The magnificent Killary Fjord

Join with me on this walk along a part of the magnificent Killary Fjord. Yes, the clouds are very threatening and this was to end up in a short rain storm just minutes later, but the results of the walk are telling. Below us here is one of Irelands big mussel farms and just behind is the sheltered harbour itself. The path on the right is an old famine relief road, built by cutting a terrace into the ground and laying stone. During the 1850s, tens of thousands of starving farmers worked on the road to earn a penny a day.

Killary Fjordr is Ireland’s only true fjord and extends 16km (10 miles) in from the Atlantic to its head at Aasleagh, below Aasleagh falls. It forms the border between Galway and Mayo and boasts some of the most spectacular scenery in the west of Ireland. It is a centre for shellfish farming, and strings of ropes used to grow mussels are visible for much of its length. Mussels and clams grown in Killary Fjord are sold at the Westport Country Market every Thursday morning.
To the north lies Mweelrea, the highest mountain in Connacht and County Mayo. To the south are the Twelve Bens and the Maumturk Mountains of Connemara. ~ www.destinationwestport.com