Sunday, September 15th - Day 5 The Wild Atlantic Way

One of the reasons we wanted to visit the west of Ireland was to drive a very scenic part of the Wild Atlantic Way on the west coast.  The Wild Atlantic Way is 1600 miles in length and is one of the longest-defined coastal routes in the world. The views are known to be spectacular. 

We set off for the town of Leeanne, first passing through pastoral scenes of small farms and then becoming more hilly and desolate before reaching the Atlantic.   

Picturesque Leeanne is situated at the end of a long bay, surrounded by quiet, bare hills.  We stayed for lunch before driving the bay and out to Tully to, hopefully, have a tour of an oyster farm.   But unfortunately, it was not open, but the drive was worth it

 

We continue south to the Connemara National Park where we stopped to walk the scenic trails.  Deb was excited to see the famous Connemara ponies grazing beside the path.

Connemara National Park covers some 2,000 hectares of scenic mountains, expanses of bogs, heaths, grasslands and woodlands in County Galway. Some of the National Park’s mountains, namely Benbaun, Bencullagh, Benbrack and Muckanaght, are part of the famous Twelve Bens or Beanna Beola range.

From there we went to Kylemore Abbey and estate.   Former estate land now is part of the National Park.  The location is absolutely stunning!  We arrived late in the afternoon and could not take a tour of the inside of the Abbey, but managed to walk a bit around the lake and path leading up to it.