Into the west

The beauty of Connemara offers spectacular views and surprisingly quiet routes, writes Bob Montgomery

The beauty of Connemara offers spectacular views and surprisingly quiet routes, writes Bob Montgomery

A LOT OF the roads that I feature in this series are found by a careful study of the Ordnance Survey Discovery Series maps and today’s featured road has tantalised me for some time. In effect, the road provides a considerable short cut between the hamlet of Costelloe on the shores of Galway Bay and the town of Oughterard, close to the spectacular Lough Corrib. It saves travelling via Maam Cross or Galway City, a significant extra distance whichever way you choose. Not only that, but a close study of the map suggests that it will also offer views of the Twelve Bens that should be dramatic.

The road – un-numbered on the Discovery Series map – begins at a crossroads about two kilometres south-east of Costelloe, heading north-east across initially bleak and open terrain.

Nowadays, Costelloe’s claim to fame is as the home of Radió na Gaeltachta, the Irish language radio station and its mast is a landmark for many miles around.

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By the time our road swings east and then north a spectacular view of the Twelve Bens has opened up to the north-west. I think this is one of the finest views in Connemara and it’s at its best when the mountains still carry a dusting of snow in the early spring. Lackadunna (317m), Shannawona (346m), Shannaweeleen (229m) and Lugganaffrin (273m) are the mountains to the fore, their names rolling off the tongue like poetry.

The road itself passes between the low hill of Glenicmurrin to the west and the Bovroughaun Bog to the east. Much of the landscape is gentle bogland and it’s easy to imagine how those intrepid Atlantic flyers, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, could so easily have mistaken it for pastureland as they attempted to land at the end of their historic journey.

After here, the road begins to slowly climb passing between Shannapheasteen (220m) and Cloghermore (280m). As the road swings almost due east, it passes Lettercraffroe Lough and goes through a thickly wooded landscape. A complete contrast to the earlier landscape near Costelloe.

As the road begins to descend, Luggakeeraun (248m) and Knocknalee Hill (291m) rise up to the east and glimpses of the broad waters of Lough Corrib can be seen to the north. The final part of the road is attractive as the road drops down through a wild landscape of bogs, small lakes and forests to the outskirts of Oughterard – appropriately meaning high ground in Irish. Today, Oughterard is a centre for fishing as well as the eastern gateway to Connemara. While travelling this road, I met few fellow travellers suggesting that it is a road less used than it might be. Certainly, it provides a welcome short cut between Costelloe and Oughterard and in addition offers views not accessible elsewhere in Connemara.

As such it’s a worthwhile drive – a journey off the beaten track that offers new landscapes and a memorable vista. Its promise of spectacular views of the Twelve Bens did not disappoint, but then, as I have observed before, there is little in Connemara that does disappoint.