of the world in the best way. Waves slam against cliffs the height of cathedrals.
The beaches are wide, pale, and empty in the winter, with winds that provide clarity.
Fans think Taylor once shared a photo from Ballymastocker Bay, a crescent of sand so quiet you can hear your own breath. Whether or not she stood there doesn’t matter. The place itself is the point.
Across the border in County Antrim, Dunluce Castle clings to the cliffside with the drama of a fairytale that’s slightly frayed at the edges. Can’t you just see her standing there in the music video for “Love Story”?
And, yes, Northern Ireland claims her, too. Some say she has ancestry in Derry. We choose to believe it, if only because it feels right.
Galway & Connemara
Galway has music in its bones. The Aran Islands sit just offshore and, when Taylor wore an Aran sweater while she was promoting Folklore, demand surged and the old patterns found new life again.
The story that fishermen could be identified by the stitches on their sweaters may be folklore, but it’s the kind of folklore that understands how love and grief tend to travel together.
When you drive west into Connemara, you’ll notice the land is dappled with stone walls, lakes, and quiet fishing villages. Roundstone will cherish and protect all your thoughts. And, just beyond it, Dogs Bay and Gurteen Bay share a stretch of white sand and turquoise shallows that glow at sunset in a way that feels surreal.
It’s rumored Taylor spent time on Achill Island, too. That’s where Grace O’Malley, Ireland’s pirate queen, once ruled the western seas. A woman who commanded fleets and negotiated with queens, a woman who refused smallness – we can see the connection.