Connemara

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Connemara is a desolate, mountainous region in the west of Ireland, straddling Counties Mayo and Galway. There are peat bogs, some sheep (including several in the middle of the road when you round the next turn), a few villages and wild beauty. It's one of my favorite parts of the country (subordinate, of course, to the my family's ancestral home in the pastures of County Clare). These pictures were all taken yesterday in Connemara National Park.

Back at Ashford last night, we decided not to have our pockets vacuumed by the restaurant in the castle. We went down to the adjacent village of Cong (official theme song here) to dine at The Crowe's Nest pub and restaurant, where I met Michael Crowe, the proprietor. Photos soon. I recommend the crispy duck.

River Cong, Lough Corrib

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The gentle River Cong flows through the village of the same name, past Ashford Castle and into Lough Corrib, the largest lake in Ireland. It is full of water plants that are speckled with light passing through the trees.

We went hawking this morning. The public are welcome at Ireland's School of Falconry on the castle grounds. Talk about a different experience. We walked through the woods wearing heavy leather gloves on our left hands with twin brothers, Uisce and Seanachai. The trainer showed us how to carry, release and call them. It was breathtaking to watch them taper and spread their wings to pass through the trees, swoop down to a few centimeters off the ground to build air pressure under their wings and then pull up, like an airplane lowering its flaps and raising the nose, for a perfect landing our our hands. Click on my Flickr site for more hawking pictures.

Afterward, we walked through the ruins of Cong Abbey, built in the early 1100s. In the afternoon we took a boat ride on the lake to Inchagoill Island (Island of the Foreigners) where St. Patrick & Co. were sent by the local Druids to get them out of their hair. With few visitors and government protection, the ruins of the 5th Century St. Patrick's Church remain.