Irish National Parks

Although a little hit chilly (5 degrees C early on) it was a glorious day, so we headed off to Ballycroy National Park for a bit of a walk. Given that we are walking for a week in Spain it is important that we get a few kms under our belts.

Just out of Swinford we came across an accident on a narrow bridge. It took ages for the Guarda to organise things and let us through but eventually we were on our way. Apparently nobody was injured, and given the amount of miles we have driven on very narrow roads it was surprising that this was our first accident.

Ballycroy National Park is in the north west of Ireland, and is unusual by Australian standards. It comprises about 5 little discrete areas, and one big area, but the Visitor Information Centre is located within one of the little ones. A friendly chap gave us lots of information, most of which we could not understand, but when we said that we wanted to go for a 2 - 3 hour walk it was hard for him to help. It seems that you either go on a short walk, or get serious and take a compass, walking boots, hiking sticks and map and go all day! What’s more you had to drive to the main park if you wanted to walk more than a half hour.

Well, we headed out, and ended up walking for nearly two hours, almost all on a road leading to the next part of the park. With only two cars passing us this was no great worry. The scenery is just so different to our national parks. It was basically bog country, and digging peat seemed to be the main industry. At one stage we couldn’t see a single house, or tree, something we are not used to.

After that we just headed home through the little known byways, going on roads seldom crossed except ...

All in all, a good day, finished off with Scrabble and dinner.Read more