Saturday started with a drive along the Wild Atlantic Way to Ballyconneely and The Point Pony Trekking Centre to ride Connemara ponies. The Connemaras are a breed that originated in Ireland and are commonly bred for sport. At one point, there were semi-feral herds in the Connemara region, but they all seem to be domesticated now.
Riding English style took a little getting used to but most of the time our ponies plodded along the beach slowly. The guides were non-talkative and we had to stay in a single-file formation, so we focused on staying on our ponies when they trotted and taking in the rock formations along the shore.
After a hearty lunch of seafood chowder, a chicken sandwich, and an open-faced smoked salmon sandwich on brown bread, we headed to Connemara National Park to hike Diamond Hill.
Don't let the name "hill" fool you - this is a moderately challenging hike that took us nearly 3 hours to complete the 5.4 mile loop. There is a pretty steep climb at the middle level, but the footing is easy there. Near the top, the footing gets challenging, with tall stone steps to climb, a narrow path, high winds, and a significant drop-off on one side.
The rain held off and we made it to the peak to enjoy stunning views of Kylemore Abbey, various loughs, and the Twelve Bens.
Sunday was a more casual day. We found the cemetery in Inverin where some of TJ's relatives are believed to be buried and located three possible gravesites. Many of the cemeteries here are down by the sea. This particular one was adjacent to stonewalled cow pastures, with a view over the shoreline and the sea. There is much new construction in this area, though, so many of the upper pastures have been converted into residential neighborhoods.
We spent the afternoon exploring the walking trails at Ballynahinch Castle, a renovated castle that was once the home of the pirate queen Grace O'Malley. The estate is now run as a hotel catering to people who wish to enjoy hiking, cycling, and angling in the area. The formal garden houses a greenhouse and fruit and vegetable gardens to cultivate produce for the hotel restaurant.
The extensive trails go alongside a lake, river, and pond, through woods and alongside fields. The groomed paths provided easy footing, providing a chance to recover from yesterday's activities.
We returned to our Airbnb by 7:00 to make a quick dinner of savoy cabbage, fried onions and tomatoes, pork sausages, and pork liver pate, washed down with a local lager.
Tomorrow we depart for County Donegal. We will have limited internet capacity there so it is very likely that we will be offline until the end of the week. We'll catch up by next weekend!
