Favorite Destinations
Connemara National Park
Long beloved of artists and photographers, this is a region of magical light, huge landscapes and a tranquil peace that slows down and calms even the most stressed visitor. Many of our guests are enthusiastic photographers and their visit to Connemara is a highlight of their trip and results in some of their best and most memorable shots.
Connemara National Park covers more than 7000 acres and includes scenic mountain ranges, including the famous Twelve Bens, expanses of bogs, heaths, grasslands and woodlands, dark lakes and beautiful coastline. It is heaven for walkers, but even if you don’t have the time or inclination to don your hiking boots we can quickly get you off the beaten track and into places so quiet and unspoiled that you’ll almost believe you are the first person ever to discover them.
Lonely and wild as it is, this part of Ireland has been inhabited for millennia and its inhabitants have left traces of their lives. There are 4,000 years old court tombs, ruined houses abandoned in famine times, old walls that mark out ancient field systems and the Visitor Centre buildings were formerly part of the Letterfrack Industrial School, part of some less than happy episodes in Irish history.
Much of the Park lands were once part of the Kylemore Abbey Estate, originally a hunting lodge but now a convent school with magnificent gardens, a craft pottery and a fascinating Gothic Church, all open to the public.
526