My hotel was a little way from the city centre so I enjoyed a ~20min walk into town looking for coffee. There were quite a few interesting houses along the main road, and a wonderful bluestone wall.

I found a coffee shop called Little Lane Coffee Company. I got a coffee, a piece of banana bread, and treat myself to a beanie. It was freezing and blowing a gale and my head was freezing. Sadly, the beanie slipped out of the pocket on my backpack in the overhead locker on QF2 when I moved seats while boarding in Singapore … I have looked into getting a replacement, but shipping was 3x the price of the beanie 😆

I continued wandering around the old town and made my way down towards the docks, where it was even colder and windier.

I got there just as the museum opened, so I popped in if for no other reason than to get out of the wind for moment. They had some information in the entry about Galway and the area, but not much more and as much as I enjoy dinosaurs or the water cycle I wasn’t that interested in generic museum stuff I can see back home.

I followed the cannel up and around toward Nun’s Island where the cathedral is. I did a lap around to the side entrance. It was starting to rain a little so I popped inside. They were about to begin midweek mass, I made to step back outside to wait for it to finish so I could look around inside, but they said I could just take a seat with everyone else, so I did.

The collection of people sitting off the side was extremely varied. Mid-week mass was clearly time for extended families to meet and take communion. There were a few small kids excitedly running between groups of adults.

As with all Catholic masses, the words were spoken, the actions performed, everyone who chose to lined up to take the wafers and the wine. Once it was over I was free to roam around.

After walking around for a while I decided it was time to leave. I got outside to find it was now raining quite hard but headed back to the centre of town looking for food. I found a pub that was opening up, it was still just before midday. I got a table and ordered the stew.

Aughnanure Castle

In the afternoon I decided I wanted to go find a castle, or something equally as old. Maps told me about one around 30min drive away, so I packed my gear into a backpack, and made sure I had my warm beanie.

The carpark is surrounded by a few of fields a little walk away.

Aughnanure Castle was built in the 15th century by the O’Flaherty Clan but the area dates back to the 12th century and the tower house was first built in the 1490s. Inside the gates was a little demountable building with a friendly local. I paid for entry and got a little booklet thingy.

It started to rain harder, conveniently there was a large tower I could go inside to avoid the worst of it. The restorations had also added some heating, so it wasn’t bitterly cold inside. There are six floors and a spiral staircase. On the lower floors were displays explaining the building and the area.

After looking around for a while and hiding from the worst of the rain inside I headed back to the car. I decided to explorer further down the road.

It was still a little drizzly, but the greens and browns and yellows looked amazing.

I stopped outside Joyce’s Craft Shop. Across the road was a concrete statute, the ‘Connemara Giant.’ The craft shop built in 1999 “for no particular reason.”