A Visitor's Guide to Ireland's West

The Connemara region is very popular with visitors, especially so with those interested in outdoor activities, such as fishing, walking and horse-riding, or in painting or photography.

Connemara LakeIn high season the main routes through Connemara can become quite crowded, so check your map and look for alternative routes along minor roads less accessible to tour coaches - you will be rewarded with incredible views and seeing the area in all its quiet and lonely magnificence.

Galway is a fast-growing university city with a very strong artistic heritage and those interested in music, theatre and the arts in general will find much to enjoy both there and throughout the West.

In Mayo, Westport is a typical 'estate' town, which grew around nearby Westport House, today open to the public. It is built on the lovely Clew Bay, where it is said there is an island for every day of the year - and a few to spare! Westport is a great place for music, especially traditional music, so try to spend an evening in one of its pubs - Matt Molloy's is legendary.

Mayo is also a renowned fishing area, with the lakes of Lough Conn and Lough Cullen in particular a haven for fishing folk. If you really want to leave the world behind and immerse yourself in peace and tranquillity, any part of Mayo towards the coast and away from the larger towns will fit the bill.

Ceide Fields in North Mayo is Ireland's, perhaps Europe's, most important stone age archaeological site and getting to it will take you through some of the most remote parts of Ireland whose desolate beauty is quite breathtaking.

Roscommon may be one of the lest visited counties in Ireland, but that's not to say it isn't worth a look, especially if you love riverside places and exploring old monastic or fort settlements. It's a quiet place, where the attractions are not as immediately obvious but will reward those who take the time to get to know it and explore.

The Islands of the West

The Aran Islands off Galway and Achill Island in Mayo are inhabited islands which see a huge influx of tourists in Summer. They are beautiful and interesting places to visit, but it can be a little dismaying to find yourself in a huge crowd in such seemingly remote spots, and Achill in particular has been destroyed in parts by poorly planned and unattractive development.

When you visit them - and you should - make an effort to keep away from the more commercial parts and veer off the beaten track, there are still quiet and lovely places where you can be almost alone even at high season.

Inishturk and Inishbofin tend to have fewer organised tours visiting and are less commerical.

Recommended Things to See & Do

Delphi Adventure Centre
If it's outdoor activity you are after there can scarcely be a better place anywhere in the world to be active than Delphi. It's location is nothing short of stupenous - set on a mountain in a remote part of Connermara,...

Thoor Ballylee
"And out of doors, with the hawthorn in blossom all along the river banks, everything is so beautiful that to go elsewhere is to leave beauty behind." So wrote the poet William Butler Yeats from his home in Thoor Ballylee,...

Westport House and Gardens
Westport House is the family home of Lord Altamont, whose family have lived here since the house was built for his ancestor John Browne in 1731. It was built on the site of a castle which was home to 16th century Pirate Queen...

Killary Adventure Centre
Killary Adventure Centre offers trap shooting, primarily aimed at beginners and and the less experienced and designed to act as an introduction to the sport. Their aim is to give participants confidence with the gun, teach them...

Carne Golf Links
This is an extraordinary and terrific course and one that way too few visitors reach. It is extremely remote, on the wild Belmullet peninsula in Mayo, and has really made the most of its location. Building the course barely...

Connemara Golf Links
This place is both unique and beautiful, set in the rocky and majestic region of Connemara which will have even those golfers normally unmoved by scenery gasping in admiration. It is totally exposed to ever shifting winds blowing...

Gort Golf Club
Sometimes it is nice to divert from the typical tourist trail and take in a local club where not many visitors play. This is a course well worth making such a diversion for. Designed by Christy O'Connor, it is a championship...

Errislannan Manor
If you want to ride Connemara ponies this is the place to come. It is one of the most highly regarded Connemara Pony Studs in Ireland and these strudy and active ponies are the perfect mounts for exploring the moorland, hills...

Hell's Kitchen Railway Museum
This small museum is one of those quirky places that fill you with joy when you are lucky enough to stumble upon them. That the museum and its collection exist at all is testament to one man's enduring determination and passion,...

Irish Museum of Country Life
An absolutely fascinating place, with exhibitions which illuminate the way that ordinary Irish country people lived and worked between 1850 and 1950. There are regular demonstrations, music and dance performances and special...

Events Guide for the West

Tedfest
Type: Comedy | Date: February 2009
This festival on Aran Mór Island will either completely baffle you or make you want to up sticks and head for 'Craggy Island" for a few days of completely off...

Cúirt International Festival of Literature
Type: Literary Events | Date: April 2009
Cúirt invariably put together an interesting and varied programme and attract some very big names to Galway for this festival. It isn't in any way a stuffy literary...

Feile na Tuaithe (Country Festival)
Type: Festival | Date: May 2009
A festival celebrating traditional country life in Ireland, the events are all held at Turlough Park, the Irish National Museum's Mayo based department of Country Life. On...

The Lough Corrib Cycle
Type: Sport | Date: May 2009
This very popular annual cycle around Lough Corrib is a fun event for all the family - and if it's a nice day you will be cycling along one of the lovliest routs anywhere....

Ballina Salmon Festival
Type: Festival | Date: July 11th - 20th
This festival incorporates the Ballina Street and Arts Festival and in spite of it's name is not all about either fishing for or eating Salmon! Most events during the festival...

Boyle Arts Festival
Type: Arts Festival | Date: July 25th - Aug 1st
Classical music, jazz, traditional and world music feature along with drama, poetry, literature and storytelling, but this festival is best known for its visual arts programme,...

Westport Arts Festival
Type: Arts Festival | Date: Aug 29th - Sept 7th
Taking place over two weekends in the Co Mayo town of Westport, this annual festival is aimed at all ages and a wide range of interests. The 2008 programme has yet to be announced,...

Clarenbridge Oyster Festival
Type: Festival | Date: 12th - 14th Sept
The Oyster Festival at Clarinbridge has taken place every September since 1954, with guests from all over the world returning annully to celebrate the new Oyster season. The bivalves...

Clifden Arts Week
Type: Arts Festival | Date: 18th - 28th Sept
2008 will mark 31 years of the annual arts festival in the Connermara captial of Clifden, which has grown from a small community event in to one with a packed programme of events...

Baboró International Arts Festival for Children
Type: Arts Festival | Date: 13th - 19th Oct
This is a unique festival in the Irish calendar, aimed squarely at kids and at getting shcools and families from thoughtout the West and beyond involved in a vast array of events...

Feile Frank McGann 2008
Type: Music: Traditional | Date: Oct 9th-12th
Féile Frank Mc Gann was established in honour of one of Ireland's best loved traditional Irish musicians who sadly passed away in 2002. Frank Mc Gann was renowned...

Clarinbrige Arts Festival 2008
Type: Arts Festival | Date: Oct 10th -12th
This is very much a community event, with just about everyone in the Co Galway town involved in the festival in some way. Visitors will enjoy the friendly and welcoming spirit...

Ballinasloe October Fair
Type: Festival | Date: 4th -12th Oct
This is Ireland's, and maybe Europe's, oldest traditional fair, with an annual gathering taking place here since at least the time of the High Kings of Tara. The main...

Salthill Air Show
Type: Miscellaneous | Date: June 2008
Ok, so in 2006 you have the famous RAF Red Arrows display team - how do you follow that? Easy, you get the US Airforce Thunderbirds Aerial Demonstration Team to make their first...

Life Festival
Type: Music: Other | Date: June 2008
Electronic and Dance music forms the core of the Life  Festival, with PsyTrance, Progressive, Breaks, D&B, Electro, Minimal Techno, Dub, Ambient among others ...

Getting There & Getting Around

By Road

For detailed road directions from anywhere else in Ireland to the West please use the AA Ireland Route Planner.

By Air & Sea

Galway Airport has regular flights from Dublin and several UK destinations. Shannon Airport, to the south, has regular flights from Europe and the USA. Knock Airport, in Co Mayo, has flights from the UK and other Irish Airports.

By Train & Bus

There are regular Irish Rail trains from Dublin to Galway, Castlebar and Westport and Bus Eireann run train services into and within the whole region.

Getting Around

Bus Eireann has local routes throughout the region. Realistically though, for touring the West, it is best to drive. All of the towns in the West are relatively small and easy to tour on foot.

Ferry and Air services to the Aran Islands run all year round, with increased frequency in the Summer. Achill Island is accessible by road. Other islands have ferry services from towns on the mainland - ask locally for details.