County Galway | Spinning Compass

view of Ballynakill Harbour and Barnaderg Bay from Diamond Hill

Connemara, the wild, remote wilderness of Irish-speaking Galway. Just the name conjures images of The Quiet Man, which was filmed not far away in east Galway. We looked forward to seeing what glories Connemara National Park had to offer. Reading up on it before we got there, we didn’t see anything mentioned other than a walk up Diamond Hill. Well, there had to be more than that. It’s a national park, for Pete’s sake, and one of only six in the country. We’d just go and see what else they’ve got.

Diamond Hill surrounded by typical Irish grassland

We asked at the visitor center and found that the hike up Diamond Hill really is all they have to offer. No exhibits in the visitors center. No informational plaques outside. Just a walk.

An interesting note: No matter how taxing the hike, the Irish (and Brits too, we observed when we were in the UK) called them walks, as in a walk in the park. You can ascend 1200 feet over two hours (e.g. Diamond Hill) and it’s still called a walk, although they do acknowledge it’s a “strenuous” walk. That’s one difference between Americans and the Irish. In the US we’d be plastering bumper stickers on our cars saying “I climbed Diamond Hill.” In Ireland they tell their friends “I went on the loveliest walk this afternoon. It was grand.” I just love their understatement!

We opted out of the strenuous part of the walk, but hiked up far enough to get great views of Ballynakill Harbour and Barnaderg Bay, and it was still a good stretch in the fresh country air.

We started to encounter marshy wetlands.

And as we walked, we gradually began to realize something about the park that we hadn’t seen mentioned. The area surrounding Diamond Hill is all bogland. We noticed the reed-filled ponds and the lumpy tufts of grass that we had seen in Killarney National Park’s bog. After gaining a bit of altitude, we saw fields below us where peat was being harvested—the telltale plateaus of turf where vertical slices of peat were being removed like slivers of dark chocolate cake, one layer at a time. The water running in the streams was brown from the tannins leaching out of the peat. And much of the walk was on boardwalk to prevent people from walking on the bog and destroying the fragile habitat.

The color of the landscape changed from vibrant green to rusty brown.

peat, or turf, on the banks of this tannin-brown stream

The walk was a series of “aha” moments as we put it all together. Why hadn’t they said something about the bog, talked it up, showcased it for unenlightened visitors, used this beautiful park as an educational opportunity? Perhaps it was another case of Irish understatement. Just get out there and walk in it, and you’ll see what you see. Isn’t it grand?

This Connemara pony and her foal grazed amid the midges, annoying flying insects that will suck the blood out of your flesh and the wits out of your head. The mom’s tail was moving non-stop to keep them at bay, and her foal took refuge under her fan. Smart little lad!

Even Connemara lambs have horns. This one can’t be more than a few months old and already has quite a bit of growth.

the Cliffs of Aran, from Dun Aengus on Inis Mór

We’re not fans of tours, but sometimes a tour is truly the best way to see a place. The weather was beautiful while we were in Galway, perfect for visiting one of the Aran Islands just offshore where Galway Bay meets the North Atlantic. There are three islands; I chose the biggest, Inis Mór (Inishmore), because I wanted to hike up to Dun Aengus, a stone fort overlooking the Atlantic to the west and County Clare to the south across Galway Bay, seemingly at the edge of the world.

We could have driven the 40 kilometers to Ros an Mhil, figured out the ferry schedule and bought tickets, and arranged to rent bikes, hike, or hire a cab or local tour guide to take us to the foot of Dun Aengus, or we could just hire Michael Faherty, an Inis Mór native, to arrange the whole package for us.

Dun Aengus on the horizon
clints and grikes…look familiar?
an “erratic” left by a glacier in the last Ice Age
the fort
the edge of the world…the Cliffs of Aran

Michael was born and raised on Inis Mór. He was a commercial fisherman until the EU restrictions on fishing open waters became too restrictive. He decided to try his hand at the tourism business. He picks you up in his van in downtown Galway, drives you to the ferry, purchases the ferry tickets, escorts you to the island where he has another van to drive you from the ferry terminal not only to Dun Aengus, which is the highlight, but also to his favorites spots on the island.

Note: Michael inherited his father’s farm on Inis Mór last year when his father passed away, so he maintains that too. The day before our tour, he had to stop mid-tour to “pull a calf.” One of his cows was having a difficult delivery, so he had to pull off the road at one of his pastures to help her out. Man, why didn’t we book the tour the day before?

7800 linear miles of stone wall
wildflowers growing out of stone
non-native beach rubble thrown up on the shore by Hurricane Sandy in 2012
notice the difference between native and non-native stone

The most striking thing about Inis Mór? The stone. OMG, it’s everywhere! The Aran Islands are actually a geological extension of the Burren. We saw clints and grikes [The Burren] on the island like the ones we saw in the national park. Over the centuries, as farmers cleared land for livestock, they removed stone from the fields and used it to build walls delineating pastureland. Michael says there are 7800 linear miles of stone wall on Inis Mór alone.

Michael recently built a shed on his property using stone from his land. It was about 92% complete when the local authorities showed up. You can’t use those stones. They’re part of the heritage of our island. You’ll have to put them back. So Michael disassembled his shed. (Why didn’t they stop by when the shed was only 19% done? he mused.) You can own the land, you can build a wall with the stone from your land, but you can’t build a structure with the stone. They have more stone than they know what to do with. I doubt they could exhaust the supply if they tried.

This is the kind of insight you get only from hanging out with the locals.