Day tour of Connemara!

After purchasing our tickets from O'Neachtain Tours the day before, we found ourselves waiting for the yellow and white tour bus that would take us on a day tour looping through Connemara on the R336. What a wonderful day! The tour included these stops: Spiddal, Inverin, deserted famine village, Rossaveal, Screeb, Quiet Man cottage in Maam Cross, views of the Maamturk Mountains and the Twelve Bens Mountains, Kylemore Abbey (see review), Clifden, Dan O'Hara prefamine farm, Connemara ponies, Quietman Bridge, Oughterard, and Moycullen.

We stopped in Spiddal  at Standuns to have a snack and get some souvenirs. The residents of Spiddal are Irish-speaking and so friendly. From Spiddal we made our way to the deserted famine village and then to Costello and Screeb- both Irish-speaking.

Then on to Kylemore Abbey with beautiful views along the way of Inagh Valley, with the Maam Turks and Twelve Bens Mountains to either side! (see my review for info on the Kylemore Abbey portion of the tour). If you ever have a chance to go to Kylemore Abbey be sure to look up the hill behind the Abbey. There you will find a stone statue of Jesus, precariously perched on the hill in what seems like an impossible spot. We were told a story, which I have since found is untrue, but at the time added to the mystic of that statue. The story goes, the statue appeared in one night, a local-who supposedly never fessed up- climbed the steep slope to deposit the statue alone under cover of darkness, leaving everyone to wonder who put it there.  Apparently the truth is something more like it being a group effort and the locals seem to be aware of who put it there. Myth aside it's a beautiful sight!

On to Clifden to see the train station and then Maam Cross, with a stop there to see the Quiet Man Cottage. From there we made one last stop to a lake that is unnamed to me but of course has a name, which I'll have to ask my friend who has a home in Clifden if she knows the name of it.  It was gorgeous, but so windy!

With the driver's cigarette smoked we were on our way back to Galway for another delicious dinner and good company! A beautiful day and landscape the photographs can truly not convey!