3 Best Sights in Connemara and County Mayo, Ireland

Beyond Kylemore, N59 travels for some miles along Killary Harbour, a narrow fjord that runs for 16 km (10 miles) between County Mayo's Mweelrea Mountain to the north and County Galway's Maamturk Mountains to the south. The dark, deep water of the fjord reflects the magnificent steep-sided hills that border it, creating a haunting scene of natural grandeur. The harbor has an extremely safe anchorage, 78 feet deep for almost its entire length, and is sheltered from storms by mountain walls. The rafts floating in Killary Harbour belong to fish-farming consortia that raise salmon and trout in cages beneath the water. This is a matter of some controversy all over the West. Although some people welcome the employment opportunities, others bemoan the visual blight of the rafts.

Past the windswept townland of Gladree and seemingly at the very edge of the world is this magnificent blowhole, drilled vertically through solid rock by the elements to create an epic, natural fountain when the weather is wild and waves pound the shoreline below. Encased in wire and accessed through a triangular stone sculpture, the site has spectacular views across to Eagle Island Lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean.   

Head onto Bellmullet's Shore Road to discover the Tidal Pool, a feat of engineering and imagination from the 1980s that facilitates an ocean swim without the incumbent risk to life that the Atlantic's strong currents usually pose. Two large concrete basins fill and ebb with the ocean's water at  high tide---one deep, the other shallow---offering hardy sorts an opportunity to swim or just soak in the waters of Blacksod Bay, depending on the tide, and within the confined space of a 20-meter pool. Of course, the ocean still can be hazardous with waves or sudden storms, so take precautions at all times.