Lorna Siggins picks out the best Galway has to offer - for free
Swim with Seamus Heaney
Watch out for the bronze plaque bearing Heaney's Girls Bathing, Galway 1965 close to Ladies Beach on the Salthill promenade. Inspired, take a quick dip at Blackrock under the Blue Flag, awarded this year due to the impact of the Mutton Island sewage treatment plant.
Plaza panache
Take shelter among oak, ash and alder in Barna woods, run by the city council, or visit one of its fine new children's playgrounds in the adjoining Cappagh Park; Salthill; the Claddagh; Millennium park opposite NUIG; Loughatalia; and Eyre Squ. . . sorry, Plaza !
Visit a gallery
Galway Arts Centre, housed in Lady Gregory's former townhouse, is in Dominick Street, and it runs the Nun's Island studio space close by; the Kenny Gallery extends from Middle Street through the former bookshop to High Street; there's Norman Villa in Lower Salthill; Ard Bia Artspace in William Street, the Bold Gallery in Merchant's Road; the White Room Gallery in Liosban Industrial Estate; NUI Galway's (NUIG) art gallery and the Bank of Ireland's collection 1960-1990 is currently on exhibition in the new city museum at Spanish Arch.
Meditation moments
Trace the labyrinth in Furbo, set in sandstone by Fr Denis Crosby and his parishioners to mark the millennium. Built as indulgences for pilgrims who could not go to Jerusalem, such geometric "meditation routes" date from the Crusades. France's Chartres Cathedral has the most famous, Co Wicklow's Hollywood has our oldest, but Furbo, across from the Burren, has the most captivating setting.
Watch the birdies!
Look out from the new breakwater to some island, or take a telescope out after dusk for some star gazing. The man-made link to Mutton has become popular for both ornithology and astronomy.
Making water works
Trace the city's neglected waterways. It was water power which boosted Galway's economy during the industrial revolution, with 23 flour mills and 16 other oat and malt mills, breweries and distilleries in the city by 1820, according to James Hardiman's history. Listen out for sedge warblers on the banks of the Corrib from NUIG, try to follow the route of the Eglinton Canal and then put in a call to the city council about any pollution you spot.