Oughterard – Leenane – Peat Bogs – Kylemore Abbey – Connemara National Park
We headed out to the rural Connemara region to the northwest of Galway.
Oughterard
We stopped in the cemetery outside of town. This is another Joyce location. Joyce had visited this cemetery and had noted that he had seen another James Joyce buried here (according to the Nora Barnacle House). Also, an early love of Nora Barnacle is buried here — Michael Bodkin who is the basis of the character Michael Furey in Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’ We were able to find neither becasue we were rather uncomfortable stumbling around. We were stepping on really old graves and the ground was so uneven and covered with thick grass like hay we worried about stepping into something. We stopped and asked some groundskeepers but they didn’t know either.
We also came across an abandoned house that was being used as storage for road works and general trash. The obligatory sheep were nearby. In this video you can see the house and the Maumturk Mountains.
Leenane and Killan Harbor
We stopped in Leenane for some soup and dog food. You see, it appears there are no leash laws in Ireland so dogs roam relatively free. When the owner is walking the dogs are trained to stay near. But in Leenane we saw a few dogs roaming and 2 looked to be starving and in bad shape. We bought some dog food at the convenience store so Aimee could give them some food. She started by feeding a dog sitting outside a pub/restaurant. Some people inside looked to be laughing at us, it might be that the dog was theirs. Aimee did get some food to the dog that looked like it was starving. But we made a hasty retreat as it looked 2 of the dogs might get a little rough over the food.
Peat Bogs
We stopped along the road to check out the peat bogs. Peat historically was cut into turf and used for fuel. The bogs are really spongy ground. People still cut the peat and dry it along the roads. In this still you can see the wall created by cutting the peat out. And behind that are little piles of the turf drying. We saw a few turf piles on the side of the road. The amazing thing is how well peat transmits vibrations. If you jump up and down on the peat this can be felt by someone standing a few feet away. This is shown by this video of me jumping on peat next to some water. Watch the ripples in the water.
Kylemore Abbey
On the way to the Abbey we passed the most amazing lakes. They were like mirrors. Check out these pictures [1][2][3].
The Abbey was a bit of ripoff (22 Euro!). Sure it was beautiful, but there wasn’t much to see inside the Abbey. The Victorian Walled Garden was impressive as are the greenhouses that are being restored. Check out these video clips.
Connemara National Park
Our last stop was Letterfrack and Connemara National Park. It was really interesting to read about the history of the peat bogs in their displays and multimedia presentation. We were so tired by this point that we didn’t have the energy to walk through the park and drive home. We’d like to return someday.
Boy, there’s a lot of stuff to read and see. it will take me a while to get through your blog. Nice job Scott.