Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [383]
Sleeping & Eating
Healy’s Restaurant & Fishing Lodge ( 094-56443; www.healyspontoon.com; Pontoon & Foxford; s/d from €55/70; ) The lakefront Healy’s upholds its tradition as an 1840s sporting lodge and rents boats and arranges fishing licences. In addition to its updated hotel rooms, basic self-catering accommodation is available. Two elegant dining rooms (open 8am to 8pm, to 9pm in summer) serve surf-and-turf classics (mains €15 to €30, set menu €45).
Pontoon Bridge Hotel ( 094-925 6120; www.pontoonbridge.com; Pontoon; s/d €104/158; bar food €4-10, restaurant mains €15-26.50; bar food 1-9pm, restaurant lunch Sun, dinner nightly; ) Positioned between Loughs Conn and Cullen, this family-run hotel gives you the feeling of being aboard a boat. Its genteel, champagne-coloured ‘Grace Kelly’ sitting room has some photographs of the actress who was a relative of the hotel’s owner. All 58 bedrooms are comfortable (try for one opening on to the panoramic timber deck), but you’re unlikely to spend much time in them given the activities on offer: cookery courses (€120 including lunch), painting classes (€95), a fishery school (from €95) and boat hire (with/without engine €40/60 per day; rod and waterproof hire available). Nonguests can also sign up.
Enniscoe House ( 096-31112; www.enniscoe.com; Castlehill; r €180-232, 2-bedroom apt per week €450-600, 3-bedroom apt per week €550-800; Apr-Oct; ) You can stay in the 1750-built, apricot-coloured Enniscoe House or settle into a self-catering courtyard apartment (also historic). Its Victorian walled garden is only a tiny portion of the sprawling estate, which includes wild woodland walks and large grassy expanses. Dinner costs €50.
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CASTLEBAR & AROUND
pop 11,891
Mayo’s county town, Castlebar (Caisleán an Bharraigh’s), sprawls just 19km east of Westport. As the county’s largest town, it’s a hub for shops and services, but most places of interest for visitors lie outside the town centre.
Castlebar’s place in Irish history was cemented in 1798, when General Humbert’s outnumbered army of French revolutionary soldiers and Irish peasants pulled off an astonishing victory here. The ignominious cavalry retreat of the British became known as the Castlebar Races.
Orientation & Information
Central Castlebar has a traffic-choked (and poorly signed) one-way road system. The main thoroughfare changes its name from Ellison St to Main St to Thomas St as you head north.
You’ll find banks with bureaux de change on Main St.
Tourist office ( 094-902 1207; Linenhall St, Castlebar; 9.30am-1pm & 2-5.30pm May-Sep) West off the northern end of Main St.
Sights
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF COUNTRY LIFE
This extensive museum ( 094-903 1755; www.museum.ie; Turlough Park, Turlough; admission free; 10am-5pm Tue-Sat, 2-5pm Sun) is not a nostalgic remembrance of a worry-free past, but nor is it a gloomy equivalent of Angela’s Ashes. A branch of the National Museum of Ireland (the other three are all in Dublin), rural traditions and skills celebrated here – from wickerwork to boat building – while not entirely obsolete, are certainly endangered. If there’s a point of view, it’s one of admiration for the resourcefulness, ingenuity and self-sufficiency of the Irish people. The exhibits concentrate on the period from 1850 to 1950.
The extensive lakeside grounds invite picnics, and part of Turlough’s 19th-century manor is open for snooping. The website posts schedules of demonstrations and workshops.
Follow the signs off the N5, 5km northeast of Castlebar.
TURLOUGH ROUND TOWER
With its single lofty window, this impenetrable 9th-century tower calls to mind the fairy tale of Rapunzel. The tower stands on a hilltop by a ruined 18th-century church, a short distance northeast of the National Museum of Country Life.
MICHAEL DAVITT MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Housed in a pre-penal church where the man himself was christened (and next to Straide Abbey, in which he was buried) is this small but passionate