Connemara, Ireland

Visit to the Connemara National Park when you're at the Connemara area. Go for a good hiking, you can choose a shorter track (3km) if you're not ready for a longer hike. Enjoy the breeze and the view. I were not a good hiker, but i didnt felt like i've walked for 3km when I got so enjoy the nice view while walking.

On your way to the national park, remember to stop by and visit the beautiful Kylemore Abbey too. You wont regret stopping by to take a few snapshots.

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Cong Abbey is an interesting monastery in the northern part of Connemara. Its origins are dating back to the 6th century, but is was destroyed and rebuilt again in the 12th century by Turlough O'Connor, King of Connaught and High King of Ireland.
You can enter Cong Abbey freely and without restrictions during the day and will see there some very few fine ornaments and plenty of great arches.
Cong Abbey was also the home for the Cross of Cong - a 75cm high procession-cross, made of gold and precious jewels. It is shown in the National museum in Dublin.
Most ofthe tourists are coming to Cong because of the movie "The Quiet Man" and the area around the abbey was also used as a background-scenery for it.

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"The Quiet Man" was a well-known movie made in the late 1950s at various places in the Connemara, mainly in Cong around Asford castle, but also here, close to the small village of Maam Cross, where you can still see the original cottage, where John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara had their home in the movie. In german that movie was called "Der Sieger" and it is about a former boxing-champion who had killed accidentally a man in the ring and is now trying to start a new life in Ireland, the land of his childhood...
On my main picture you will see the tiny hut, it is one of the attractions at a petrol-station maybe 2 km west of Maam Cross, on your way to Clifden.
You may not enter the building, but take a picture from outside, and of course you will also find all sorts of souvenirs there ! For the best "Quiet Man" souvenirs and infos you better go to Cong !

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The 12 Bens are the group of small hills that you will see from almost anywhere in the Connemara.
To Connacht (the old name for Connemara) or to hell used to be a sentence at the end of many trials and in fact to be banned to Connacht might have been worse then to go to prison (=hell). The soil was totally unfertile, too many rocks and a salty ground so fishermen collected the sea-tweed and dried it in the sun in order to improve the soil, and at some places you still may see heaps of sea-tweed waiting to be carried away.
In former times all inhabitants of the Connemara were poor, while today more and more people build a 2nd home there and some parts are already a bit over-run by them. get to Connemara BEFORE all of the magic landscape has disappeared between modern buildings.

Roundstone is one of my favorite villages in the Connemara, because from there you will have a great scenery of mountains, lakes and bays. I have been in Roundstone several times and it became quite full of tourists recently, also because of a movie that was made there :
The Matchmaker - that movie was filmed in Roundstone in 1997

Matchmaking is still quite usual in Ireland and there are traditional festivals, where people of all ages meet in order to find a partner.

The national park is 2000 hectare wide and home for wildlife on the slope of the Twelve Beans. There are three routes available for walking enthusiast. Red route is the farest (7 kilometer and the path brings you to the top of the mountain). The path is available and just follow the sign. Although in shiny summer day, bring jacket is advisable, since the Irish weather can change in seconds.
For more complete walking guide, you can buy “Walking in Connemara” guidebook, available in the souvenir shops.

A most beautiful place to visit in Connemara , the place was actually a marriage gift from an english man to his wife ,today the place belongs to the church ,it stands beside Kylmore lake.
Don't miss it.

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This is a not to be missed section of County Galway up in the northwestern region of the island! Probably one of the most beautiful spots in all Ireland. It's wild and wonderful all at once. The Connemara is immediately northwest of Galway city - a vivid patchwork of rusty bogs, lonely valleys, pale grey mountains, and small black lakes that shimmer when the sun shines. Inside the area you'll find the Twelve Bens - quartzite peaks of medium stature mountains.

The coastal road of R336 skirts a tortuous series of small bays and inlets, and connects a sucession of Irish speaking villages and tiny towns.