From the non-digital archive: Connemara in the 1990s

The landscape of Connemara in Ireland in the summer of 1996

Summer’s coming and its that time of year for thinking about faraway places. I have been going through my old 35mm negatives and decided to sort out some shots from Ireland in the 1990s. They aren’t too bad, but it’s sad to think what better pictures I could take now with a digital camera!

We went to Ireland for several years in a row, ranging farther and farther to the west, and for me the most wonderful landscape of all was in Connemara, an area of lakes and mountains to the north and west of Galway city.

The first few pictures were taken from the N59 road between Galway and Clifden.

This is an area of peat cutting, or at least it was in 1996, when I took this picture

I guessed the “mara” part of Connemara meant “sea”, but didn’t know the full derivation. It is the name of the tribe who lived here long ago, the Conmhaícne Mara, “Conmhaícne of the sea”, descendants of Con Mhac, which literally means “hound son”.

I can’t get enough of these views

There are many sea inlets and few buildings

A pretty pink farm building

We stayed at the Abbeyglen Castle Hotel in Clifden – click on the image to go to the website

One day we visited the Sruffaunboy nature trail at Letterfrack, north of Clifden

Sruffaunboy – I think this is Diamond Mountain, although I didn’t know that at the time

At the Clifden hotel we saw Sharon Shannon, a well-known Irish folk musician, and bought several of her albums, which we love. One is called The Diamond Mountain Sessions, so I can now see they are named after the local landmark.

Connemara horses at Sruffaunboy

A great place for a walk

The mountain can’t hide

Galway is a place of empty roads, apart from the sheep…

…and roadside Celtic crosses

Wildflowers abound…

I think this is self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)

Could this be red bartsia (Odontites verna)?

A thistle (Cirsium)

I can’t identify this one, although the word gentian comes to mind

Heather enjoying the acidic, peaty soil

What surprised me was that many of the boggy areas were clearly connected to the sea as they were full of seaweeds…

These seaweed bladders were a long way from the coast…

…as were these (rather out-of-focus) mussel shells

We came down to the coast on the R341 road at Mannin Bay, between Ballyconneely and Ballynaboy

The beach was covered in seaweed and shells…

…more of the same – the pictures don’t reflect how wonderful I thought it was at the time!

Barnacles on a boat

Pollacapall Lough to the north of the Connemara National Park, east of Letterfrack

We visited Kylemore Abbey, a Victorian estate on Pollacapall Lough.

Kylemore Abbey

The place was built on the site of a hunting lodge by Mitchell Henry MP, a wealthy businessman and liberal Manchester politician, as a gift for his wife Margaret, who came from the Vaughan family of County Down. But when she died of dysentery on holiday in Egypt in 1874, just a few years after the castle was completed, he lost heart.

A close view of the main building

In 1903, Mitchell Henry sold Kylemore Castle to the Duke of Manchester, William Angus Drogo Montague, and his Duchess, Helena Zimmerman, daughter of a rich American businessman. In renovating the interiors they ripped out a beautiful German stained-glass window and large quantities of Italian and Connemara marble, which upset the locals.

Today Kylemore Abbey is owned and run by the Benedictine community who have been here since 1920 – nuns from Ypres in Belgium sought refuge here after the First World War. They ran the abbey as a girls’ boarding school until 2010, so when we visited in 1996 it was still a school and we could not see much of the interior, although we had a light lunch there.

In my notebook at the time I mentioned that the nuns made cream-coloured pottery with a fuchsia design and I see from the website that this is still available in the shop.

The garden at Kylemore in 1996

I remember walking in a woodland garden at Kylemore when we visited, although I am not sure if the Victorian walled garden was fully developed then. If so, I didn’t take any pictures of that part.

Ivy and moss on a tree

In the grounds is a small restored Gothic revival church.

Church in the grounds of Kylemore

The main stained-glass window in the church is very feminine, showing the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, plus Fortitude and Chastity

Fortitude

Chastity

But back to rural matters and our return to Connemara in 1997, when we visited the Connemara Heritage and History Centre at Lettershea, to the south of the national park…

Many streams here are brown with peat

Peat cutting in 1997 – I’m not sure if it was a wetter year or the peat is darker because it’s freshly cut

A similar view with rocks

Luxury transport at the heritage centre

The landscape at Lettershea

Dan O’Hara’s Homestead features a pre-famine farm

Plenty to eat

A reconstructed ‘crannog’ at the heritage centre – these prehistoric homes were built on an artificial island in lakes, to defend them from raiders

A donkey at the heritage centre

And finally… another of the beautiful white horses of Connemara

Connemara has probably changed only a little in 20 years, although I dare say the tourist attractions have been further developed. But I would like to think it is still wild and wonderful!

There’s more from the non-digital picture archive here.