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Carraroe (in Irish language, and officially, an Cheathrú Rua , meaning 'the red quarter') is a village in Connemara, the coastal Irish-speaking region (Gaeltacht) of County Galway, Ireland. It is known for its traditional fishing boats, the . Its population is widely dispersed over the Carraroe peninsula between Cuan an Fhir Mhóir (Greatman's Bay) and Cuan Chasla (Casla Bay). Carraroe has an unusual beach, Trá an Dóilín, a biogenic gravel beach made of coralline algae known as "maerl".
The main activity of these boats is racing, and there are several regattas along the Connemara coast. Currach racing is held on Loch an Mhuilinn, the lake close to the village. Every year at the festival of Cruinniú na mBád, a flotilla of traditional Connemara boats race across Galway Bay from Carraroe to Kinvara.
In the 2022 census, Carraroe was a town with one of the highest percentages of daily Irish speakers in Ireland, with 69 percent stating that they spoke it daily. Under the Gaeltacht Act 2012, the Gaeltacht was redefined into 26 Language Planning Areas. Of these, Carraroe area recorded the third-largest proportion of daily Irish speakers in Ireland in the 2022 census, at 90 percent.
There are two summer schools that teach Irish to English-speaking secondary-school students from all over Ireland. The Carraroe area is also a centre for Irish-language media, and the former national Irish-language newspaper Foinse had its head office in the village. The Irish-language radio station, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, is in nearby Casla, and the Irish-language television station, TG4, is based at Baile na hAbhann, a few kilometres east. Roman Catholic church services are in Irish only. All school lessons are conducted in Irish.
''Páirc an Chathanaigh'' is a community-owned sports ground in the village. It is the home ground of both [[Gaelic football]] club CLG An Cheathrú Rua and An Ghaeltacht RFC [[rugby union]] club. It also hosted Galway United F.C.'s 1986–87 UEFA Cup soccer match against [[FC Groningen]] when [[Terryland Park]] failed to meet UEFA standards.
Local soccer club C.S. Mac Dara competes in the Galway & District League. Connemara Isles Golf Club is a nine-hole course in nearby Lettermore.
The town gives its name to the traditional tune "Carraroe Jig". The jig has been recorded by several artists, including Patrick Street, Mick Moloney and The Corrs.
Carraroe is the home of the fictional Nuala Anne McGrail, heroine of novelist Andrew Greeley's "Irish" series which began with Irish Gold in 1994.
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