Ireland 2026 - Meeting up with Old Friends and Returning to the Wild Atlantic Way

Saturday 30th May
 
I have enjoyed writing today's post though what I have learnt is rather depressing.
 
We woke up to rain and it rained on and off all day :-(
 
We are heading to Shannon Harbour tomorrow to meet up with old boating friends, Dot and Gordon, who used to have a narrow boat, but bought a Dutch barge in 2019 and spent time in the UK renovating it before bringing it over to Ireland in 2023.  We are really looking forward to seeing them again. 

The big question of the day was, do we move today or tomorrow!  As this weekend was a Bank Holiday we were concerned about places to stop.  When we arrived in Shannonbridge on Thursday there were three of us and Friday night there were 12 of us and no one moved today. Our dilemma was, do we risk leaving Shannonbridge and driving to Shannon Harbour and finding there was no parking, then returning to Shannonbridge and our parking spot had been taken!  In the end we stayed put.
 
I took the opportunity to sort out what we were going to do after we finish the WAW in Kinsale.  We now have a rough idea of where we are going and what we are going to do.
 
I took Rio for a lovely walk along the river. We hadn’t realised it was a path until I saw another dog walker going along it. The grass was long and wet and Rio had to keep jumping up to see where he was!  There were at least two lots of zoomies!  We were both very wet when we got back.

 
In Shannonbridge there used to  be a peat-fired power station which opened in 1965.  Jem makes it sound so lovely!  "For generations, the hum of the station and the sight of narrow-gauge turf trains crossing the iron railway bridge dominated local life and employment."!  However, in line with modern environmental policy, the historic peat station officially closed its doors in 2020, marking the end of a major industrial chapatichapter.  The building is now used as an emergency back up plantt. The plant is completely isolated from the open commercial electricity marketplace. It only runs if the grid operator specifically commands it during an absolute emergency. It is legally capped at running a maximum of 500 hours per year.  The full facility became available for emergency dispatch in early 2025. It is scheduled to remain in place as a safety net until the end of the 2026–2027 winter season (with potential legislative extensions to 2028), after which the temporary turbines will be completely dismantled and removed.   In short, the Shannonbridge site has evolved from a traditional fossil-fuel burner into a crucial technical anchor for Ireland's renewable energy transition, keeping the lights on quietly in the background without constantly blowing smoke.

We have seen a lot of peat digging which has perturbed me somewhat.  My research shows that if you are an individual digging peat strictly to heat your own home, it is generally legal, provided you hold the traditional legal right to do so and the bog is not environmentally protected.  Rural households in Ireland often hold traditional land rights called "turbary rights." These rights allow the holder to cut, dry, and remove turf from a specific plot of bogland for family use.  However, it is a criminal offence to cut turf on bogs designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) or Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs). The state-owned peat company, Bord na Móna, officially ended all commercial peat harvesting in 2021 following EU climate directives. 

While the UK and Ireland are swiftly moving away from extraction, global peat digging is a massive, multi-billion-dollar industry. Globally, about 20 million metric tons of peat are mined annually.  The main "culprits" are, Finland, Canada, Latvia, Belarus, Sweden, Germany, Russia and Estonia in that order.  If you looked at this list a decade ago, Ireland would have been firmly in the top three, extraction-wise. However, following the complete cessation of industrial harvesting by Bord na Móna and the closure of legacy peat-fired power stations, Ireland has officially dropped out of the ranks of major legal producers.  Similarly, the United Kingdom is tracking toward an outright ban on the sale of horticultural peat products, forcing a rapid market transition to sustainable alternatives.
 
Peat extraction is a primary target in global climate discussions. Degraded and drained peat bogs emit roughly 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually—accounting for roughly 4% of all human-caused global emissions.
 
Richard asked where does all this fit with cutting down the rain forests.  If a rainforest is cleared, a tree can grow back and store a significant amount of carbon within 50 to 100 years. It is a fast, highly active biological cycle, whereas peat accumulates at an agonizingly slow rate of just 1 millimeter per year. A peat bog that is 3 meters deep took 3,000 years to form. Once you dig it up, it is gone on any human time scale; it is functionally a fossil fuel.
 
Time to Form
Rainforest - 100–500 years
Peat bog - 1,000–10,000+ years


Sunday 31st May

The music at Lukers Bar didn’t stop until 1.30am and then we both lay there wondering if it was going to start up again. Neither of us got much sleep.

No lie in for us though as we had arranged to meet Dot about 10.30am. It was only an 8 mile journey. When we arrived in Shannon Harbour there was no parking where I had hoped to park so we drove on about 100 yards and found a lovely spot with two other motorhomes.

Dot came over and we took Rio for a walk along the Grand Canal. It was then onto the Fleur de Lys for coffee and to catch up with Gordon who was battling with a bathroom renovation.  We have known Dot and Gordon for 10 years since we met on our narrow boats in Bristol. We used to catch up with each other from time to time and also in Mojacar, where half a dozen or so of boaters would go in the winter.  D & G sold their narrow boat in 2019 and bought a Dutch Barge, the Fleur de Lys, bringing her to Ireland in 2023. 

We went back to Kiwi for a couple of hours then met up with D & G again in the local pub, a 5 minute walk away. It was a traditional Irish pub, small with a low ceiling. It was very much a locals pub but with it being a holiday there were a lot of “plastic paddies”!  I had a pint and half of Guinness, well I had to didn’t I!!  The food was basic but very well cooked and enjoyable.

It had been lovely meeting D & G again and hopefully our paths will cross again someday.

Shannon Harbour is a remarkably intact piece of Ireland’s industrial heritage. It didn’t evolve naturally over centuries; it was a purpose-built frontier town constructed at the turn of the 19th century to solve a massive engineering puzzle: connecting Dublin to the Atlantic Ocean via the Grand Canal and the River Shannon.

For roughly fifty years, (1805 - 1850), Shannon Harbour was a vital, booming transshipment hub. Because canal barges couldn't easily handle the heavy currents and winds of the broad River Shannon, and large river steamers couldn't fit into the narrow canal locks, everything had to be unloaded and reloaded here.  At its peak, the harbor saw up to 250,000 passengers pass through annually, alongside thousands of tons of turf, grain, flour, Guinness, and livestock.  The Grand Canal Hotel opened in 1806, this imposing, three-story stone hotel was built to accommodate wealthy travelers transferring between the flyboats (fast, horse-drawn passenger boats) and river steamers.

During the Great Famine (1845–1852), the harbour quickly turned from a trade hub into a bleak point of departure. For thousands of people from Offaly and Galway, Shannon Harbour was the starting point of their emigration journey, taking flyboats from Dublin before boarding "coffin ships" to America.

By the late 1850s, passenger traffic had completely dried up. The grand hotel closed its doors and was later converted into a barracks for the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) before eventually falling into the ruin you can see today.

Today Shannon Harbour has facilities for boaters including two historic dry docks.  There is also the The Harbour Master’s House, an historically listed 1806 building which has been beautifully restored, and now operates as a highly-rated 4-star boutique Bed & Breakfast.

The What3Words for Sunday were
https://w3w.co/commanded.earning.vented

Monday June 1st
 
We both slept like babies after three disturbed nights at Shannonbridge, but we did wake up to rain.
 
Our peregrination (look it up!) to the River Shannon had come to an end, and it was time to head back to the WAW.  As we approached Portumna we were held up by a swing bridge over the River Shannon. It dates back to 1911 and features a specialized, asymmetric swing span on the Galway side.  The bridge is too low for boats to go under so it is swung at set times during the day.

 

We picked up the WAW again and followed it round to Doolin. The weather was grey and drizzly and the scenery was pretty bleak. There was no parking, not even for cars, on the first part of the WAW but 6 miles from the site we were able to pull in and walk onto the amazing rock formation. I’ve never seen anything like it.  Obviously, the coaches all go from south to north whereas we were going north to south. The road was pretty narrow and the coach drivers all expected us to get off the road so they could get passed.  We were very lucky as we didn’t have to reverse once. We could usually see the coaches coming so in the end we would pull over and wait for them.

There are two sites in Doolin, one in the town and one by the harbour. Being us, we chose the watery one!  When we arrived, I got rather excited as they had big bins so we could finally dump the rubbish which had been in the garage for a few days - thank goodness it hadn’t been hot!  The site is very well  organised with excellent pitches with electricity and water.  We chose a pitch with a nice view over the harbour.  I did two loads of laundry but it was expensive - €24.

 
The area we were in is known as The Burren (a National Park) which is a huge area known for its unusual, moon-like landscape. The name comes from an Irish word meaning "a rocky place," which is exactly what it looks like.  Even though it looks like a desert, it is actually full of life. The deep cracks in the rock stay warm and damp, acting like tiny greenhouses where rare, colourful flowers from all over the world grow side-by-side.
 

The bedrock is pale, Carboniferous limestone (roughly 350 million years old). The lone boulders resting on top are dark, ancient Galway Granite (closer to 400+ million years old).   During the peak of the last glaciation, a massive ice sheet over 500 meters thick tore these granite blocks straight out of the Connemara mountains on the north side of Galway Bay, dragged them 20 miles south, and dumped them gently onto the Murrooghtoohy shelves as the ice melted.
 
The What3words for Monday were
https://w3w.co/works.describe.mister
 
 

Ireland 2026 - Leaving the Wild Atlantic Way for a few days

Wednesday 27th May
 
I woke up to the pattering of tiny bird feet on the van roof.  They sounded like a robin or maybe a bit bigger, but I guess it was a seagull tiptoeing so as not to wake me up 🤣
 

We gave Rio a run on the beach then set off in search of fuel, it wasn’t desperate but Richard likes to be safe rather than sorry.  It cost us £1.72 a litre.

It was mainly a driving day with admiring the scenery from inside the van. 
 
We were fascinated by the thousands of rocks and boulders scattered everywhere, so, of course, I asked Jem who told me that around 20,000 years ago, Ireland was buried under a massive sheet of ice. As these slow-moving glaciers ground across the landscape, they acted like giant conveyor belts. They tore huge chunks of bedrock right out of the mountains and carried them along for the ride.  When the climate warmed up and the ice sheet melted away (around 12,000 to 15,000 years ago), it simply dropped whatever it was holding. The ice vanished, leaving these massive boulders stranded precisely where they sat when the melting stopped.

He also said that they look like they were dropped out of the sky by a giant, which is why local folklore often attributed them to mythical figures throwing rocks across the landscape.
 
We found a motorhome service point in a little village in the middle of nowhere!  We were able to dump grey water and toilet for free, and then we paid €5 for fresh water. We filled Kiwi and then gave her sides a wash as she was filthy. A well spent €5 and it was done on an honesty basis, cash or QR code.   We were still struggling to dump rubbish though. There are plenty of recycling bins but no rubbish bins. We knew that this is a problem in Ireland and wondered if there would be a littering problem but everywhere seems spotless. 

Our stop for the night was Coral Strand which is a unique and world renowned beach. The sand is made up of rare coraline algae known as maerl which gives it a distinct crunch and striking white appearance.   We took Rio onto the beach and it certainly did crunch!  There were people swimming (8.30pm) so I went in for a paddle and was surprised as to how warm it was. However, in bare feet, the sand was very sharp and painful.

We had tried to sit out during the afternoon but, with no shade, it was too hot. It was certainly our hottest day.

 
The What3words for Wednesday were.
https://w3w.co/raffle.simplicity.passes
 
 
Thursday 28th May
 

A few random photos today!

The weather had deteriorated overnight and was grey, chilly and drizzling. However, it did improve as the day went on.
 
We were going “off piste” for a couple of days hoping to catch up with some friends.
 

Our first stop was Tra na Ceann beach only we ended up somewhere completely different!  A rather grotty and stinky place which we left pretty quickly!
 
The City of Galway was next.  Approaching it from the west you drive along the 1.25 mile Salthill Promenade, a rather attractive place to take a stroll, only it was really busy and every lamp post had a “no motorhome” sign on it.

Rio's cousin!

Next stop was Tesco which, when we got there, didn’t have the parking it looked as if it had on Google Maps.  At this point we were in the middle of the city with no destination!  I managed to negotiate our way out, but ended up at the northwest end when we really wanted to be southeast end!  I couldn’t take my eyes off the map so couldn’t set a new destination until we managed to find somewhere to stop.

So, three things that went wrong - hopefully things would get better!
 
We wanted to get on the M6 out of Galway and I managed to find a Tesco which was close to the motorway, things were looking up!  Jem had told me that I couldn’t use my UK Tesco Clubcard in Ireland but he was wrong and I made in £20.19 on promotions 😃
 

We needed LPG and, believe it or not, there was a place 10 minutes away 🤩
 
We left Galway behind, a city that doesn’t like motorhomes and also doesn’t let dogs on its public transport, even in a pet carrier.

We drove to Portumna where there is a motorhome aire - it was rammed and all the vans were parked really close together.  Our luck had changed again.
 
We then drove in to Shannonbridge where there is a stop over right beside the River Shannon.  It was much nicer and free!  Had our luck changed again?

The What3words for Thursday were

https://w3w.co/misled.blackened.framing

Friday 29th May

It was a bit grey and windy when we woke up but it turned into a beautiful day.  We had decided not to move on today so had a quiet morning. 
 
After lunch we went for a walk through the town.  There was very little there except for a couple of bars and a small grocery shop.

Shannonbridge is dominated by its beautiful bridge, so we walked over it to a little cafe and partook of tea and cake.

Back at Kiwi we got the chairs out and sat on the quay in the lovely sunshine.  There was quite a bit of boat movement on the river, these were mostly hire boats.

 
A few metres from the motorhomes was Luker’s Bar so we took ourselves off for a meal and a very good meal it was too. Back at Kiwi it was a lovely evening so we sat out until it became too chilly.

The bridge is one of the oldest stone bridges still carrying live traffic over the River Shannon. It was completed around 1757 and predates many of the other major crossings on the Shannon.  It features sixteen stone arches and was built with heavy upstream and downstream triangular cutwaters - on road level, these double as pedestrian refuges as there is no pavement.  About 80 years after the main stone bridge was finished, a twin-leaf cast-iron swivel bridge was installed to let tall-masted steamers pass. In 1983 a new concrete span was added in its place to replace a couple of the original stone arches, allowing wider clearance for river navigation and larger cruisers.  The swivel bridge is now mounted on plinths which we can see from Kiwi.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the British feared that French forces would land on the wild west coast of Ireland, rally the local population, and march on Dublin. To secure the river line, they heavily fortified three key crossings: Athlone, Banagher, and Shannonbridge.   A massive, two-story bomb-proof stone barracks was built to house soldiers and heavy artillery. A defensive drawbridge kept the fort secure from landward attacks.  However, because Napoleon was ultimately defeated at Waterloo in 1815, the fort never saw a single day of active combat, leaving it perfectly preserved for over two centuries.  Today the fort has been converted into a cafe and a living museum dedicated to preserving local history.

Ireland 2026 - Lots of Sea and Sand

 
Sunday 24th May
 
We woke up to more wind and grey skies. We all said our goodbyes and set off in different directions. Quite a few were heading south down the WAW and a couple were heading to Dublin to catch ferries.
 
Our plan had been to drive up to Keem Beach and see a bit more of Achill Island but, to be honest, we just wanted to move off and try and find some better weather.
 
We headed east and I set Mrs Google to take us to Croagh Patrick View Discovery Point, but there was no room in the inn so to speak!  We took a turn round the car park and drove out.
 
By this stage the weather had improved - the sun was shining, the sky was blue, it was warm but it was still windy.
 
Next stop was Bertra Bay where we were met by a height barrier across the car park. Fortunately, there was room to park outside of car park. We took Rio for a walk which he really enjoyed.

Ireland's ultimate holy mountain is Croagh Patrick (nicknamed "the Reek") and looms behind Bertra Bay.  It rises 2,507 feet above the landscape, instantly recognizable by its striking, conical quartzite peak.  The mountain has been a sacred site for thousands of years, stretching back long before Christianity arrived. According to lore, Saint Patrick spent 40 days fasting and praying at the summit in the year 441 AD. It’s also where he supposedly gathered all the snakes in Ireland and chased them into the sea.  Long before St. Patrick, the mountain was called Cruachán Aigli and was a major gathering site for the Celtic harvest festival of Lughnasadh.

My lunch consisted of a blueberry muffin and a berry blast smoothie from a coffee van while Richard had a sandwich back in Kiwi!
 
We set off for what, hopefully, was going to be our park up for the night.  It was a place called Silver Strand (beach). We arrived at quite a large car park with just two cars in it.   We could see Achill Island across Clew Bay - it was lovely.  A few more cars came and went until we were on our own, well surrounded by fields of sheep.
 

We took Rio onto the beach but sadly to get to the main beach we would have had to cross a fairly deep stream, if we had had shorts on then we could have done it but we were both wearing jeans.  Still there was a little beach which Rio had to make do with.

We had a rather nice sunset to watch 🌅
 

Monday 25th May
 
A great quiet night’s sleep - it’s just what I needed.

 
We were in no rush so it was about 11am when we set off.
 
Our plan for the rest of the trip is to follow the WAW as much as possible, but there are places that are really not accessible in a 7.5 metre motorhome, so they will be missed out. There are 188 Discovery points along the WAW and the plan is, before we leave one point, to set Mrs Google to the next one.  I don’t want to have my nose in my phone as we are driving along as some of the scenery is fantastic.

We drove along the edge of Lough Doo - the scenery was absolutely stunning. Jem says that the valley is one of the most hauntingly beautiful landscapes in County Mayo - it certainly is.  However, the valley is best known for a tragic event during the Great Famine. In March 1849, hundreds of starving people were forced to walk from Louisburgh to Delphi Lodge in freezing conditions to be inspected by local officials for famine relief. After being turned away empty-handed, many died of exhaustion, hunger, and cold on the return journey through the valley.  There is a simple stone cross on the roadside as a memorial to the Doolough Valley Famine Memorial. It bears a poignant quote from Mahatma Gandhi: "How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings?"

We drove on and found a coffee van beside the Lough. These vans are not the typical burger types of vans that you find parked up in British lay-bys. These seem to have a wonderful array of homemade cakes - there isn’t a fried egg in sight!  Today’s lunch was a toffee muffin with a peanut butter topping which I had warm. This is not going to be good for me!!
 
After the Lough we dropped  back down to sea level to Killary Fjord - a 10 mile stretch of water which separates County Galway and County Mayo.  The fjord is well known for its aquaculture with a salmon farm and mussel rafts.

Our next stop, only we didn’t stop, was Aasleagh Falls. Sadly, we missed the car park but you can still see the Falls from the road (I have borrowed a photo from the internet as I just couldn’t miss it out).

We stopped in a very small town called Leenane. It had a pub, a cafe, a gift shop and a very small grocery shop which sold the water and milk we wanted, so win, win!
 
We continued along the WAW passing Lough Fee and heading towards Renvyle. However, I saw, in the distance, a small peninsula with caravans on it, so we turned into the campsite, paid our money and “moored” up with a lovely view.

I am a planner and this trip is not going to be “planned” as such and driving into a campsite on a whim was certainly not on any agenda. I felt rather elated that I had managed to do something on the spur of the moment!
 
We took Rio for a walk on the beach which, of course, he thoroughly enjoyed.
 
An expensive site (£36) CD but, I guess, you pay for the view.

 
 
Tuesday 26th May
 
Another beautiful day but, sadly, the forecast isn’t too good.
 
We turned right out of the site onto the Connemara Loop heading towards Cleggan Harbour.   It is a Discovery Point but appears nothing special other than the pier was built in 1822.  The other reason the place is known is for a freak storm which in 1927 claimed the lives of 25 local fishermen.

We then drove to Claddaghduff where there is a tidal causeway over to Omey Island.  The tide was quite low but we didn’t really fancy it!    No one lives on the island now but for generations, Omey was a bustling community (home to over 400 people in the 19th century). However, its permanent population slowly dwindled over the decades. The island's last full-time, year-round resident was a well-known local named Pascal Whelan, a former Hollywood stuntman who lived there alone until his passing in 2017. 

The next excitement was to do the Sky Road Loop, a 10 mile circular loop. I’m still a bit confused as to which of three roads actually form the loop, but the view from the Discovery Point at the top was stunning.

We then went off in search of Lidl in Clifden, the first big town since Sligo.  It was a decent sized store though in Ireland alcohol is behind automatic doors which just open as you get there. There must be a good reason for it!  Well, there is, of course!  It is all due to Section 22 of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act, which officially came into force in Ireland in November 2020.  The core philosophy behind the legislation is that alcohol is not an ordinary grocery item. By forcing shops to hide it behind barriers or doors, the law aims to reduce impulse buying. If you want to buy alcohol, you have to make a conscious, intentional decision to walk through those doors to get it. I still don’t understand it though 😣
 
We were heading to Bunowen Bay but stopped off at Derrigimlagh Bog a vast, hauntingly beautiful blanket bog that is a major milestone site for world history. This single bog was the site of Guglielmo Marconi’s first commercial transatlantic wireless station in 1907, and it is also where Alcock and Brown crash-landed their plane in 1919, after completing the world's first non-stop transatlantic flight in 16 hours.  After landing, the aviators used Marconi’s nearby station to transmit the news of their triumph to London, effectively linking the two historic achievements of the site.  It is a 3 mile walk to see Marconi’s site and it is no dogs.
 
When we got to Bunowen Bay our stop for the night was to park against the harbour wall, a pretty amazing spot with a view over the bay and beach. We walked to the end of the pier and chatted with a local fisherman whose accent was so broad we could hardly understand him!

Also, from the van we could see the ruins of Bunowen Castle. It was built in the 16th century and was once the home of the “Pirate Queen”, Grace O’Malley and her husband Donal O’Flaherty. Sadly, in fell into a ruin after the Great Famine.

I’m going to try an experiment!  I keep being asked where we actually are so have decided to share our stop over What3words location.  If you have the app, by clicking on this link you should find where we were!
https://w3w.co/operate.shaming.tractors