Travel dates: June, 2019
I wasn’t prepared for how lovely Irish beaches are. I really have no one to blame for this but myself, since there are pictures on the internet and everything. I had it in my head that they’d likely resemble the rocky coasts of Maine or Atlantic Canada. And, don’t get me wrong–I love a good rocky coast–but it was a lovely surprise when they turned out to have white sands and turquoise water like something out of the Caribbean.
Sorry to have spoiled the surprise for you if you, too, have never googled “beaches in Ireland.”
We spent awhile squinting at assorted internet resources trying to figure out which Connemara beaches we should visit and where we might part when we got there…and eventually found the details lacking and just headed out with a few general ideas in our heads and hoped for the best. (Milo wasn’t feeling well and stayed behind at the rental house, in case you notice him missing from the beach pictures and are worried I stopped loving him).
Our first beach was in Ballyconeely, along route 341. I can’t really give you better directions than that, because we just saw a beach with a few parking spaces along the road in front of it and pulled over. We realized later that had we kept going we would have found a bigger parking area a little farther along the road and a very similar beach. Anyway, we hung out here for awhile on the very pretty beach:
Next we headed for Dog’s Bay in Roundstone. This is also right off of 341, down a narrow road that ends in a very crowded (when we were there anyway) parking area. But we managed to cram ourselves into a space and were rewarded with a stunningly beautiful beach with surprisingly warm, crystal clear water:
Our other big excursion west on Connemara was to Connemara Heritage and History Centre, site of Dan O’Hara’s Homestead. This was a GREAT stop, and we stayed longer than we expected because there was so much to see….but it is a little hard to figure out from the website. It’s a working farm and also, I believe, a bed and breakfast. You can pay a small admission fee for a self-guided tour and get to see the farm, a short film and some indoor exhibits, and some historic buildings–including the house that belonged to Dan O’Hara before he was forced to leave in the 19th century. They also offer guided tours for groups; this is what we did and I highly recommend you go that route if you’re able. The website says tours are available for groups of at least 20, but we were able to get one even though we had 10. I’m not sure if another group was supposed to show up and join us and didn’t or if they just had an opening that day so they let us do it with a smaller group. At any rate, it’s worth calling in advance and seeing what your options are and whether there’s a way to get a guided tour.
The first thing we encountered was a ginormous (by Irish standards) parking lot! This made me happier than it probably should have. I did not enjoy parking in Ireland:
To start our tour, we climbed on that trolley up there with Martin, who owns the farm with his wife, Nora, and took a ride up a very big hill for a great overview of the farm and surrounding area.
Then we went partway back down and got to meet a lot of sheep:
Here’s Jim. Jim herds the sheep, and we got to see a demonstration of that. Martin explained apologetically that Jim was still being trained, but we could tell he was doing his very best. Good boy, Jim:
Next up was a turf cutting demonstration. This turf or peat is cut out of the ground and used for heating. Ever since we went to Ireland, I’ve been missing the smell of burning peat and thinking about buying this adorable little incense burner (affiliate link). But it seems so unnecessary I haven’t quite been able to bring myself to do it.
And then we went inside Dan O’Hara’s house to hear all about it (I won’t spoil all the surprises, but there was singing involved).
Then we rode back down the hill again to find the “surprise” that Abe had been promised when we first arrived: lamb feeding time!
I can’t promise that it will be lamb feeding time if you visit, but you never know!
And then we were free to explore on our own. First we had a snack in the little cafe, and then we checked out the re-creations of historic buildings nearby:
…before heading back up the hill (on foot this time) to visit with some farm animals. We spent a long time with the very friendly Connemara Ponies, and I took a lot of pictures, because they were so pretty.
First they hung out way down that hill until we figured out a way to climb down to see them:
But then it turned out they could get up that hill just fine! Tricky ponies. So we petted them some more.
Some of us stayed to visit with the ponies, and some went farther up the hill to see some donkeys:
Also there were cows, but they were a little more aloof:
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