Westport, Ireland

We left Dublin on Saturday driving in our Hertz/Renault rent a car headed for 2 days in Westport, County Mayo, to do some hiking and visit the county from which my maternal great grandparents, Martin and Bridget Mulroy came from. I managed the roundabouts coming out of Dublin to the highway which took us across the island. We stopped in Longford for coffee and I was able to use their ATM. My card would not work in the Dublin airport, although Ellen's did. The photo above was taken on the street with the coffee shop. Left Longford, stopped briefly for lunch in Castlebar,

and arrived in Westport around 4 and checked into our B&B where we stayed to Monday morning. Ellen found us a nice small restaurant in Westport for dinner. Mango's is famous for their seafood, and their salmon was really great,

Sunday morning arrived a bit overcast with some sprinkles but dressed for hiking and headed off to see what Patrick looked like. When we got there the top was shrouded in cloud but we hiked up a ways to get a better view of Clew Bay.

Across the street from the mountain is a bronze statue commemorating the famine. It's quite stark with the skeletons in the rigging.

Our innkeeper suggested that if the mountain was really wet the we should take a ride around Achill island, the largest island in Ireland with great cliffs, no guard rails and great views of the Atlantic. Ellen, as our navigator plotted a great route around the island, counter clockwise, which put her up against the hills and me on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Very barren with great rocks jutting up in the ocean.

 On the way up we saw a sign for a castle, so as we were headed back to Westport, we pulled onto a one lane road and found a square tower which turned out to be one of Grace OMalley's lookout castles. There were glass windows in it so it looked like it might have been used recently, although there is scaffolding going up one of the sides.

Sunday night we had a quiet dinner and then went to the Porter House for some traditional irish Music. We also were entertained by a little old man with long grey hair and beard who sang. Good pub times with good music. Monday we head for Roundstone.