Connemara
Region Of Blanket Bog, Lakes And The Twelve Bens And Maumturk Mountains, With Connemara National Park (Opened 1980) And An Irish Speaking Gaeltacht South Coast · Clifden, Galway
Connemara is the wild western edge of County Galway: a stretch of brown blanket bog, hundreds of small lakes, stone walls, white shell-sand beaches and two ranges of bare quartzite mountains, the Twelve Bens and the Maumturks. It has no single sight; people come for the landscape and the drive - the Inagh Valley, the Sky Road above Clifden, the coast at Roundstone and the long fjord of Killary Harbour - and for Connemara National Park at Letterfrack, where the Diamond Hill trail gives the best short climb in the west. Along the way there are Connemara ponies, sheep asleep on the road, turf smoke from cottage chimneys and an Irish-speaking Gaeltacht along the south coast around Spiddal, where signs are in Irish only. Clifden is the main town and the easiest base. The honest caveats: it rains here more than almost anywhere in Ireland, cloud often hides the Bens for days, the roads are narrow and slow with coaches in summer, and villages are small and far apart, with few services after dark.
West County Galway between Lough Corrib and the Atlantic; Connemara National Park visitor centre at Letterfrack; Clifden is the main town, Clifden, Galway, Ireland
The landscape is open all year and free. Connemara National Park is free to enter and its trails are open all year in daylight; the visitor centre, exhibition and cafe at Letterfrack open roughly March or April to October (confirm). Clifden is about 1.5-2 hours by car from Galway via Oughterard, or about 1.5-2 hours by coach (confirm current operators and times). A car is by far the easiest way round; book one early for summer, and book summer accommodation in Clifden weeks ahead.