Overview
Pontoon is a bridge and a scatter of buildings on the narrow neck of land that separates Lough Conn from Lough Cullin, on the R310 in north-east County Mayo. It has been an angling village for two centuries – the first inn here, the forerunner of the Pontoon hotels, was put up as a travellers’ stop by Richard Bingham, second Earl of Lucan, in the early 1800s. Foxford is five minutes down the road; Castlebar and Ballina are about twenty; Ireland West Airport Knock is half an hour.
It’s a base rather than a destination in its own right. The pleasures are quiet ones – a boat on the lough, a walk in the woods, the light changing over the water – so it suits people who want to slow down rather than tick sights off.
Angling
This is what Pontoon is for. Lough Conn and Lough Cullin hold wild brown trout, spring salmon and grilse, fished from the bank or, more usually, from a boat with a local ghillie who knows where the fish lie. The real prize is next door: Lough Conn drains into the River Moy, reckoned the most prolific salmon river in Ireland – in one exceptional season, 1996, rods took 12,305 salmon from it.
A few practicalities:
- Licence: salmon and sea trout need a State rod licence from Inland Fisheries Ireland, sold online and in local tackle shops.
- Seasons: salmon runs build from spring into autumn; wild brown trout fish well from the mayfly on.
- Boats and ghillies: worth hiring for a day if you don’t know the loughs – both save a lot of blank water.
Walking and driving
The Foxford Way, an 86 km waymarked loop around this corner of Mayo, contours the shores of both loughs and passes close to the village, and it breaks neatly into half-day sections. There are shorter forest and lakeshore walks nearer the water. A 9 km recreational trail linking Knockmore to Pontoon along the loughs has been studied and part-funded through LEADER, though at the time of writing it isn’t built.
If you’d rather drive, the Lough Conn Drive is a roughly 102 km loop of the whole lough, with the best light on the water early and late. Golfers are well placed too, with courses from Ballina and Enniscrone to Carne at Belmullet inside an hour.
Drummin Wood and the beaches
Lough Cullin has a string of sheltered beaches, and the most popular is at Drummin Wood on its shore – a lake swimming and picnic spot backed by trees, not the open Atlantic, so the water is calmer and the setting quieter. It’s a good option on a warm day when you don’t fancy the drive to the coast.
Where to stay and eat
Two hotels sit on the lakes. The Pontoon Bridge Hotel has lakeside rooms and a restaurant; Healy’s, the older of the pair on the Lough Cullin bank, has been closed for refurbishment after a fire, so check it’s reopened before you count on it. Otherwise, self-catering cottages ring the loughs and there are guesthouses in Foxford and Ballina.
Nearby
- Ballina – the “salmon capital”, twenty minutes off, with the Moy running through the middle of town.
- Foxford – home to the Foxford Woollen Mills and its visitor centre, five minutes away.
- Museum of Country Life – the National Museum’s folklife collection at Turlough, near Castlebar.
- Céide Fields – the Stone Age field system on the north Mayo coast, a longer run north.
- Knock Shrine – the pilgrimage site beside Ireland West Airport, about half an hour off.
Time a visit for mayfly season in late spring if you fish; otherwise come for a still evening, when both loughs go glassy and the only sound is a rising trout.