Ireland – Connemara
Ireland covers an area of 70,285 km² (of which 1390 km² is water) and has a population of 3.8 million. The capital is Dublin. The average life expectancy is 73.5 years. The racial makeup of the city is 93.1% Catholic, 2.4% Anglican, Presbyterian, and Jewish.
Gaelic and English (as the lingua franca) are spoken. Ireland has a cool, temperate climate. One seventh of the country (about 10000km²) is covered with bogs. Large areas of the coastal areas are covered with heathland, marshland and marshland. Only 4.9% of the country is forested. The national drink is Guinnes.
After so much protein strengthening during the Oyster Festival, thank God we still have a few days to recover. We use this time to explore the Connemara area. With the rental car we drive on the west coast on the “336” from Galway via Casla and on to Scriob. From there we turn onto the “340” to Glinsce. We always drive along the coast. The landscape is characterized by pastures and moorlands. The country is sparsely populated.
The landowners’ plots are delimited into individual plots with 1.5 m high stone walls. Some of these date back to the time of the Celts and are part of the typical village wall architecture. The walls serve not least as protection against soil corruption. Climatically, harsh weather conditions prevail here. The weather situation can change in a flash from one moment to the next.
At Cashel Bay we turn onto the “342”, which later turns into the “341”. We drive via Roundstone to Clifden. From here you go into the mountains of the Connemara National Park. On the plateaus in Connemara and around Roundstone, peat is mined and cut on a large scale. Everywhere you can see the neatly stacked peat cuttings. Large-scale mining is ecologically very controversial, but is tolerated by the government because of its economic importance.
Peat cutting in Connemara. The view of the always close coast is fantastic and always brings new impressions with it.
The Lough Corrib Plateau is a fisherman’s paradise. The landscape is crossed by many small rivers that have a high fish population. The water is mostly dark colored by the moors but extremely clean.
In Clifden we take a break and spend the night in a small cottage. The rooms are typically Irish and furnished in a country house style. On the ground floor there is a small lounge with an open fireplace. The innkeeper and landlord serves us a Guinnes and plays us some typical Irish songs on the piano on request. In the old town there are the typical Irish pubs, where a visit is always worthwhile. A folklore and music festival is currently taking place here, to which musicians from all over the country have travelled to play typical old Irish tunes in the pubs. For us, this is an experience of a special kind. It’s getting late this evening and the Guinnes tastes too good.
The next morning we travel on towards Leenane. From here it goes into the mountains. We have a wonderful view of the rugged coastal landscape. At Kylemore Abbay we first take a break. The castle is picturesquely located on a lake. It was built in 1860 and has a neo-Gothic chapel worth seeing. The property is now run by Benedictine nuns who run a girls’ school there. The interiors can be visited. You think you can feel the ghosts of the lords of the castle who lived here a long time ago in the dark, high rooms. A visit to the castle is highly recommended. From Leenane we travel further south on the “336”. Our path leads us past the lake Lough Corrib. The Connemara plateau is barren and lonely. Occasionally we see farms that have embedded themselves in the landscape. In the late afternoon we reach our starting point Galway. This small round trip was extremely varied and can be easily done in two days.
