The beauty of Connemara

I said I would have pictures up last night, but by the end of the day, I was a bit worn out, so here they are now. I don’t have much to say about my bus tour through Connemara, only that it really did live up to expectations as one of the most beautiful areas of Ireland. What started out looking like a bad day (our bus was overbooked, so a few of us had to jump on another bus with another company) ended up being some really great fun. Now, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, after the jump.

Leaving Galway at the mouth of the Corrib River, looking across from the Claddagh at the famous row houses of city centre:

An 80 kilometer-per-hour sign on a very short road that leads right into the bay:

Views of Galway Bay from the pier and church in the village of Spiddal:

A warning or a suggestion?

Stone walls in Connemara:

Thatched-roof house:

Swans are protected by law in Ireland based on an old Celtic legend that an ancient king’s children were turned into swans by a witch. I am not kidding:

Connemara Sheep, a rare breed, are EVERYWHERE in Connemara. They are almost feral but still owned by farmers:

Every family’s got one:

The Twelve Bens (ben means “peak” in Gaelic languages) and the Maumturks are two mountain groups in Connemara:

Waterfalls near Screeb. The water is brown because it is full of nutrients and minerals:

These are the first evergreens I saw in Ireland, but they used to cover the entire island. These have been planted in the modern era:

The original house where The Quiet Man was filmed is gone, but here’s a good replica. Also, creepy mannequins of John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara and company are inside:

Kylemore Abbey was originally the castle of an Anglo-Irish landlord named Mitchell Henry. A group of Benedictine nuns fled Belgium during World War I and resettled here:

There are four separate species of palm tree in Ireland:

Mitchell Henry built this neo-Gothic church near his castle as a memorial to his wife:

Killary is the only fjord in Ireland:

There’s a great deal of mussel farming in the fjord:

Tagged as: countryside, Ireland, pictures, The American Rover