Three of the seven places here sit within a few miles of each other in north Connemara. Connemara National Park covers around 2,000 hectares of bog, heath and woodland below four of the Twelve Bens at Letterfrack, and its set-piece is the waymarked Diamond Hill loop, 442m on a made path with Kylemore Abbey and the coast laid out below. Derryclare, in the Inagh Valley, pairs a 19-hectare oak wood with the lough and its pine-covered island; the nature reserve listing covers the same ground, a gentle lakeside walk under mossy sessile oaks where red squirrels have been reintroduced.
Two more sit on the edge of Galway city, both close to the Corrib. Menlo is the old Gaeltacht clachan of narrow, winding lanes that gave its name to Menlo Park in California, with the ivy-clad ruins of 16th-century Menlo Castle standing above the water. Dangan House at Upper Newcastle began as a 1684 Martin family seat and is now a family-run garden centre with tea rooms and an old walled garden to wander.
South of the city, Coole Park near Gort is free to walk: Lady Gregory’s estate lost its house in 1941 but kept the walled garden, the copper beech carved with the initials of Yeats, Shaw and Synge, and two waymarked woodland trails. The seventh, Killaclogher Bog north-east of Monivea, is a conservation designation rather than a visitor site, with no centre, no marked trails and wet, uneven ground.
Around 2,000 hectares of free-to-walk bog, heath and woodland under the Twelve Bens, with a made path up Diamond Hill to wide coastal views.
Native oak woodland beside a lough with a pine-covered island, a nature reserve with red squirrels, fly fishing and the classic Twelve Bens horseshoe start.
Nineteen hectares of sessile oak and mossy canopy on a gentle lakeside loop, with the Twelve Bens rising above still water.
A Gaeltacht clachan of narrow lanes on the city's edge, with the ivy-clad ruins of 16th-century Menlo Castle above the Corrib.
Lady Gregory's estate near Gort, free to walk, keeping the walled garden and the beech where Yeats, Shaw and Synge carved their initials.
7 of 7 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Letterfrack, galway
Connemara National Park protects around 2,000 hectares of bog, heath and woodland under four of the Twelve Bens, all free to walk. The set-piece is Diamond Hill (442m), a waymarked loop with a made path to a summit that looks out over Kylemore Abbey and the coast. The visitor centre stands in the old buildings of the Letterfrack Industrial School.
Connemara, galway
Derryclare pairs a 19-hectare native oak woodland with a lough famous for the pine-covered island at its centre. It's a statutory nature reserve with reintroduced red squirrels, a fly-fishing lough, and the start of classic Twelve Bens horseshoe walks.
Inagh Valley, galway
A 19-hectare statutory nature reserve where sessile oaks shelter a reintroduced red-squirrel population. Walk a gentle lakeside loop beneath a mossy canopy, with the Twelve Bens rising above the still waters of Derryclare Lough.
Menlo, galway
Menlo is a Gaeltacht village of narrow, winding lanes on the edge of Galway city, the old clachan that Thomas Campbell Foster once called 'the most crooked, narrow and dirty lane' he had seen. Two emigrants are said to have named Menlo Park in California after it. Above the River Corrib stand the ivy-clad ruins of 16th-century Menlo Castle, home of the Blake family until a fire in 1910.
Gort, galway
Upper Newcastle, galway
Monivea, galway
← All things to do in County Galway
Book tours & tickets
We may earn a commission if you book through this link, at no extra cost to you.
Book tours, skip-the-line tickets and day trips with GetYourGuide. Free cancellation on most experiences.
See tours & tickets in County Galway →