We had breakfast at the castle before hitting the road. Our final destination today was Galway, but we stopped many places on the way throughout Mayo county (3rd largest county in Ireland). The scenery ranged from mountains, lakes, rivers, classic Irish farms of a brilliant green, bogs, desertlike valleys, small villages, to larger cities.

Gortnor Abbey Pier – our first stop wasn’t far from Ballina, at the top of Lough Conn, a northern lake and known for salmon and trout. It spans 14,000 acres and is 9 miles from north to south. It was quite windy, and from here we saw small fishing boats, but no fishermen. Nephin Mor is the 2nd highest mountain in the area of Connaught, but only 2646 ft. Unfortunately we didn’t see the abbey. on

Ballycroy National Park – We continued west toward Bangor Eris, and a national park. We made a turn towards the water when we saw a castle sign. It was the Fahey Castle and locates in someone’s back yard, and nit accessible, but the old ruined church was. It looked interesting on Google maps because a large section of it was white. I wondered if it was limestone, salt, or something else. We stopped at the visitors center and learned that the white was just a cloud. Too funny. The park is 65% (117.79 square kilometers) bogs, which makes it one of the largest examples of a blanket bog habitat left. We also saw some unusual animal sculptures made of willow branches.

On our way to Cong, we drove through Newport, Westport, Killavally, Ballinrobe, and Neale where we stopped to see a cemetery. We wanted to see a few things in Cong, and luck was on our side:

Ashford Castle – we learned there was an entrance fee of 10€ to just cross the bridge to get up close to the castle. The castle is also a hotel, and quite expensive (starting at 700€ a night). We saw the entrance, but decided to skip it and head to the Cong Abbey. But my GPS was taking us an odd way. It took us right to the castle via a back entrance. Carol and I jumped out to grab some quick photos. It looked amazing, and there was a moat! It’s the oldest castle in Ireland, built in 1228, once the family home of the Guinness family, and Rory McCillroy was married here.

Cong Abbey – the cemetery and abbey ruins were the former Augustinian abbey mostly date to the 13th century and are supposed to feature some of finest examples of medieval ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland. We passed it and there were a lot of parked cars. There was a Cong food festival going on. We found a good place to park and because the festival food didn’t excite all of us, so we ate lunch at a local pub – Pat Cohan. The seafood chowder and sticky toffee pudding were amazing.

Fun fact about Cong, The Quiet Man, a John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara film, was shot in Cong. There is a statue of the two of them in the village, and a Quiet Man Museum. Our pub was in the movie. I guess I have to watch it now.

We still had a bit of a drive to Galway. The countryside and rock walls were so beautiful. After checking in at the Marless House, Carol and George went to do laundry, and mom and I walked to the promenade along the water. We were shocked to see people swimming. I got some sand, and walked further to see people jumping off the Blackrock Beach pier. The water temperature is 15 degrees Celsius. We met back up with George and Carol and went to dinner. Fortunately we have two days in Galway to enjoy the sites.