A pleasant market town built on a hill, the town square (now a car park) occupies the crest of the hill, so that every road into the town is uphill. The Scariff River is an attraction for anglers, and the river , which flows into the Shannon is navigable for river cruisers almost to the town. Scariff has one major - and conspicuous- industry : a wood-processing plant; large areas of the Slieve Aughty Hills are now under afforestation.

Scariff is the hometown of the famous novelist Edna O'Brien whose works were once banned in Ireland as being too obscene and irreverant in a Catholic country.

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