Day One

We depart for Hennigan’s heritage Farm located in unspoilt countryside overlooking Creagaballa Lake, located 6.5km from the workhouse at Swinford where thousands of people from the region died during the Famine. The centre is a new and unique initiative in County Mayo, and you can see and hear how this family survived on less than ten acres of bad land for nearly 200 years.

From Hennigan’s, it’s on to  the award winning Foxford Woollen Mills Visitor Centre. At the core of the centre is The Historical Woollen Mill Tour where you can step back in time to see how life was in Foxford in the1890’s. The tour also includes a visit to the working woollen mill where skilled craftspeople can be seen producing the world famous rugs, blankets and tweeds.

We continue on to Ballina, renowned as an angling centre, with excellent river, sea and lake waters within easy reach. The famous Ridge Pool in the town is one of the premier tourist attractions in Ireland.

Then on to the Céide Fields in North Mayo for a truly unique experience. For this is not just another archaeological monument or visitor centre. Here you can indulge yourself in a vast prehistoric landscape, a natural wild ecology of blanket bog, dramatic cliffs and coastline, and a much acclaimed building, which has received Ireland’s most prestigious architectural award.

The Céide Fields are the oldest known field systems in the world, over five and a half millennia old. It is a unique Neolithic landscape of world importance, which has changed our perception of our Stone Age ancestors. The remains of stone field walls, houses and megalithic tombs are preserved beneath a blanket of peat over several square miles. They tell a story of the everyday lives of a farming people, their organised society, their highly developed spiritual beliefs, and their struggle against a changing environment beyond their control. Visit the multi-award winning Centre, which has exhibitions, audio-visual show and tearooms and take a guided tour with professional guides and discover a buried wall for yourself using a centuries old method of probing.

The barony of Erris (from the word Iar Ros meaning the western promontory) is located in North West Mayo, with Broadhaven Bay to the north and the wild Atlantic to the West.  It is an area characterised by its spectacular scenery and unspoilt natural beauty. This consists of rugged cliffs along the north coast, beautiful and tranquil islands including the stags of Broadhaven, the Iniskeas, Duvillaun and Inisglora and miles of sandy beaches such as those of Portacloy, Rinroe, Doohoma, Elly and Mullaghroe.  Further inland is a vast area of Blanket bog, the largest such habitat in Europe.