"A day in County Galway" County Galway by Alain_Smeets

Connemara National Park (photo Dirk)

After the Sky Road in Clifden we ride towards the Connemara National Park. It is again a beautiful sunny day, are we sure we are in Ireland?

We went into this park and paid our entrance fee. There are two small walks there at the moment, one 15 minutes into the forest next to a small river and another one that brings you up the mountain slope, what will take you about 45 minutes.

There were several tracks leading towards the mountaintop, but it was prohibited to follow them because of replanting activities. If you like walking I don't suggest you to go here, but at the other hand it gives you the time to have a quiet stroll in the park.

The ladies at the info desk were very helpful and pointed us to some interesting walks in the area. But I have to admit, we didn't do neither of them except that part of the Great Western Way Walk they talked about. You can find more about that on my Lough Inagh page.

Needles to say that we did both walks and the one up the mountain slope gave us some sights over the surrounding area, bit I can't say that this gave me a feeling from waoooh, this feeling from astonishing I had lot's of times in Ireland but not here in this park.

We refilled our water bottles in the kitchen and went back to our car for our next stop, the Kylemore Abbey.

Neo Gothic Church (photo Dirk)

This Abby build for Belgian nuns is worth a visit. There are two possible places to park your car, one at the garden and the other at the Abbey itself. It is both free parking and there is a small bus running from the park towards the Abbey and vice versa.

You can read more about our visit in my travelogue Kylemore Abbey.