Connemara – A Few of My Favorite Things

(Virtual Tour – County Galway, Part 4)

Today it’s snowing in Connemara!   I’ve been in Connemara for rain, sleet, heavy winds, plenty of sunshine but never for snow.  It must be beautiful to see the mountains and fields covered in snow.  That said, those of us who have dealt with snow know that after the quiet beauty of the snowfall, you are left with the work of digging out.  However, I think that the snow in Connemara might just be a light dusting.

Connemara holds many of my favorite things in life, starting with our friends and continuing on through the beautiful countryside, the flora and fauna, the historic buildings and the varied activities in the area.  In several earlier blog posts I’ve written about Connemara and Clifden, my favorite Irish town.  In this blog post I’ll share a few of my favorites in Connemara.

When family and friends come visit us in Connemara, we always take them on a drive along the 10-mile Sky Road.  Without fail, as we approach this spot on the Sky Road our passengers loudly exclaim “Wow!” and then beg to be let out to soak in the views and take some photos.  The drive along the Sky Road never fails to put a smile on my face.

It may be snowing now in Connemara but on a sunnier day this is one of the views you can see as you drive along the water’s edge.  We have been fortunate in that the lovely holiday apartment and homes we’ve rented in the past have all been along the water with beautiful views such as this. 

A visit to Kylemore Abbey, built as a castle in 1868 for the Mitchell Henry family and now an Abbey for Benedictine nuns is a delightful way to spend a morning or afternoon.  A tour of the Abbey, neo-Gothic church and the Victorian walled gardens is just enough exercise to build up an appetite for lunch or tea in Mitchell’s Café on the Abbey grounds.

The colorful and beautiful bell-shaped Fuchsia are my absolute favorite flowers in Connemara.  I like them so much that I bought a pair of sterling silver fuchsia earrings from O’Dalaigh Jewellers in Clifden.  O’Dalaigh Jewellers is another favorite and I’m lucky enough to have several pieces of jewelry from them.  I understand that O’Dalaigh is presently renovating their shop at the Cliffs of Moher.

Second to fuchsia my favorite flower is the Foxglove which grows from June to August and “Although poisonous, this plant is of enormous use to medicine.  It has been found to be a major instrument in the treatment of heart conditions as it contains digitoxin and digoxin.”  (With permission … Zoe Devlin)

A happy find in Tullycross is the Christ the King Catholic Church with Harry Clarke stained-glass windows behind the altar.  Clarke’s windows can be found in many locations throughout Ireland, England, Wales, Australia and even in the USA.  His windows dance with brilliant colors and were made during the first three decades of the 1900s.  To date, I’ve seen his windows in Tullycross, Dingle and at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami. 

For a bracing walk through a stunning area of natural beauty I like to go to the Derrigimlagh Bog Complex and take the three-mile Looped Walk.  Aside from the wide-open beauty of the area it’s fun to read about the history of what occurred on this land in the 20^th century.  A few years ago, information kiosks about the history of the Derrigimlagh Bog Complex were set up along the looped walk.  Pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown landed in the bog in 1919 after completing the world’s first transatlantic flight and several years before their landing the area was home to Marconi’s wireless telegraph station. 

One of my all-time favorite things to do in Connemara is to ride one of Judy and Enda’s beautiful horses in Cleggan.  Sometimes I’ll go out just for a walk/trot with Judy around Cleggan but more often join a group of riders for a ride along the surf with the mountains as our backdrop.  If the tide is right, a horseback ride from Cleggan to Omey Island is on the agenda.

Next stop is County Mayo where we’ll meet up with some delightful and talented family members, visit an historic cottage and take in the wild beauty of the North Mayo Coast.

COVID-19 Update:  Our family and friends in Ireland recently moved back into Covid-19 Pandemic Level 5, the most restrictive of the levels.  Level 5 limits which retail services can be open, how far people can travel from their homes for essential services and has students engaged in remote learning as schools are closed.

Our shop owner friends in Clifden and surrounding towns, like so many shop owners in the USA and around the world, have been resilient and constantly adjust how they provide services to their customers while complying with the pandemic restrictions.  Shop owners got new websites, started Instagram posts, converted from shop/dine-in to delivery of their goods among other efforts to remain in business.  We wish them all the best and look forward to a return visit.