The first walk in Ireland – quite a journey to get here. This is another SPR experience so we started at Millets Farm at 15.00 for the drive to Fishguard where we arrived over two hours before the 23.30 ferry. Luckily managed to sleep a bit during the crossing and then a four hour drive to Galway. Having dropped two members of the group in Galway we carried on to Spiddal where we would be camping for the week. An okay enough site but no overlooking the sea as described in fact 2 km from the village!
So having pitched tents and sorted out all our belongings three of us decided that we needed to walk and explore. Really pleased to have been joined on this trip by my elder son, Jack. Luckily down hill to the village, so we decided to explore along the coast line. First to the cove and beach area and then along across a river and to the pier which helped form a small harbour. Jack explored the beach a bit but Sheila and I started to go on further.
No real path but walking over round pebbles and down on the beach. The views are across Galway Bay which is a deep inlet so that you can see the opposite shore but mostly without too much detail. The beaches are quite sandy but not a huge number of birds or people!
You can also see out to the three islands that make up the Islands of Aran.
After a reasonable stretch along the shore line we decided to return to the village centre to find refreshment and book a table for the evening. it was then time to explore the shore in the opposite direction, again very few people even though it was the weekend and very reasonable weather. Having gone a kilometre or so we decided there was not too much more to see and took a detour to a craft village before returning up the hill to our campsite. Quite a busy road without a path for much of the way and much of it up hill.
We felt quite pleased that we’d made the effort and had walked about 12km altogether.
Marion's 50 Walk Challenge 