Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A few years ago, valuable gold deposits were discovered within Croagh Patrick. Luck-
ily, public sentiment has kept the sacred mountain free of any commercial mining activity.
• Continue west on R-335.
Stretched out beside you is
Clew Bay,
peppered with more than 300 humpbacked is-
lands of glacial gravel dumped by retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age. A no-
torious 16th-century local named Grace O'Malley (dubbed the “Pirate Queen”) once ruled
this bay, even earning the grudging respect of Queen Elizabeth I herself with her clever
exploits. John Lennon later chose Dorinish Island to found a short-lived hippie commune.
He bought it in 1967 for £1,700; after his death Yoko Ono sold it for £30,000 (which she
then donated to an Irish orphanage).
• Passing through Louisburgh, you'll turn south to enter some of the most rugged and des-
olate country in Ireland.
Signs of human habitation vanish from the bogland, and ghosts begin to appear beside the
road. About 13 kilometers (8 miles) south of Louisburgh, stop at the simple gray-stone
cross on the left. The lake ahead is Doo Lough (Irish for “Black Lake”). This is the site of
one of the saddest famine tales.
