Captivating Connacht

Leitrim

Moving up to the tranquil County Leitrim in the northeast of Connacht, golfers and anglers will find plenty to delight them. Fishing is a popular activity in Leitrim’s Lough Allen in the scenic town of Drumshanbo, which offers breathtaking views on the River Shannon. Surrounded by soft rolling hills, woodlands, and lakes, Drumshanbo is a beautifully preserved town with traditional pubs, shops and restaurants. It is also an ideal destination for golfing enthusiasts, with four courses in the area. Carrick-on-Shannon, the largest town in Leitrim, is acknowledged nationally and internationally as an angler’s paradise. Forty-one lakes surround the town, which is filled with local fishing experts, boats and maps for those undertaking a fishing excursion.

Mayo

In Connacht’s County Mayo lies the archeological wonder of the Céide Fields. The world’s most extensive Stone Age dwelling site contains the remains of a highly skilled and organized agrarian Neolithic society that was preserved, undisturbed, for some 5,000 years and is now a natural wild ecology of blanket bog, dramatic cliffs and coastline. The vast prehistoric landscape of the Céide Fields, which is located near Ballycastle, consists of a network of parallel stone enclosures with a number of those walls running up to two kilometers in length. The multi-award-winning Céide Fields Visitor Centre offers exhibitions, tearooms and an audio-visual show.

Also in Mayo, Clew Bay is a natural ocean bay overlooked by Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s holy mountain, and the mountains of North Mayo.  It contains Ireland’s best example of sunken drumlins: hills formed by glacial action. Clew Bay is said in legend to have 365 islands – one for each day of the year – but in reality there are 117 drumlin islands, sandbars and rocks.

The Knock Shrine and Croagh Patrick are Catholic holy sites in County Mayo, known for their historical significance and religious pilgrimages. Croagh Patrick is five miles from Westport and the third highest mountain in Mayo. Over 15,000 climb it on the last Sunday in July every year, a tradition that dates back to the pre-Christian Celtic era as a celebration of the summer solstice. St. Patrick is believed to have fasted on the summit of Croagh Patrick for forty days in the fifth century. Mythology tells that at the end of his fast, he threw a silver bell down the side of the mountain which banished all the snakes from Ireland. The Knock Shrine in the village of Knock in Mayo is the reported site of an appearance of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John and Jesus in 1879.

Roscommon

The third largest of Connacht’s five counties, Roscommon is three-quarters bounded by water and contains the longest stretch of the River Shannon of all the ten counties through which the river passes. Some popular stops on a route through Roscommon are Boyle Abbey, still regarded as the finest of the Cistercian churches to survive in Ireland; Ballintober, which contains the remains of a stone castle first mentioned in writing in 1311; and Tulsk, the village between Strokestown and Bellanagare which houses the interpretive center exploring Cruachan, one of the best preserved Celtic royal sites and an Irish Age royal palace. Strokestown, historically known as Bellanamully, houses a museum commemorating the Great Famine of 1845 as well as the County Roscommon Heritage Centre, for those hoping to uncover their ancestors’ pasts in their foray through Roscommon.

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