Connemara National Park

Our second day in Ireland led us to the Connemara National Park. Located near Letterfrack it was just a really short drive and promised to be a great trip. And it really was. The weather looked like it would give us the rain - sun - rain - wind - rain - treatment again, so we came fully prepared with all our raincoats, rain covers for the backpacks and waterproof hiking boots. We started our hike at the Visitor Center at about 10.30, the sun still shining brightly. After just about fifteen minutes we could see dark clouds coming up and rain poured down on us once again - but this time we were prepared. We stayed mostly dry, and everything else dried with the harsh wind following the downpour.

The ascend of the mountain proved to be really windy, and we decided the warning sign we had seen early did in fact make sense. Todays weather wasn't all that bad though, we arrived at the peak of Diamond Hill in bright sunshine, even though it was still windy. The view was fantastic from up there.

On our way down we had some more rain, but more of a short drizzle that didn't even bother us.

We were back home shortly after noon, so there was still some time to kill until dinner. We decided to drive the "Sky Road Loop", which is part of the Wild Atlantic Way, the new scenic drive down the Atlantic coast line here in western Ireland.

In the evening we went out to Tullycross, another little village right by Renvyle, to have Dinner at Paddy Coyne's Pub. The food was really good and we were especially amazed at how beautiful it was arranged on the plates. Not what we expected, but of course a pleasant surprise. Together with a pint of Guiness that made a perfect end of our day.