Walking has become very popular in recent years and is an excellent way to see a bit of the country, Joan Scales finds.
Ten years ago Brian Hughes of the Abbeyglen Castle Hotel in Clifden began taking people out on trips - he has always loved walking and founded Connemara Safaris to introduce people to his favourite places. Six years ago he was joined by Gerry McCloskey, an archaeologist, and together they make the trips memorable.
A Connemara Safari combines walking with stunning scenery, history, archaeology, botany, geology, astronomy, excellent food, fine wine, music, conversation, and good company, to produce a heavenly holiday. Their walking tours of Connemara and the islands of Galway and Mayo are a for modern lives.
The Abbeyglen Castle Hotel, in Clifden is the starting point for a five-day break. Dinner at the castle, is followed by a sing-song in the piano bar and is a taste of the craic to come. Brian, an accomplished pianist, belts out hits from Sinatra and Coldplay with equal ease.
Favourite rooms in the Abbeyglen are those at the back of the hotel where, if you leave your window open, you can be lulled to sleep by the sound of the babbling brook. Rooms to the front overlook Galway Bay.
Day begins with a hearty breakfast as the six-mile walk along Killary Harbour will work up an appetite. The track the safari follows dates back to 1846, and was built during the Great Famine to give relief work to the locals. Half way along, you may get to meet Bob the Donkey, who takes over carrying the picnic.
Gerry, who carries the lunch is always amused by the reactions of people when the load is transferred to the donkey. "The poor donkey". No sympathy for the human packhorse, who has carried it for miles. Lunch is a picnic of smoked salmon, sandwiches and wine.
A bus transfers walkers from stunning Killary to Cleggan Pier to depart to Inis Bofin. On the island everyone settles into the very comfortable Doonmore Hotel run by the Murray family for many years and Aileen Murray has some fine Frank McMullan photographs of the island on the walls.
Inis Bofin, the Island of the White Cow, has a population of about 180 people, a tough life, dependent on fishing, farming and tourism. The season from April to October is the time for the islanders to make some money, as almost everything comes to a halt in the winter.
Walking on the island is fascinating, Gerry is the consummate teacher, his quiet Derry accent conveys the origins and history of the island as he points out promontory forts, mediaeval middens, Grace O'Malley's territory, Cromwell's fort, moraines, red sandstone rocks, seals, sea-caves, and relates stories from the islanders. A five-hour hike flies by.
If you are lucky, the next day you may be able to land on Inishark, the deserted island. The last families left in 1960 when the hardship became too much. The silent houses watch over the sheep as they roam the island grazing and the cry of birds is the only sound breaking the silence of the abandoned 1,000 acres. As the boat hoves in to get a closer view you can see the graveyard slowly inching its way towards the roiling sea. The last islanders will slip quietly into its maws.
Some days in the summer, when the sea is calm, you can land on the island, transferring from the boat to handmade currachs, the same way sheep are brought over for grazing. There's a lovely story of one of the islanders swimming his cattle over one year to graze the summer grasses. Next morning when he woke up, there they were back in their field. Perhaps the loneliness was too much even for them.
The safari heads on to Inish Turk and here we cross into Mayo. This tiny island is home to about 90 people and is hillier than Bofin. Accommodation is in either of the island's two guesthouses. We stayed with Paddy and Anne O'Toole, who made us very welcome with delicious home cooking and sean nós singing.
Lunches are provided by Delia and Mary Joe Concannon in their farmhouse close to the harbour. All the islanders are great cooks and bakers and can turn their hands to anything. We watched Delia's husband John working on a currach in a shed at the back of the house. It is a rare sight to see someone working with their hands from plans in their head.
Walking on Turk is a little more strenuous, particularly if you set your sights on taking in the lookout point on the highest hill. This little building was built during the Napoleonic Wars as one of a string of signal towers along the West Coast. Imagine the two soldiers assigned to man this bleak outpost, on guard for the French ships that never did come.
Much of the centre of the island is boggy but I finally got to see a fulachta fiadha. By a running stream, with wild mint beginning to grow, Gerry explained how the Celts made a cooking pit for big celebrations.
The water-filled pit was heated with big rocks and a beast wrapped in rushes, with armfuls of mint and wild garlic, cooked to perfection.
Onwards to the cliffs to admire the sea-pinks hanging on to the rock face and back along part of the commonage wall covering miles of the island, built in 1907/08. A job that employed most of the men for a few winters.
Another night of fine home cooking is followed by a boat trip to Clare Island, famous for diving, and the largest of the islands at 4,000 acres.
According to local legend the Sea Queen's remains were interred in the O'Malley Wall tomb in the Cistercian Friary. You will get to see it and the chancel vault where patches of the fresco painting still remain.
Clare Island is home to so much history, ten promontory forts, over 40 fulachta fiadha, the oldest fossil in Ireland, a 5,000-year-old court cairn another Napoleonic signal tower and so much more that the day speeds by.
Before you know it you are at Roonagh Pier on your way back to the Abbeyglen Castle to collect your gear and go home, or stay another night, if you have any sense.
A five-day Connemara Safari, costs €560 including meals, transfer and accommodation,
www.walkingconnemara.com or 095 21071.