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  • Day 30

    Galway and a scenic drive

    October 3, 2018 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    My original plan had me heading to Sligo today but I wanted to see more of the area so I’m spending two nights in Clifden, in the Connemara region.
    I hadn’t seen Galway so that was my first stop today. I went to the Galway city museum looking to find out about the history of Galway but there was a bigger focus on the war of independence. It was still worth a look though.
    Coming through Claddagh I found a little cottage as they all would have been before they were destroyed in the 1930s to try and eradicate the TB that was going through the area.

    I then followed the Atlantic Way west to the island of Lettermore for no other other reason than it seemed like a nice drive and I wanted to see the islands that were connected by causeways.
    They are beautiful, lots of yellow seaweed adding to the autumn colour. As I got closer to the islands the road signs began appearing in Irish only (usually they are both English and Irish). Fortunately I had my GPS so I wasn’t relying on road signs. Again some of the roads were very narrow and windy but I’m getting used to that now. It’s a choice to take the narrow, minor roads. This morning I took an M road (like a freeway/highway) from Gort to Galway and it only took 40 mins to travel to the 40km. Compare that to Monday where it took just over an hour to travel a similar distance. The minor roads are much more interesting though which plenty of places to stop and look at attractions or take photos.

    I think I saw cut peat on the way to Clifden. It was dark rectangular shaped logs on the side of the road with similar shaped holes cut in the ground across the road. After googling I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. This area does feel the most remote so far but I was surprised to see the cut peat.
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