This is a very easy walk along a narrow road, most of which is a famine relief road. This would have been part of the public works scheme, where starving people had to break rocks and perform manual labour, to receive wages so they could purchase food.
Along the route we came upon the ruined famine village of Foher, which had to be abandoned during the famine. There are lines visible on the hillside that were old potato ridges. Unfortunately, it was raining when we passed the ruins so we were unable to take photos.
Killary Harbour has a lot of lines in the water that are mussel farms, and there were flat decked boats out there working with the lines. Killary Harbour is very beautiful as it is flanked on both sides by mountains. The wonderful Mweelrea is on one side toward the Atlantic. The views both inland, up the harbour, and toward the sea are gorgeous.
We got a bit of rain on the way to the mouth of the harbour and then it started to pour rain and the gusts of wind were wicked. We didn’t linger at Rosroe Pier due to the downpour, so we decided to head back right away. We had been walking for a couple of hours and didn’t get a chance for our tea break.
On the return walk, we met a huge group of young people on a walk with a few adult leaders. We had to stand aside to let the gaggle walk by, they were all rather polite and we received a lot of thank-yous.
We thought we were in the clear as far as the weather, but we were mistaken, as a large system from the north rose up over Mweelrea and just dumped on us. Of course, this was the only time we did not pack our rain pants for the walk. The only bonus was that the rain was pummeling us at our backs and not on our faces. However, the rain started to pour off of our rain jackets and soaked our butts and it ran through our gaiters and into our boots.
We walked like maniacs on the return and completed the walk in 3.5 hours when it should have taken 4 hours. By the time we reached the car, we were drowned rats, so we had to sit on our nylon shopping bags so we wouldn’t soak the seats. We broke out our much anticipated tea and it was cold, blech, so we didn’t drink it.
Killary Harbour Mussel Farming
Famine Relief Road
Mweelrea
Mouth of Killary Harbour
Killary Harbour
We decided just to cope with the soaking pants and boots and continued on our drive south. We did a really nice loop that eventually took us to Roundstone. This is a very pretty fishing village in Co. Galway. We stopped for a cappuccino and we were going to sit on our jackets, but the chairs had vinyl covering, so we were set.
After our break, we continued on our loop and then headed back to Newport. Our hiking pants dry very quickly, so our legs were dry, but sitting on nylon did not assist with the drying of our wet arses, which was getting rather uncomfortable. We were happy to get back home so we could shed our wet clothes. Of course, the rain totally cleared out after we left Roundstone, and we had glorious sunshine for the drive back.
Roundstone Harbour
Port na Feadoige
Atlantic
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