After coming back to Galway after a trip home for the holidays, I had a little bit of time to do some exploring of the island. I got to see some of the rugged and natural beauty of the west coast on a day trip tour of Connemara. It was definitely a change of scenery from living right in city center of Galway (especially around the holidays with the hustle and bustle of constant flows of tourists), with endless spans of mountains and hills, long winding roads, very few residents, and an incredible amount of sheep. As the tour went on, we made many stops along the way including the Killary Fjord, Kylemore Abbey, and many other quick scenic destinations.
We got lucky and had perfect weather the entire day. For the first half of the day or so, it was perfectly cloudy but not rainy, which made for really great pictures. Later on it cleared up into a sunny and relatively warm day for the rest of our stops along the way. Our first stop was in Leenane village to see the Killary Fjord, the only one in Ireland. I’ve always wanted to travel to Norway to see the fjords, so being able to see Ireland’s one and only was a fun experience. After a quick stop there with lots of pictures, we continued on our way to Kylemore Abbey. The Abbey and the grounds all around it were breathtaking. We were able to walk inside parts of the Abbey and go to the cathedral that Mitchell Henry had built as a memorial for his wife back in the 1800s. The walk around the grounds had some amazing views, the Abbey was built right along the water with a massive mountain located right behind it. Later on, we took a shuttle over to the Victorian Walled Garden and wandered through the maze of different plants for a little while.
Kylemore was the big stop of the trip, but there were other stops along the way back and bus ride itself provided some of the most amazing views. We pulled over at one point along the highway for some pictures. It was so sunny, and the area had a massive mountains with water surrounding them – I really can’t put into words how nice it was there. After we got back on the bus, we drove through south Connemara, which happens to be the one part of Ireland that uses Irish as their first language. With just a couple more quick stops along the way to conclude the trip, we made it back to Galway. It was an amazing trip with some unreal views and landscapes that seemed like they were right out of a movie.
