A Cheap Day Out Galway: In the first of a series on making your holiday euro go further, Lorna Siggins finds value for money in Galway city and county
When Galway has a reputation for being a city that never sleeps, a good breakfast shouldn't be too hard to come by. Many swear by the brisk service and bustle of Lynch's Café on 5 Shop Street. However, it is hard to beat the scrambled egg and scone - with smoked salmon, feta cheese and tomatoes, or bacon - which is served up for €4.50 at Anton's, one of the best coffee houses in the City of the Tribes, on Father Griffin Road just over the river Corrib.
A little further down the road towards Salthill, one of Arabica's three outlets, at the Galway Business School, also serves healthy breakfast, brunch and lunch fare, fine coffee, teas, juices and smoothies (opening 8.30 a.m.). Try the wonderful booster with carrot and ginger, or the energiser, for €2.90. Arabica is based in town in Merchant's Road near the docks (opening 8 a.m.), with its third branch in Barna village (opening 9 a.m.).
Mid-morning
Now that Mutton Island sewage plant is operating, a sea swim isn't so much of a health hazard in the inner bay - off the Salthill promenade, at Silver Strand in Barna, or beyond Spiddal. Unfortunately, Spiddal itself has lost its blue flag, due largely to the impact of sewage pumped untreated via a local authority holding tank.
Before or after the dip, a walk in Barna Woods among horse chestnut trees, oaks, alder and ash, is always magical - and one advantage of its small car park is that it keeps the numbers down. Drive a little further west, and beat off your cobwebs in the labyrinth at Furbo church, which was built by parishioners to mark the millennium.
Lunch
Padraicín's pub at Furbo has a wonderful sea view if you're looking for something substantial.
However, Bistro Jackie's at Spiddal Craft Village is worth travelling out to for its home-made soups, salads, quiches and cookies.
Alternatively, take the road north over the bog at Barna to the village of Moycullen, and then head west again towards Oughterard - watching out for signs for Brigit's Garden just beyond Kinnevey's Pub in the hamlet of Roscahill.
In the garden's tea rooms, Anthony Hough offers a rich selection of soups, salads, teas and coffees, and some wonderful desserts - including banana and apple crumble, and apricot and carrot cake. All freshly baked every morning, he emphasises. Hough is former proprietor of An Gabhar Órga, the very successful restaurant in Newcastle, Galway, which has now been transformed into the Spud House.
Afternoon
After such sustenance, you will want to spend several hours in Brigit's Garden - both magical and mystical, with a strong spiritual dimension. One could well imagine hours, days, weeks passing by in this garden of Eden, which was only opened to the public last month.
Evening
For good value, it is hard to beat McDonagh's Fish Restaurant in the city's Quay Street, which has both a sit-down section and a take-away, open from noon except for Mondays, and no reservation system.
Ristorante Da Roberta's in Salthill has become so busy since it was reviewed favourably in this newspaper that while the food's great, it is difficult to linger in comfort over a meal.
Close by, Schooner's restaurant has opened over the aquarium, and has the advantage of easy parking in a city of slick and enthusiastic clampers.
Nightlife
There's no shortage of music sessions, both planned and impromptu, in town, with Róisín Dubh's in Dominick Street regarded as one of the more eclectic venues. However, early birds might prefer an evening walk under the setting sun along Salthill's "prom" - or beyond Blackrock towards Seaweed point, weather and tide permitting.
Fairy fort and woodlands
A sleeping woman curled around a womb-like pond. A crouched figure of birch leaves, cast in bronze. A riot of wildflowers sheltering Diarmuid and Grainne's hollow. And a carved triple spiral representing the three faces of Brigit . . .Were the saint herself still alive today, she would certainly be overcome by the sheer beauty of a new garden which has been named after her just south of the Corrib in Co Galway.
"More of a landscape," its architect, Jenny Beale, describes the project which extends over 11 acres of meadowland and includes the first major public project by designer Mary Reynolds, gold medal winner at the 2002 Chelsea Flower Show.
For Beale, Brigit's Garden represents the realisation of a seven-year-old idea - or an "order" that she woke up with one morning, she says. She and her husband, NUI Galway lecturer Dr Colin Brown of the university's Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, moved to Galway from England more than 20 years ago. For Beale, much of that time was spent rearing her own children, and painting when she found time. Just under six years ago, the couple purchased the first of three lots of farmland running by an esker in Rosscahill, Co Galway, which included a fairy fort and woodland. Beale began planning and planting for its transformation.
Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasa, the four Celtic festivals of the seasons, form the nucleus of Reynolds's contribution to the project, with An Tearmann or "sanctuary", a round thatched "garden room" of timber built by the Cool Mountain Co-Operative being the focal point.
The trail includes a glade of swinging baskets for children and the three faces of Brigit carved by Mick Wilkins of Furbo, Co Galway. Vegetable beds host edible plants, flowers and herbs, from borrage to beetroot, and the harvest feast table is a piece of solid midland oak. Just beyond, three small yew trees symbolise the moment of death, as life begins again.
The garden continues with a half-mile-long nature trail through woodland, wildflower meadows and down to a lake, past a wind chamber built of local stone, a sundial and the original fairy fort. Andrew Hough runs the tea rooms, and Beale intends to run environmental education programmes for local schools.
Although Leader funding was awarded through Galway Rural Development, much of the cost of the project has been borne personally, along with the physical assistance of close friends - and professional assistance of heroes like Martin McDonagh, digger-driver extrordinaire of Recess, Connemara.
"If we want to sort out our relationship with the planet then we have to engage our hearts and spirits as well as our minds," Beale says.
• Brigit's Garden at Pollagh, Roscahill, Co Galway, is open daily to September, 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and Sunday, 12.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m., with a special "quiet time" reserved for reflection and retreat on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. Admission 5.50 for adults, 4 concessionary, 2.50 for children, with under-fives free. Contact (091) 550905 and www.galwaygarden.com
