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4 Day Tour of Connemara and tour of the best of remote Ireland
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From €2500 per person
This private four-day journey takes you through the wildest and least-visited stretches of the west of Ireland - Connemara, Achill Island, and the Mullet Peninsula. It’s genuinely remote country, and well worth the effort.
You’ll start in Connemara, where the combination of rugged mountains, glittering lakes and open bogland is unlike anywhere else on the island. Your first stop is Kylemore Abbey, a striking Gothic castle on the shores of Pollacapall Lough, with a Victorian walled garden that’s well worth a slow wander. Entrance is included in your tour price.
From Connemara, the route heads north to Achill Island. You’ll drive the Atlantic Drive along the coastline, and stop at Keem Bay - a sheltered horseshoe bay with turquoise water and golden sand that feels like it belongs somewhere much further south. It’s a genuine find.
The tour concludes on the Mullet Peninsula, where the land narrows to a thin strip between the Atlantic and Broad Haven Bay. Here you’ll visit SOLAS Aughleam, an interactive heritage experience exploring this area’s layered history, and take a boat trip to the Inishkea Islands, home to ancient ruins and a range of coastal wildlife.
This is a private tour, run entirely in English, and the pace is yours to set.
This tour runs with free cancellation, so you can book with confidence. It’s a private tour, available in English. Pushchairs and prams are welcome, and specialist infant seats are available. Service animals are permitted. The tour involves some moderate walking, so a reasonable level of fitness is helpful. It’s not recommended for travellers with spinal injuries.
Book accommodation ahead of time - this route is remote. The Connemara, Achill, and Mullet Peninsula areas have excellent places to stay but not many of them, and in summer they fill weeks out. Clifden is the main town in Connemara and makes a comfortable first-night base - it’s within easy striking distance of Kylemore Abbey and the Connemara landscape. E.J. King’s pub on the Square has trad sessions through the week and the kitchen runs until late. For the Achill leg, Achill Sound or Keel village on the island itself are the natural stops. For the Mullet Peninsula, Belmullet is the only real town - book early.
At Kylemore Abbey - allow more time than you think. The Gothic building on the lough shore is the famous image, but the Victorian walled garden behind it is a fifteen-minute walk up a wooded trail, and it’s where the serious story lives. The Benedictine nuns are still in residence. The café on site is useful for a mid-morning break before you head on into the mountains. Letterfrack is 10km east of Kylemore, where Connemara National Park headquarters sits. The Diamond Hill upper loop from the park visitor centre is a 7km walk to 442 metres, with Kylemore, the Twelve Bens and Killary Harbour all in view on a clear day.
On Achill Island - arrive at Keem Bay before noon. Keem is at the far western tip of the island, down a single-track road with passing places. After midday in summer the car park fills and the road backs up. Come early, have the bay to yourselves, and save the Atlantic Drive back along the coast for the afternoon light.
Weather on the Mullet Peninsula. This is one of the most exposed pieces of land in Ireland - the Atlantic pushes straight in from the west with nothing between it and North America. The Inishkea Islands boat trip is weather-dependent; your guide will know on the morning whether it’s running. Build in a flexible half-day here rather than treating it as a fixed schedule.
Driving the N59 to Connemara. The route from Galway to Clifden passes through Oughterard on the western shore of Lough Corrib - it’s the last proper village before the road opens into bog and mountain. Worth a coffee stop. If you have a free thirty minutes, Aughnanure Castle is 3km east - an O’Flaherty tower house from around 1500, run by the OPW, with a river gorge alongside that moves fast after rain.