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Achill Island, Co. Mayo


We left the house at Claddaghduff feeling very happy, as the week with all the family together was hugely successful. Everything fell into place, the house was perfect, the weather was perfect and the location was perfect. We were very appreciative of Dawn’s research that led her to a big house with space for everyone and that has never before been let. The owners had just moved out, down-sizing to achieve some rental income. As their family is very young, this must be hard for them.

Off we went to Strandhill, near Sligo for a family wedding. This is a major surfing spot and the Atlantic swell rolls in across a huge bay that is not suitable for swimming but is perfect for surfers. It was very entertaining to be able to watch from the promenade.



The wedding ceremony was held on an adjacent, sheltered beach and at the Strandhill golf club, which has never before hosted a wedding. This is unbelievable as it is the perfect venue and setting.




Following an extended wedding weekend, we said goodbye to all the family and headed off on our Landy trip back south, down the west coast. It was Sunday 4 June ’17 and we just heard the news about yet another terrorist attack in London before we disconnected from the internet.

The whole of Ireland is a bog;a blanket bog and it was formed in the years following the last ice age. So that's in the last 10,000 years or so. Perhaps the retreating ice had some special "stuff" underneath as there are layers and layers of peat (known as turf I believe) and you can see it drying everywhere in piles, some arranged better than others.

Obviously the cutting of turf in order to burn it as a heating and cooking fuel is a well known fact. However the dominance of this cutting and the scarring of the landscape came as a surprise. I'd obviously have done it myself if I lived here years ago but it is still burnt today and you can smell the smoke as you pass by a house or cottage. The fact that the landscape is scarred is of little consequence as seems to blend in reasonably well.




Rhododendrons grow in massive clusters and as they are in full bloom they look fantastic. Moving south and west through Mayo we followed the N59 which in a Land Rover was rather “humpy” with unpredictable bumps and hollows. We skirted the Nephin Beg Range and Ballycroy National Park before swinging around a sea inlet and the Corraun Peninsula, finally crossing a swing bridge over Achill Sound to reach Achill Island.




This really is a remote and beautiful place. It has mountains and wild cliffs with numerous wide sandy beaches. One of this was recently in the press as it has been re-covered with sand after about twenty five years. The bay at Dooagh was once sandy but a storm sometime in the 1980s removed the sand in a flash, leaving pebbles and rocks. Then at Easter this year, during just a few days, the sand was re-deposited and the beach has been restored by the very forces that removed it. Watching the waves roll in and onto a very steep beach, it isn't hard to imagine that it could all be washed away again. There's something about the wave action there that suggests "scouring" of anything that's in the way.

Achill Island is surrounded by pounding seas, except on the side facing the mainland. There are five blue flag beaches and we headed to one at Keel on the southern coast. However the site is on flat land behind the beach and the wind was screaming in from the sea. So we turned north east to the other coast and five minutes later we were at Doogort and another blue flag and outside a site that was showing on our Archie’s camping POI on the TomTom.

Seal Caves camping has just re-opened after a ten year hibernation. It’s beautifully situated behind the beach and right under the highest mountain on the island, Slievemore (672m) which provides a dramatic back drop to the beach. The fact that it is a pyramidal peak only adds to the splendour.




The campsite is clearly unknown as there’s hardly anyone here and with our solar panel meaning that we no longer need to connect to the grid, we were able to drive up to the highest terrace to get a pitch overlooking the beach, with the mountain opposite.

Rather surprisingly all the hedgerows lining the terraces are Fuschia and this provides a lovely environment and my planters at home will look very small in comparison. In fact there's Fuschia growing everywhere in Ireland. Most hedges are Fuschia and it seems to grow in abundance,
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