Tere!
Sightseeing is a must-do on a trip! On the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, since my boyfriend and I stayed in a few different towns, I decided to write articles about sightseeing depending on the county where we went.
In this article, I focus on County Galway. This is about Galway as a county, so it’s not just about the city centre of Galway.
(By the way, because it was Galway, I played Ed Sheeran’s “Galway Girl” on YouTube for my boyfriend who didn’t know this song at the accommodation. He immediately disliked it, but enjoyed Galway itself. 😂)
Table of Contents
1. Around Barna where we stayed
2. Village called Tawnamachugh which I chose just because of the name
3. Long-cherished dream: going to Gaeltacht
4. City Centre of Galway
a. Galway Cathedral
b. Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland
5. Moycullen
6. Connemara National Park recommended by an Irish man born and raised in Galway
★Summary
1. Around Barna where we stayed
First of all, let’s talk about Barna. Barna itself has nothing. There are only a few supermarkets, pubs and restaurants. However, there is a wharf called “Barna Pier”, and you can take a walk near the bay. The wharf faces Galway bay, and if you can see some land in the opposite of Barna, that’s the mainland of Irelnad. It belongs to County Clare. Unfortunately, it’s not Aran Islands…
2. Village called Tawnamachugh which I chose just because of the name
Since my boyfriend said he wanted to drive somewhere not around Barna but a bit far from Barna, I randomly looked for a place on the map, and selected a town called Tawnamachugh.
The reason why I chose this area is because
Its name didn’t sound English.
It took us 20 minutes by car from the accommodation in Barna.
You will suddenly see more countryside, so if you feel you don’t have enough fuel in your car, I would recommend you fill the tank before going there. Hydration for your body as well. When you look at Tawnamachugh on the map, you can guess there is nothing from some point, so be careful.
Also, something very inconvenient in Tawnamachugh was that we could not connect to the internet!!!
Often in this area, either of our devices was connected with the internet, but because of this, even though I wanted to help him while he was driving, I was not able to do that.
The seaside in Tawnamachugh was like a combination of the grass field and beach with rocks. There were few people, and if you see someone, they are probably locals, not tourists.
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After a while, one idea crossed my mind….
3. Long-cherished dream: going to Gaeltacht
I had this idea on the way to the accommodation from Tawnamachugh;
we were in Gaeltacht.
Gaeltacht is an Irish-language area, where signboards and so on are written in Irish. Hence surely the mainly spoken language there is Irish.
If you look at the map below (marked in green), you see some parts of Galway and county Mayo are Gaeltacht.
I noticed that signboards are written in Irish only in Tawnamachugh, and since I had some knowledge about Ireland, I wondered “we were in Gaeltacht weren’t we?”.
In fact, I wanted to visit Gaeltacht once in my life, so it was pleasant to go there though it was so sudden.
I wished I could have tried my Irish. (I remember only “How are you?” and “I’m good” in Irish though. 😂)
4. City Centre of Galway
When you go to Galway, most likely you will go to the centre of Galway won’t you. In our case, we went to only two places in the centre of Galway.
a. Galway Cathedral
I found the Galway Cathedral on the map, so we decided to visit there.
The Galway Cathedral was quite big, had beautiful stained glasses, and was more gorgeous than I thought. There is a car park in the Galway Catherdral’s area, and it didn’t cost us at all as we didn’t stay there so long.
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Next to the Galway Cathedral there is another car park, but it seemed to be for those who stay there for a long time like a few days, so we didn’t use it.
b. Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland
Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland is technically located not in the centre of Galway but in Salthill which is around the centre of Galway.
Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland has a free car park, but the vehicle height is limited.
A ticket for one adult at Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland was 16 EUR.
If you imagine splendid aquariums like what we have in Japan, you will be shocked. 😂
This is because this aquarium just looks like a collection of fish in a bunch of water tanks. Only the jellyfish section had similar stuff to what I imagined.
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I enjoyed Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland though. ✌️
5. Moycullen
We were discussing where to go after Galway Atlantaquaria, National Aquarium of Ireland, and we decided to go to Moycullen. I reckon it took us 10 to 15 minutes by car from the centre of Galway.
My boyfriend decided to go to Moycullen, and this is a very small countryside town. There seemed to be some small museums, but he was not interested in such things in general. Instead, he likes taking a walk in the woods, etc. However, at that time it was showering unfortunately.
I found a place called Fairy Trail, but we had no idea where it was. He was just randomly driving, getting tired, so he stopped a car in a pub’s car park.
Then I took him for a short walk as his tiredness provoked his irritability. 😅😅
However, we eventually realised that the area seemed to be private, so we went back to the centre of Moycullen, and took some break in a cafe there. I think there is nothing to do if it’s raining and you don’t want to spend more than 15 EUR or something for activities in Moycullen.
There are outdoor activities and something fun, but it quite costs.
6. Connemara National Park recommended by an Irish man born and raised in Galway
Connemara National Park was our first destination on the way to the accommodation in Mayo from Galway. My Japanese friend A’s husband is from Galway, and he told us about Connemara National Park.
There is no admission fee, and the area is impressively vast. I think it will take a few days for hiking there. It was not very easy to find the entrance for parking, but not too difficult either.
It was raining, and chilly, so we didn’t stay there long, but we took a short walk. The we found:
Goat!? 🐐
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We stepped forward, and found another one.
Later googling, the animals appeared to be Irish goats. I’m not 100% sure though. I’m not sure if they belong to some farmers or they are wild either.
Perhaps given that you go more forward, you might encounter more animals. (It seems there are livestocks in Connemara National Park too.)
Personally I want to go there again.
★Summary
In conclusion, these are places in Galway that we went to on the trip to Ireland in June, 2022.
Again, personally I enjoyed Connemara National Park best. It’s a national park located in an area without anything, but I believe it would be more fun when it’s sunny. I don’t like camping, but I realised I pretty much like hiking. Of course it depends on who I go with though.
There might be some buses to and from Connemara National Park as it is a national park, but it’s good to drive a car…
Aitäh! 🙂
zooks.ee 