COUNTY  GALWAY

 This really is the wild west. The crashing Atlantic breakers hammers against a rocky coastline with its innumerable coves, creeks and half concealed sandy beaches. yet it's still a place of infinite beauty with the Connemara National Park to the north, the famous Galway Bay to the south and the  Gaeltacht along the north shore of that water. The extensive sheet of water that is Lough Corrib is almost exclusively in the county, as are the flatlands to the east. To the south east, there is a range of wooded hills - the Slieve Aughty Mountains, topping out with Cashlaundrumlahan at 1174ft. But this pales alongside the magnificent Connemara. There are 12 bens (or mountains) in this 5,00 acre National Park together with bogland and lakes. Wildlife abounds too. This is also the home of that sturdy beast the Connemara pony, examples of which you'll see all over the place. But you'll be drawn, inexorably, to the majesty, the drama and the sheer spectacle of that coastline.

A Claddagh Ring was a symbolic ring worn in this area. With hands, heart and a crown, it has since become popular as a wedding ring all over the world. Buy one locally, they're beautiful.

The Galway Hooker is not a lady of doubtful repute but actually a small wooden sailing boat that can still be seen in use around the coast. There is an annual Oyster-Opening competition each September in Galway City. It's part of the bigger Oyster Festival. This year's event will be the 48th. Red deer have been re-introduced into the Connemara National Park, one of several conservation initiatives undertaken recently. 

There's a full week of horse racing at the famed Galway Races beginning in late July. Ballinasloe once held the largest horse fair in the country each October. In the 19th century, buyers from all over Europe and Russia arrived to buy horses for their armies - up to 6,000 at a time. It's still held today, but on a somewhat more restricted scale. The verb 'to lynch' may have originated in Galway City. In 1493, the mayor James Lynch hanged his son from a window after finding him guilty of murder.

John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, the first men to fly the Atlantic non-stop, landed near Clifden on July 14th 1919. From St. Hohns Newfoundland it took 16 hours 27 minutes of hard flying. A memorial to the event has been erected close to where they landed.