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Home Mayo Walks Nature Trail

Wildness on our doorstep

Nature is taking advantage of the absence of human activity during Lockdown; left unchecked by the hand of man there is an explosion of wildness even in urban areas like Ballina.

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Abbeys Home

Lockdown in Ballina

Foraging along the deserted banks of the River Moy, beneath the silent Cathedral belfry, life as normal continues for the piping waders, deaf to the struggles of the human world.

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Beaches Home

The joy of nature

The following lines from Shakespeare seem appropriate at this worrying and unprecedented time when self-isolation and entire continents in Lockdown seem our only defence against Coronavirus (COVID-19).

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Beaches Home

Stormy days and nights

It’s late February and a succession of storms has just swept across the Atlantic from Arctic Canada churning the vast ocean into a raging sea swell and sending gigantic waves thundering into the coast.

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Home Mayo Walks Nature Trail

A foggy sunrise

An early morning walk took me into a foggy, mysterious world of curious shapes, faint silhouettes and a monochrome, wintry landscape not yet warmed by the rising sun.

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Forest Walks Home

Holly berries in Brackloon

The walk through Brackloon Wood on an overcast winter morning with the ever-present threat of more rain indicated a brisk dash around the looped trail rather than our usual ramble and dally savouring the delights of nature.

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Erris Home

Rambling in Rossport

Hearing the happy hum of locals enjoying a celebration in front of Denny’s Ferry Bar in Rossport was an aural delight to complement the visual wonders that awaited as we began our ramble around this lovely North Mayo headland that looks out on the breadth of Broadhaven Bay. Facing the sea, and set in a […]

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Forest Walks Home Nature Trail

Blackberry picking in Ballycastle

My purple fingers gave the game away. The tell-tale signs of my blackberry picking on a sunny afternoon as I slowly feasted my way along the briers fringing a hilly boreen near Ballycastle.

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History Home Mayo Walks

Bridge over troubled water

Only the lyrical words of a poet could give meaning to the sad origins of Bunlahinch Clapper Bridge by the coast near Killeen, south of Louisburgh, a unique relic among Irish bridges and a reminder of a sad episode in Mayo’s tragic past.

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Beaches Home

Kites over Keel

A brisk south-westerly lifted the menagerie of cartoon character kites over the crescent of Trawmore strand in Keel.