Crois Mhaolíona · Co. Mayo
The Deel runs through the middle of town and into one of Ireland's great wild trout loughs.
Crossmolina — 'cross of the bare hillside' — is a market town in north Mayo that most people pass through on the way somewhere else. That is their loss. The town sits on the River Deel, two kilometres north of where the river opens into Lough Conn, and the combination of river and lough defines everything: who comes here, what they do, and how long they stay.
Lough Conn is one of Ireland's serious fishing loughs. Eleven kilometres of water, wild brown trout running to several pounds, salmon on the Deel and in the lough itself, and a mayfly season in late May and early June that draws anglers from Britain and further. The fishing is boat-and-ghillie territory — you hire a local man who knows where the fish are and what fly they are likely to take. This is not a sport for the impatient, and the people who come for it do not want it to be.
Enniscoe House sits on the Lough Conn shore a few kilometres south of town, on an estate that has been in the same family — the Caulfields — for over two hundred years. The current owner, Susan Caulfield, is related by descent to Seamus Caulfield, the archaeologist who spent decades excavating Céide Fields on the north Mayo coast. The house does B&B. The estate grounds include walled gardens and the North Mayo Heritage Centre, which runs a serious genealogy service — north Mayo families who emigrated to North America have been finding their people here since the 1990s.
The town itself is a working north Mayo market town. A main street, a few pubs, a GAA club. The Deel Riverside Walk goes along the bank within the town boundary — flat, easy, and useful if you have eaten too much dinner and need somewhere to put it. North of Crossmolina, the land opens toward the Erris Peninsula and Bangor Erris. South, Foxford is twenty minutes on the N26.