October Guided Walking Breaks in Connemara

Join us this October and enjoy a 4 Night Guided Walk Break with local tour guide, student of Archaeology and History, John O’Halloran. We’ve selected some of our favourite areas of natural beauty to showcase the best Connemara has to offer. Suitable for all ages and abilities, each walk is 3 to 4 hours duration. Packages include a 4 course course meal each evening in our Carriage Restaurant or Signal Bar & Restaurant, and complimentary access to our Leisure Centre. Explore the area on foot by day, then relax each evening in comfort with a gourmet meal and live music in our lobby. Each package includes 4 Nights B&B, Dinner each evening, guided walks and return ferry ticket to Inishbofin.

We have two arrival options this year:

Monday: October 3rd 

Monday: October 17th

Tour Schedule

Tuesday: Inishbofin Island (ferry ticket included) – 8km looped walk, east to moderate ground. Meet at Cleggan carpark at 11:00 am.
Wednesday: Kylemore Estate and Connemara National Park – 8km looped walk. Easy to moderate walk. Meet at Connemara National Park carpark at 11:00 am.
Thursday: Killary Fjord – 7km point to point walk. Moderate ground. Meet at Ross Roe carpark at 11:00 am.

The price is €390 per person sharing, or €550 single occupancy.

Take the N59 in the Westport direction for 5km then take the left turn signposted for Cleggan & Inishbofin. Park in Cleggan carpark, located on your right as you enter Cleggan Village and your guide will meet you there.

The island’s English name Inishbofin is derived from the Irish name Inis Bó Finne (Island of the White Cow). The name has its origins in a local legend. The island has been occupied continuously since the Bronze Age. In 668, Saint Colmán founded a monastery on Inishbofin, which survived until the 10th century. It is also home to the ruins of Cromwell’s barracks, constructed in 1652 at the entrance to the harbour entrance. Inishbofin is also home to Dún Gráinne, the remains of a fort used by the legendary Grace O’Malley, Ireland’s pirate queen, as well as the ruins of a Celtic fort dating to 1000 B.C.

The Westquarter loop takes in some of the most stunning Atlantic Coast scenery in Connemara offering views of the Island’s blow holes and sea arch, sea stags where the Island seal colony can be seen, the Dún More Cliffs and Iron Age promontory fort ruins, picturesque Trá Gheal beach and famine road. The track winds over grass paths, turf banks and shingle beach pebbles. The walk also affords views of Inishark Island.

To get to the start of the walk, Take the N59 in the Westport direction for 14km towards Letterfrack. Just before you reach the village, you will see Connemara National Park signposted to your right hand side.

Nestled in the heart of Connemara, Kylemore Abbey & Gardens is one of Ireland’s best loved tourist attractions while also being a haven of tranquillity, history, nature and romance. Nestled at the base of Druchruach Mountain (1,736ft) on the northern shore of Lough Pollacappul, the heart of the Connemara Mountains, it is regarded as one of Ireland’s most romantic buildings. Built by wealthy surgeon and MP, Mitchell Henry in 1867 as a romantic gift, for the past 100 years it has been home to an order of Benedictine Nuns who fled war-torn Belgium. The Abbey and the surrounding mountains and lakes are steeped in history including engineering initiatives, model farms, tragedy, royal visits, gambling debts, a hideaway during Ireland’s troubled history as well as excellence in education. The 6.5 acre unique Victorian Walled Garden, woodland and lakeshore walks, romantic and tragic neo-Gothic Church and mausoleum are a few of the highlights

To get to the start of the walk, Take the N59 in the Westport direction for 14km to the village of Letterfrack. Take the left turn after Veldon’s Seafarer onto the L1101 signposted to Renvyle. Continue on this road for another 17km to Rosroe Pier.

Killary fjord is one of the most scenic hikes in Connemara. Killary Harbour is Ireland’s only true fjord and extends 16km in from the Atlantic to its head at Aasleagh, below Aasleagh Falls. It forms the border between Galway and Mayo and boasts some of the most spectacular scenery in the west of Ireland. Near the head of the fjord is Leenane, a small but picturesque village that featured in the classic Irish film, The Field. Killary Harbour is also extremely deep, over 45m at its centre. This offers a very safe, sheltered setting, because of the depth and the mountains to the south and north. It is a centre for shellfish farming, and strings of ropes used to grow mussels are visible for much of its length adding to its charm. To the north of Killary Harbour lies Mweelrea, the highest mountain in Connacht and County Mayo. To the south are the Twelve Bens and the impressive Maumturk Mountains of Connemara. There are extraordinary panoramas on every side, and occasionally dolphins can be seen swimming in the harbour.