Galway
The Burren and Connemara
Sunday, May 25, 2025
When we woke up, it was sunny, a welcome change from yesterday. But it turned out the day would bring us rain showers, some of them quite intensive, and periods of bright sunshine. But through it all, the wind persisted, averaging 25 plus miles per hour, sometimes with gusts as high as 40-45 mph. It made it feel quite cold at times.
We drove out into the Burren through the gateway to the national park (Corofin) on increasingly narrow roads to an area where we planned to hike (Slieve Carran). Once we got out of the car, the howling wind and “feels like” 39F displayed on our phones changed our minds!
These photos are from the area where we had intended to hike.
After taking a few photos, we headed up a different narrow lane to the Burren Viewpoint. These photos were taken there.
From there, we drove to Poulnabrone Dolmen, an old wedge tomb (along the way passing a smaller unnamed and unmarked one just out in a field). When we got to Pounabrone, it was really pouring, and we waited in the car until the rain let up. Artifacts have been found at this site dating back 5,800 years!
First, the unamed tomb.
Below, two views of
the Pounabrone Dolmen.
After visiting the tomb, we drove a short way to Caherconnell Stone Fort. After warming up with coffee, we went to see the fort from the tenth century, but the sky opened up again, so we were taken into a building by a guide, who showed us a slide show and gave us the overview of the history of the fort and the treasures discovered there. We had a couple of minutes in the fort before the rain started. Unlike Staigue from a couple days ago, foundations of some of the houses inside the fort survived here.
Next on the agenda was the sheepdog demonstration, with a farmer and four sheep dogs (collies). The dogs rounded up a small herd of sheep following whistle and voice commands from the farmer. We enjoyed the dogs, who had a lot of personality. It stayed dry through the whole thing! Raising sheep in an area as challenging as the Burren takes a high measure of dedication.
Here’s a short video, and below that, the farmer and his sheep.
After the demonstration we stayed on site and had lunch at the cafe.
After that we spent another hour or two touring the Burren by car, including a stop at the Cork Screw Hill Viewpoint, with its panoramic view.
Above is the view from Corkscrew Hill Viewpoint,
and below you can see the road climbing up to the top.
From there, we drove down another narrow road (really a track) to the coast to the Murrooghtoohy Geopark Site and then drove up north around Black Head Point, where the rocks were a different color. The sky had darkened again, but the rocks were really quite fantastic shapes and the sea an amazing dark color. Then we drove along the edge of Galway Bay to the City of Galway.
Driving on a
“road” toward
the coast.
Here are the amazing rock formations we saw when we got there.
Here’s a castle on the way to
Galway, along the bay. It was
not unusual to find castles,
round towers, ruined churches
etc. along the road.
This map shows the places we visited in the Burren.
After checking in to our Galway apartment, we walked around Eyre Square (hosting a food festival), central Galway and the Latin Quarter for an hour or so, looking for a pub that had two empty seats. Galway is a very lively town on a Sunday afternoon!
A Latin Quarter Street and a building façade on Shop Street.
May 26, 2025
We got a late start to our morning travels, because the clothes dryer in our apartment didn’t work. Because we are in an apartment, we went out to breakfast in a cafe. It was better than what we’ve had in hotels!
It looked to be rainy all day, so we abandoned our plans to visit Connemara National Park for a hike and the sky road for ocean views. Instead, we drove to Kylemore Abbey, through the Connemara countryside and along Lough Inagh. The landscape was dotted with many picturesque lakes and nice mountains. But the rainy conditions dampened the effect, so to speak. We arrived at the Abbey and had coffee to warm up. The Abbey is actually a Victorian era house that was converted to an abbey during the First World War. Some nuns still live on site.
We took some photos of the Abbey from across the lake, but due to the large number of tour buses, decided to skip the tour. Here is a photo of the abbey.
We then drove on to the Dan O’Hara Cottage and Connemara Heritage Museum. This gave us some fascinating background about the area. The site had a video presentation, a small museum and some reconstructed old buildings. We learned about the sad life of Dan O’Hara, who lost his prosperous farm during the Famine, lost his wife and several children on the journey to America and he died two years later. This thatched cottage was at the museum.
After this, we backtracked to the town of Clifden for lunch. It was then back to Galway over a 90- minute drive, and we relaxed for the rest of the rainy day afternoon.
Around 5 p.m. we ventured out, expecting the pubs would not be as crowded on a Monday as they were on Sunday. We were correct. We got seats at Taaffes Bar, one of the places that had early evening traditional music sessions. This group had different instrument, mostly stringed, no flutes. After a while we moved to the pub across the street to see what its music was like and decided we liked Taaffes better. Here is a video of one of the songs we heard there.
Only our second day with all bad weather. Dinner made up for it, the best meal since Dublin at a tapas bar.
Here is a map of the places we visited from Galway.
Tomorrow, we start making our way back toward Dublin.
