Despite being one of the most visited places in Ireland, Connemara in County Galway, is an inhospitable, wild and abandoned place. When you are there, it feels as if all the clocks and watches have lost their second hands somewhere in a pub amongst the pints of Guinness and nobody seems to miss them. For many regular visitors to Ireland, Connemara is their favorite place, one in which the beauty is overwhelming and very authentic. It has a rough and wild landscape with mountains of green hills shrouded in clouds, strong winds, Atlantic waves and lonely, swampy moors.

The light constantly changes the landscape in Connemara from the rugged Twelve Bens mountain range in the north to the golden beaches of the Atlantic coast. The ideal way to admire the varied landscapes is to rent a car, as bus services are not very frequent especially in low season. Weather conditions permitting, it is advisable to park the car, forget about time and take a walk through the mountains. Also highly recommended is to end the day enjoying the open fire in a pub, order some local specialities like seafood chowder and end the evening listening to traditional Irish music with a pint of Guinness.

At the edge of Connemara National Park, which comprises two thousand acres of bogs, lakes and mountains, the stunning Kylemore Abbey stands on a lake of the same name. The former Kylemore Castle became an Abbey when Benedictine nuns from the Belgian town of Ypres took refuge there when fleeing the horrors of World War I. It is now a girls’ boarding school but some of the rooms including the library are open to the public.

The Corrib, at 45 km in length, is the largest lake in County Galway and separates the Connemara Mountains from the agricultural plains of the interior. Going across Joyce's Country, which sees itself reflected in the mirror of the Corrib broken only by the shimmer of many tiny islands, appears a small village with multicolored houses and a crystal-clear stream, immortalized by filmmaker John Ford when he shot the The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. This is the picturesque village of Cong.

The largest town in Connemara is Clifden, an ideal base to explore the county and which serves as a start-off point for many trips throughout beautiful Connemara. There is plenty of accommodation in the area with a wide range of affordable hostels, friendly B&B’s and we can also find some of the best hotels in Galway scattered throughout this scenic and romantic part of Ireland.