Connemara Past and Present

When we visited Connemara in 1987, it was the stuff of Irish legend.  It was lonely and barren and rocky, and you wondered how even sheep could find enough grass to eat.  There were peat bogs actively being worked by people.  There were simple little thatched roof houses.  And, of course, the Connemara ponies.  That wasn't all there was in the region, but it was what one came to see and was the predominant impression it made.

In the meantime, Ireland has had a major economic boom and bust, a more exaggerated version of what happened in the States.  We've been struck, everywhere we've traveled on this trip, at the dizzying amount of new construction that has taken place since we were here before.  It was noticeable around Dublin; it was noticeable near Ballymaloe.  And, given how remote Dingle is, we were surprised at the quantity of new homes there.

But Connemara is even more changed.  We kept saying, "Where is the Connemara we remember?"  In this instance, I don't think our memories are at fault.  I think reality has simply changed.

For one thing, the thatched roof houses seem to be a thing of the past.  We only saw a couple, and one of those was a big new house.  We saw a number of the small, simple houses this area was known for, which now sport slate roofs.

So we had to look harder to find the Connemara we loved before.  We had to look beyond the clusters of holiday cottages and the large new estate houses.  We had to drive off the beaten track, down some little side roads.

And, when we did that, we could still see the rocky fields and shallow little lakes.  There were still plenty of sheep.  The crenelated coastline is still beautiful.  The Twelve Bens still offer some beautiful mountain views.  The peat bogs are still there, and you can still encounter that wonderful smell of peat fires burning.  We even found a few ponies.

On our previous visit to Connemara, we drove through Clifden, the "capital of Connemara," but didn't have time to stop.  We always said we'd like to come back, and so we did. We spent a couple hours walking through the town and shops and having a bite of lunch at Mitchell's Seafood Restaurant.  The town sits uphill from its harbor and is a thriving business community, clear out at the end of this sizable peninsula.

On that previous visit, we also drove to Kylemore Abbey.  It is an image you'll see on almost any Irish calendar.  A striking building in a stunning setting.  It started life as a private house, but eventually became a Benedictine monastery in the 1920's.  When we were here in 1987, it was a girl's school run by nuns.  You could drive to a spot to see the Abbey, but you could not visit the house.  At this time, the public can visit five rooms in the main house, the chapel, and the walled Victorian garden.  We were glad to get to see it, especially the large garden and the head gardener's cottage (a residence we can identify with a bit more than the castle).

Our drive back to our inn was through a nature preserve that runs between the Maumturk Mountains and the Twelve Bens, the heart of Connemara.  In this area of grand open landscapes, the sheep were roaming freely and one had to stay alert.  Lambing season was fairly recent, and the babies aren't too seasoned yet at roadways and cars.

So while much has changed in this out of the way place, it is still a beautiful and evocative place--another chapter in our Wild Atlantic Way journey.