ISLE OF PLENTY

CONNEMARA’S BIGGEST claim to fame for the past 68 years has been the John Wayne film The Quiet Man, and a whole tourism circuit revolves around it: walk the Quiet Man Bridge in Derryglinna; have a drink in Pat Cohan’s Bar in Cong, which featured in the movie; stay at Ashford Castle, which screens the movie weekly. But long before the area was associated with the film, it was known for sheep.

Connemara sits at the edge of the Atlantic, a hunk of land in County Galway whose headlands reach into the sea like gnarled fingers. It’s part of the rocky, rugged coast that Ireland’s tourism department has rebranded the Wild Atlantic Way. As you move inland from Galway Bay, the ground swells into neon-green