County Mayo - What to see

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 05:32 AM

Yes - renting a cottage, fairly basic but open fires, only a mile from the nearest pub/shop and bugger all else for miles ............ bliss !
Just me, Wombat my good lady and my aged Mother who took 5 years to persuade to visit for the first time ......... and less than 5 seconds the second time, she's now on her seventh visit !

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: MudGuard
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 05:31 AM

Sian, Dingle (the town) is as far west as Achill Head.
Westward from Dingle town are several villages - I don't remember whether they had pubs, but I bet there is at least one.
Also, Achill Head is some kilometers west of the last pub.
So Gielty's claim is false, as all pubs in Dingle town are further west.

I cycled to Keem Beach, but did not climb the mountain.

About the beer: I did not look for non-Guinness, there is only one kind of beer which I prefer to Guinness, although I did not have it very often and only in one nice town called Carmarthen: the black Felinvoel (spelling?) stuff.

Andy/MudGuard

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: sian, west wales
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 05:15 AM

Yeh, apparently the Annexe is still going, but Gielty's was within staggering distance of where we were staying! (I think the Annexe might have been more/better trad music ... )

Gielty's claims to be the westernmost licensed premises in Ireland, but on the map it looks like Kerry sticks out farther and you're not trying to tell me that there aren't any pubs down there ... ! Oh, the now-retired Mr Gielty (much more personable than the son currently behind the bar) is a great chatter, dancer and - apparently - singer.

So, MudGuard, did you cycle up the mountain I mentioned or go to the top of the cliff?

I was also surprised at the almost complete absence of choice of brews available in ALL the pubs I visited to, from and in Achill. I don't care for Guiness and basically had to stick on the Smithwicks. Strange.

Are you renting a cottage or what, Raggytash? I was thinking that, if I go back for longer, self-catering would be the way to go.

siân

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: MudGuard
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 05:06 AM

Forgot to mention: On Achill, in Keel, there was a wonderful session in the Annexe Bar (Annexe Bar is on the road up the hill in direction of Keem Beach - on the righthand side, IIRC)

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 04:45 AM

Thanks Sian, thats just the sort of info I want

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: sian, west wales
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 04:41 AM

I've just come back from a few days in Achill. Stayed in Dooagh. Great place for 'vegging out' and the villagers are great gossips! Just my kind of place. There's a deserted village between Doohooma and Dooagh which is quite interesting in a sad kind of way. At the very end of the road beyond Dooagh are the ... Keel? sands - a lovely little cove tucked in at the bottom of a mountain which falls away on the other side to form the highest cliff in Europe, apparently. Aslo in Dooagh is Geilty's, a pub which has just been rebuilt and has a big functions room at the back. We weren't particularly lucky in the performers on tap while we were there (and things don't get started til around 11.00 p.m.) but one night some of the lifeboat guys were in playing trad music. We also drove up some mountain (Minnaon?) and, although heights don't usually bother me, my heart was in my mouth for the last stretch. And it was all draped in cloud so we didn't get the full effect. Still, paralyzing fear aside, the views we did get a bit farther down were spectacular.

There's a small monument on the side of the road in Achill Sound to the people of Cleveland. Apparently, if you emmigrated to the US from Achill, you went to Cleveland. There's another in Keel (opposite "The Pub") (which, according to local gossip, is good for lock-ins due to familial ties with the Garda) to the guy who rowed to N. America and back single handed and landed back there.

I was a bit disappointed not to hear any Gaelic, considering this was a Gaeltacht, except in a little cafe/art gallery just before the island (Tullamore?).

Achill isn't the place for fast living but I'd go back tomorrow.

siân

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 06 Sep 05 - 03:26 AM

Thanks for this so far, I have visited Ireland many times and have travelled through Galway and Donegal extensively so I trying to concentrate on Mayo itself this time, so any information pertaining to villages, bars with music, stone circles, monasteries, churches, ruins etc etc (the Ceide Fields are on my list of must see's, as is the Atlantic Drive on Achill)

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: MudGuard
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 07:30 PM

Achill Island (the scenic route - "Atlantik Drive" IIRC)

Lough Conn and Lough Mask are both beautiful.
Cong has some historic buildings (and close by some stone circles ...)

The already mentioned Ceide Fields plus the coast near there.

A bit outside of Mayo

Co. Galway: Lough Corrib, Killary Harbour, Lough Inagh, Joyce Country, Connemara

Co. Roscommon: Boyle Abbey

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 07:21 PM

I don't know the distances, etc., but if you take a look at the schedule listed in this thread ya might get a chance to see our own Alba/Judi McKeown performing in Sean Tyrrell's "Midnight Court." Not out in the sticks, but i know she'd love to meet another Mudcatter and she's got an incredible voice. You might know a song she wrote which Sean recorded, "Sweet Ballyvaughn."

Have fun,

kat

Subject: RE: County Mayo - What to see
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 07:04 PM

The Céide Fields - neolithic farmland recently rediscovered, having been hidden under bog for thousands of years.

Subject: County Mayo - What to see
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 10:19 AM

Not travelled very much in Mayo and have booked a cottage in Doohooma overlooking Blacksod Bay, any advice on this outlying area. I've been to Westport and Ballina and have a reasonable knowledge of these places, it's the one's out in the sticks that I'm interested in, especially Belmullet Peninsula

cheers

Raggy