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PONTOON

CO. MAYO · IE

Pontoon
Pontún, Co. Mayo

The Wild Atlantic Way
STOP 06 / 06

Pontún · Co. Mayo

A narrow neck of land between two lakes, an angler's name for over a century, and two grand hotels now closed to the public.

Pontoon is a place more than a village. It is the narrow neck of land where Lough Conn and Lough Cullin almost touch, near Foxford in central Mayo, with the R310 and the bridge running across the gap between them. There is no main street, no square, no shop you can count on. There is water on both sides, woodland on the slopes, and a road that most people are driving through on the way somewhere else.

The name is the bridge. A crossing was built here on the old mail line, rebuilt in 1925 as a single span over the channel that links the two lakes. When the workers were digging the foundations they turned up a bronze rapier in near-perfect condition, dated to the Middle Bronze Age around 1200 BC; it went to the National Museum. People have been using this crossing for a very long time. The water under it does something strange - it runs one way into Cullin, then the other way back into Conn, depending on the levels. The Geological Survey lists Pontoon Bridge as a geoheritage site for exactly that.

What Pontoon is famous for is fishing. Conn and Cullin are part of the Moy system - wild brown trout, a good run of spring salmon and grilse, the Pontoon Bridge salmon pool right at the channel. For a century the trade ran through two hotels on the lakeshore. Both are closed to the public now. The Pontoon Bridge Hotel, rebuilt and extended in 2006, has housed Ukrainian refugees under a government contract since 2022 and has not reopened to visitors. Healy's Hotel, an old haunt where Padraig Pearse once stayed, burned and fell derelict; a redevelopment got planning permission but stalled. Be honest with yourself before you come: there is no pub to fall into here and, at the time of writing, no hotel taking guests.

So come for the light and the water, not the hospitality. The forest and lakeshore walks are genuinely good, the small sheltered beaches are real, and the drive over the neck with a lake on either hand is one of the better short stretches in Mayo. Bring your own lunch. Base yourself in Foxford, Ballina or Castlebar - all about twenty minutes off - and treat Pontoon as the view, the cast and the walk, which is what it has always really been.

Population

A scattered lakeside settlement, well under 200

Walk score

Forest tracks and lakeshore, not a street to stroll

Founded

A crossing point named for its bridge; Bronze Age finds nearby (c. 1200 BC)

Coords

53.9736° N, 9.2117° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The neck

A strip of land between Lough Conn and Lough Cullin, carrying the R310.

Pontoon is not a village in the street sense. It is the narrow ground where two big Mayo lakes nearly meet, with the road and the bridge threaded between them. Conn to the north, Cullin to the south, joined by a short channel under the bridge.

Stories & lore → 02 The water

The channel under the bridge runs both ways, depending on the lakes.

The short stretch of water linking Conn and Cullin reverses direction with the levels. Antiquarians wrote about it; the Geological Survey lists Pontoon Bridge as a geoheritage site. It is the small marvel that put the place in old guidebooks.

Stories & lore → 03 The fishing

Salmon and wild brown trout on the Moy system. This is why anyone knows the name.

The Pontoon Bridge salmon pool, the inflow from Conn, the run of spring fish and grilse on the Moy system. Pontoon has been an angling address for generations. Most of what survives here survives because of the lakes.

On the water →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

A crossing with a name

The two lakes and the bridge

Pontoon takes its name from the bridge that carries the road across the narrow channel joining Lough Conn and Lough Cullin. Samuel Lewis recorded a bridge here in 1837, built on the new mail line toward Sligo. The structure you cross today is largely the 1925 rebuild - a single span over the gap, since widened and tarred so that an older arched crossing is now buried beneath the surface. North of the bridge is Conn, the larger lake; south is Cullin. Stand on the parapet and you are standing on the thin seam between two of the biggest sheets of water in the county.

A geoheritage curiosity

The water that runs both ways

The short channel under Pontoon Bridge does not behave like a normal river. Depending on the relative levels of the two lakes, the water rushes through into Cullin, then at other times runs with equal force the other way into Conn. Nineteenth-century writers treated it as one of the marvels of the district, and the Geological Survey of Ireland lists Pontoon Bridge as a designated geoheritage site. It is a small thing, but it is the reason Pontoon turns up in old accounts of Mayo well before the hotels arrived.

Found in the foundations, 1925

The Bronze Age rapier

When the 1925 bridge was being built, the workers found a bronze rapier lying under several feet of overburden, in excellent condition. It was sent to the National Museum, where it was attributed to the Middle Bronze Age, around 1200 BC. A weapon that old, in that state, says the crossing here mattered to people three thousand years before the mail coaches. You will not see it at Pontoon - it is in Dublin - but it is worth knowing what came out of the ground you are driving over.

Pearse, weddings, and silence

The hotels that were

For most of the twentieth century Pontoon meant its hotels. Healy's, on the bank of Lough Cullin, was an ivy-strewn haunt of visitors and dignitaries - Padraig Pearse is said to have stayed - before fire and dereliction took it; a redevelopment scheme won planning permission in 2019 and then stalled. The Pontoon Bridge Hotel, built in the 1940s and rebuilt with a twelve-million-euro extension in 2006, ran over a hundred weddings a year in its prime. Since 2022 it has operated under a government contract as accommodation for Ukrainian refugees and has not reopened to the public. The shorter version: the famous beds of Pontoon are not, for now, beds you can book.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Pontoon lakeshore and forest tracks The woodland on the slopes above the road has tracks down to the shore of both lakes. Quiet, soft underfoot, good light through the trees in the morning and evening. There is no single waymarked headline trail - it is a matter of walking the forest roads and the shoreline as far as the ground lets you. Boots, not runners.

3-5 kmdistance

1-1.5htime

The bridge and the channel Park sensibly and walk out onto the bridge to look at the channel between Conn and Cullin. On the right day you can watch the current set one way through the gap. The salmon pool below the bridge is the named lie that anglers come for. Short, but it is the heart of the place.

1 km returndistance

20 mintime

The neck drive on foot Walk the R310 over the strip of land with a lake on each side. Traffic is light but real, so keep in. The reward is the rare sensation of having open water on both hands at once. Small sheltered shingle beaches appear along the way - one of the few places to actually sit by the water.

2-3 kmdistance

45 mintime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The salmon season is the reason. Spring fish on the Moy system, the lakes high and the woods coming green. The best months to see Pontoon doing the one thing it has always done.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Grilse run, long evenings, the lakeshore walks at their easiest. Bring everything you need with you - there is no shop or open bar to rely on at the bridge.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The light on Conn and Cullin in October is the photographer's reason to come. Quieter than summer, the woods turning, the water often glass-still at dawn.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, cold water, nothing open. Beautiful in a stark way if you want solitude, but come prepared and self-sufficient, and do not expect a warm room at the end of it.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a village with pubs and shops

There is no main street here, and at the time of writing no pub and no hotel open to the public. Pontoon is a crossing, two lakes and some woodland. If you want a meal and a bed, that is Foxford, Ballina or Castlebar, all about twenty minutes away.

Turning up to stay at the Pontoon Bridge Hotel

It has been in use as accommodation for Ukrainian refugees under a government contract since 2022 and is not taking holiday guests. Reopening to the public has been talked about and repeatedly pushed back. Check before you build a trip around it.

Hunting for Healy's Hotel

It is a derelict shell on the Lough Cullin shore, not a working hotel. A redevelopment got planning permission in 2019 and stalled. Worth a glance for the history, but there is nothing to walk into.

Coming if you do not fish, walk or photograph

Pontoon rewards exactly three things - a rod, a pair of boots and a camera. Strip those out and you are looking at a bridge between two lakes for ten minutes before you drive on. That is honest, not a complaint.

Getting there.

By car

Pontoon is on the R310 between Castlebar and Ballina, near Foxford. About 20 minutes from Castlebar, 20 from Ballina, roughly 15 north from Foxford. Ireland West Airport Knock is about 30 minutes. There is no real car park at the bridge, so pull in sensibly and do not block the road.

By bus

No scheduled service stops at Pontoon itself. The nearest bus links are at Foxford, Ballina and Castlebar; check TFI Local Link for rural routes in the area. In practice everyone drives.

By air

Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC) is about 30 minutes by car. Hire a car at the airport - you will need one for Pontoon and for the lakes.