Onto Mayo and Back to Dundalk

 I had booked a small cottage near the Great Western Greenway from 31 May for a week and took my leave of Pamela and M before heading there via Mullingar and Castlebar. Roadworks west of Newport confused me and I 'sort of' wasted an hour on the last few hundred yards.

The Cottage

 The key was waiting for me and there were scones, soda  bread, butter, milk and a little jam. There was a shortage of  electric points, so I was pleased I'd taken my mains/usb  extn cable. I had bought dry goods etc. at the Dundalk Dunnes store so, with what had been provided, I had no need for anything else for the week.

 

One of the Rams

 

I had a short stroll that evening and encountered two rams ...  I decided they would prefer to be alone!

The scenery was just as I expected it from looking at maps etc. and I could work out where to walk the next day

 

In the Living Room

 

After a shower I changed and took some snaps and found out what was in the cottage and, more importantly, what wasn't! For me, there was little lacking, including an annoyingly de-laminated stainless steel pan which took 20 minutes to get to a simmer.

 

 

 

 

June 1 - Local

The next morning I headed off - there was light drizzle which stopped and I headed along farm dirt roads past peat diggings before heading east towards Furnace Lough. A local farmer waved from his truck - a  friendly gesture that was to be repeated each time I came across farmers. The only other things around were sheep and the occasional skylark. 

Peat Drying

The dirt roads made walking easy and it wasn't long before I reached Salmon Leap Bridge which is also a monitoring station for fish - salmon, trout and eel - both leaving and returning to the lough.

Salmon Leap Bridge

 

 

 

 Leaving the bridge I knew that I was near one of the lanes I had fruitlessly driven down on the Saturday and that gave me the confidence to continue around the lough which would mean I could have a close look at Burrishoole Bridge.

Furnace Lough

Then it was back along a section of the Great Western Greenway to the cottage. The Greenway runs, for most of its length, along the route of the old Westport to Achill railway that shut in 1937. The cottage I was staying in was a railway crossing guard's house when the railway ran. While I applaud the cycle route, it is not that good for walkers (endless tarmac and self-absorbed cyclists) and I preferred the dirt roads.

Burrishoole Bridge

That evening, back at the cottage, after a shower I tried another long skirt and a top. I had left my dresses at Pamela's, but had three skirts and a number of tops with me. The walk had been 12 Km, which was fine.

June 2 - Local

The next day I walked west along the Greenway, and came across my first orchids, (Dactylorhiza, marsh orchids) growing where sheep didn't graze (they are notorious nibblers), but after a while the boredom of the tarmac got to me and I headed off on a dirt road towards the hills. Then it started to rain, so rather than continue into the hills I turned parallel to Ben Gorm and when I could see the cottage, I headed back there for a hot shower! A shorter walk this, 8 Km, and rather boring along the Greenway.

 June 3 - Achill

Achillbeg Lazy Beds

There is so much to see in Co.Mayo. I had been to Achill before, but this time I had megaliths in mind - in particular, a court tomb on Slievemore. We had visited the deserted village there in 2019 but I was unaware of the nearby megalith. First, however, I wanted to revisit the Corraun peninsula.The most interesting part was the sheep-less Corraun Pier road, for the wild flowers including a fine display of  marsh orchids. There was also a view across to Achillbeg, a now-deserted island. The field system showed the remnants of lazy beds, used for potato growing. There was fencing overlying the dry walls which seemed to indicate a maintenance of ownership.

  

Before Slievemore, I drove to Dugort on the north coast and came across the story of Rev Edward Nangle and 'The Colony' - Protestant evangelism in destitute Catholic Achill. There are two Wikipedia articles - Dugort and Edward Nangle which give a glimpse into life on Achill in the 1830's before An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger). 

 

 

Court Tomb, Slievemore

The setting of the Court Tomb on the lower slopes of Slievemore must be wonderful on a fine day! It looks directly south. In the photo, the tiny island of Inishgalloon is to the right. 

From there I decided to forsake Keem Strand, which I'd seen before, as the weather was not getting better. As the weather forecast wasn't brilliant and my bruised toe hurt, I decided the next day I would drive and have a look at the higher hills and mountains of Mayo - a recce for a future trip.

 June 4 - Wild Nephin

Where I was staying was south of  'Wild Nephin National Park', some new term for a place that doesn't need it. I think it is the same as Ballycroy National Park. We visited a bit of it (the visitor centre) back in 2019 and I was entranced by the other-worldliness of the Nephin Beg mountains.

View from Ballycroy Visitor Centre, 2019

 

 

Daboecia cantabrica (2019)

 

So, I decided to travel along 'Nephin  Drive' which would give some insight into this expanse of mountain and blanket bog. It's in places like this that I wish I was younger and fitter to become more immersed in the landscape and nature, but I content myself nowadays with photography and the occasional foray into plant identification (I've not taken a field guide to Ireland, yet!) At the visitor centre in 2019 we had come across Daboecia cantabrica (Irish heath) which had also excited the rangers there. What had struck me the day before on Achill was the preponderance of the invasive Rhododendron ponticum which, although attractive when in flower, is a serious problem. 'Nephin Drive' hugs the base of Srahmore and the Rhododendron can be seen scrambling up its lower slopes:

Srahmore and Rhododendron

 

 

Green Bridge River

The road then touched on the national park and there were a couple of places to stop. Signs indicated that within the park, Rhododendron control was taking place (herbicide). Brogan Carroll Bothy is a main stop with walks (Letterkeen/Srahrevagh Trailhead) leading from it, together with facilities such as toilets and solar-powered defibrillator and is next to the attractive Green Bridge River (Holes River on my map).

I had a short stroll but, as always with 'touring' by car, there is a concern about time, so I moved on, stopping just to photograph a rather incongruous American memorial - a stainless steel plaque on a large stone recounting that "This area of forest commemorates Irish emigrants who contributed so significantly to the welfare of the United States of America in general and of New York in particular". It's a curious memorial that doesn't cite who erected it.

A final stop was at a spectacular viewing location, giving a panorama of the eastern Nephin Beg.

From then on, the weather was dreek and I simply drove to Bangor Erris and down to Mulranny and the cottage. 

June 5 - Into Connemara 

Croagh Patrick from Old Head 

More rain ... Ireland!!! In 2019, we had also travelled south in Co.Mayo, particularly to visit the Doo Lough valley, a scene of terrible callousness during An Gorta Mór. I wanted to revisit it and 'dip a toe' into Joyce Country, so I joined the endless traffic jam to get through Westport and headed to Louisburgh. There was a particular reason for this  route - another megalith! First things first - a stop at Old Head for a view back to Croagh Patrick. The main summit was above the cloud base - the story of this trip! There was an attractive beachcomber at Old Head:

Grey Wagtail (male)

I took a couple of pictures of the bird, but the identifying one (showing its black throat) was quite fuzzy!

Inishturk with Caher Island to the fore

 

 

 

 

En route to the megalith (found courtesy of google maps - my 'Ireland West' map being rather confusing) I
stopped by a surfing beach and took some fairly monochrome shots of the surf and islands. I was surprised to read that Inishturk is inhabited, albeit by less than 60 people, but it has a primary school! Turning inland towards Doolough, I found the Srahwee Wedge Tomb - thought to be the finest in Ireland. It is also known as “Altoir”, apparently because the horizontal stone was used as an altar during the penal times and has a cross crudely inscribed on it.

Srahwee Wedge Tomb

The tomb dates from the late Bronze Age (~2000BCE). The location of the wedge tomb (so-called because of the wedge-like shape - wider at the entrance with a shallow sloping roof) would have been arresting, but that would have been when there was forest, not roads or telegraph poles, and homesteads would have sat in the landscape. Nahallora Lough that it faces has the stumps of 4,500 year-old trees in the edge-side bog. The landscape would have been in transition, due to farming practice triggering the formation of blanket bog.

Srahwee Wedge Tomb with Nahallora Lough

  

From Srahwee I took the road to Doolough. We had visited here in 2019. It is a fabulous landscape: 

 

 

 

 But it has a tragic past, as the interpretation board describes:

 

Delphi was a hunting lodge south of the valley
 

 South of the Doolough valley is one of Ireland's fjords! The road first winds along the side of the Killary Fjord past the Aashleagh Falls, a popular tourist spot, on the Erriff River, where I got a little wet photographing the falls while other visitors ran for shelter from a sudden squall. The squalls continued and that led me to abandon driving to Clifden, but taking the road between the Twelve Pins and the Maumturk Mountains.

From then on, I was getting quite confused with Irish road signs (as I am trying to format this blog!!!) I did get to see Loughs Corrib and Mask and for a time drove a treeless but very bendy mountain road which seem to lead nowhere!I ended up on the Killary Fjord again and took the 'direct' route from Leenaun back to Westport. I was dry by then!!!  Then it was packing for the return to Dundalk.