The Gems of Clew Bay

We headed north from Inishbofin towards Clare Island, leaving Inishturk and its population of fifty hardy souls close to port and wishing we had the time to dally there. But we were (as ever) constrained by a bus schedule at Westport so pushed on. The sun came out as we rounded the western end of Clare Island and closed in as far as we dared to enjoy the spectacular cliffs and one of the largest gannet populations in Europe. Their formation low flying has always reminded me of a Navy Buccaneer Squadron.. until they suddenly haul up to 100 feet or so and dive vertically into the sea in pursuit of some mackerel foolish enough to let the light catch his scales for a split second. Gannets have specially strengthened skulls to cope with the repeated impact damage of hitting the water at breakneck speed…

The north corner of Clare Island is dominated by a fine lighthouse complex overlooking Achill Island and Clew Bay, before the land slopes down towards some fish farms off Portlea and then you round the corner to the harbour, dominated by Granuaile’s Castle and the mountain behind it.   Grace O’Malley was a sixteenth century pirate queen whose dynasty dominated western Ireland in the 1500s. Despite having an elder brother, it was Grace who ruled the roost and when the English captured her sons, she turned up at Queen Elizabeth’s court at Greenwich to bargain for their release. A fearless leader, politician, pragmatist and seafarer, she must have been some woman – and a brilliant role model. She built a fine castle, anyways (as the Irish might say).

We picked up a mooring as we were only going to stop for lunch and by mid-afternoon we were underway again heading down to the eastern end of Clew Bay and the fine city of Westport, County Mayo.

Croagh Patrick dominates the skyline to the south as you approach Westport. It’s an important pilgrimage site, as Saint Patrick spent forty days stuck on the top of it… as it spends most of the time shrouded in mist you can only have some sympathy for the poor man. He was – and is – an inspirational figure for Ireland and the Irish diaspora worldwide and there has been a small church on the summit of his mountain since the fifth century, maybe earlier. The spiritual qualities of the place stretch back to Neolithic times and there is some fine Bronze Age rock art up there alongside the Christian site and somebody discovered gold there in the 1980s. Mining is forbidden, quite rightly. Some 40,000 pilgrims climb the mountain every year and I’m certain their spiritual revival is aided by the breathtaking views over Clew Bay with it’s rash of more than islands formed from a hundred drumlins –  islands formed from a combination of glacial erosion on sedimentary rocks. I don’t really understand the geology – but the results are spectacular. If you look at them on a chart, you’d never go anywhere near the place, but in reality there’s plenty of room and the channels are well marked. There’s a fine lighthouse at Inishgort which marks the main entrance to this maze of islands and we threaded our way through a succession of idyllic-looking anchorages into Collanmore harbour and Rosmoney – the home of the Mayo Sailing Club. Here, there are a collection of moorings, including some for visitors, but we chose to anchor in the deep pool just north of Rosmoney Point. From here, it was a short dinghy ride to the slipway and pier at the sailing club, where you can take a taxi into town. The club was shut, but it didn’t matter – the evening sunshine brought out the colours in the landscape and we enjoyed a drop of Redbreast 12 year old malt as our visitors John and Sue contemplated the bus to Galway…