4 Best Sights in Castlebar, Connemara and County Mayo

This is the only church in Ireland founded by an Irish king and still in daily use. Ballintubber has greeted its faithful flock since 1216, when Cathal O'Connor built it on the site of St. Patrick's church, which was built some 800 years earlier, a replica of which can be found on the grounds. In the 1960s, the 15th-century cloister was unearthed by excavators in surprisingly good condition, given Cromwell had left his mark on the structure, and it now creates a serene space alongside the abbey. Scan the gardens for Seán na Sagart's (Sean the Priest Hunter's) Tree. He escaped the gallows indebted to local Sheriff Bingham---to be repaid by bringing him one head of a priest yearly. After Sean's death, the story goes, a blossomless tree grew from his grave and splintered in half when it was hit by lightning, creating a fitting epitaph for a black soul. In more recent times, 007 actor Pierce Brosnan's marriage to Keely Shaye Smith occurred in the abbey.

At this highly acclaimed museum, the only branch of the National Museum of Ireland outside Dublin, you're invited to revisit rural life in Ireland between 1860 and 1960---before electrification and in-house running water. Among the displayed items are authentic furniture and utensils; hunting, fishing, and agricultural implements; clothing; and objects relating to games, pastimes, religion, and education.

The museum experience starts in Turlough Park House, built in the High Victorian Gothic style in 1865 and set in pretty lakeside gardens. Just three rooms have been restored to illustrate the way the landowners lived. A sensational modern four-story, curved building houses the main exhibit. Cleverly placed windows afford panoramic views of the surrounding park and the distant Round Tower, allowing you to reflect on the reality beyond the museum's walls. The shop sells museum-branded and handcrafted gift items and a café with indoor and outdoor tables is located in the stable yard, and you can take scenic lakeside walks in the park.

The town's arts center has a calendar of exhibitions, concerts and performances, a crafts shop, and a handy coffee shop with home baking. It occupies an imposing gray limestone building dating from 1790, when the town had a thriving linen industry.

At the center of Castlebar is the pleasant tree-lined Mall, with some good 18th-century houses. A memorial honors the French soldiers who died during the 1798 uprising when Castlebar was briefly the capital of “the Provisional Republic of Connaught.” The Mall was once a cricket pitch belonging to the local landlord, Lord Lucan, and is now a town park.