Claggan Mountain Bog Boardwalk

We decided to skip the Croagh Patrick hike today to spend more time at the Ceide Fields and the Dun Briste Sea Stack. Our first activity on the Claggan Mountain Bog Boardwalk was one that our guide, Diana, added just for us based on our interest in plant life and love of walking.

The very newly rebuilt 2-km out and back boardwalk makes for a lovely walk to see bog plants in this blanket bog environment in the Wild Nephin National Park. Blanket bogs form in cool, wet climates where the flat ground becomes completely saturated and the resulting peat builds up in layers because the plants decay so slowly without oxygen. Doing this walk before seeing Ceide Fields was very helpful in understanding these bogs.

Ceide Fields

Ceide (pronounced kay-jah) Fields is a Neolithic farming site that was discovered about 100 years ago while turf cutting. The dry rock walls (no mortar material) are in very straight, planned lines and cover large coastal areas of County Mayo. The build-up of the blanket bog over time has protected these structures. These are the oldest known system of fields in the world and predate the Pyramids and Stonehenge.

At the visitors center, some wall excavation is on display along with the methods used to map these walls, homes, animal paddocks, and tombs that date to 4000 BC. Some artifacts have been found like axe heads and a large arrowhead that, based on the materials, show these Neolithic farmers were traders with others on mainland Europe.

The guided tour around the visitors center trail outside was well worth our time. We were fortunate in that one started soon after we arrived so we didn’t wait long. Our guide, Ciara (KEER-uh), was very knowledgeable and talked of her family connection in that her dad and granddad were both turf cutters who came across rocks. She explained how the mapping was done without expensive RADAR or sonar equipment, and our friend Tony W demonstrated sticking the 2-meter rod down through the water-logged soil until it hit rock.

The visitors center is new and has several immersive displays including one room that uses multiple projectors to surround you with imagined life from the Neolithic time. There was one wall of poetry and descriptions, and I really liked this one:

“Once, sunlight began our day and darkness ended it. We lived to the rhythms of the natural world. And it gave us everything we needed. Then came the tyranny of the clock. We grew up indoors. We lost our way. It’s time to reconnect with our ancestors who lived here thousands of years ago. From the distant past, they can guide our future.”

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the tables outside before leaving this amazing place.

Down Patrick Head and Dun Briste Sea Stack

Our next stop was Down Patrick Head and Dun Briste Sea Stack. This site provided a dramatic view of the Atlantic Ocean along these high cliffs with a colorful, layered sea stack that has separated from the mainland. Legend says that St. Patrick himself caused the sea stack to form when he struck the ground with his crozier after a pagan chieftain refused to become Christian. The chieftain was then stranded on top of the sea stack. There is no fencing here other than the blowhole pictured below, so it feels very wild and visitors must be careful.

The ground at Down Patrick Head has a unique covering of mossy grass humps that Nancy and I found fascinating. This turf is soft and bog-like with very short grass and other ground-cover plants. Beautiful and hopefully sturdy as there are no paths for visitors to follow. Step gently 🙂

Sligo

A room with a view of the river was ours for the night at the Riverside Hotel in Sligo – very nice. There are many rowboats to be seen. With the rain amounts (350 days of rain/year), some bailing is required, but the boats can’t sink as the water is shallow.

We explored a bit of Sligo on foot. It seemed like a European town rather than an Irish village. It is larger than some of the previous places, and is a bit off the tourist path. We saw lots of families, groups of teenagers, and friends walking around and gathering in public spaces. The population is more diverse than we have seen elsewhere.

The outdoor photo display in Queen Maeve Square is the World Press Photo Exhibition 2026. This was the only Irish town to host this display. These pictures are very moving and tell compelling stories from around the world. As Tony W said, most were not stories of happiness, but it’s good to be reminded of our shared humanity and to feel compassion and empathy for those involved.

We tried to eat at a fancy pizza restaurant in town, but they were full with reservations. We walked back to the hotel, not finding much open on a Sunday night, and that was very fortuitous as it started pouring rain while we ate at The Mill Bar and Restaurant in the hotel. We had a perfect view of the river and the rain from our room, and it continued to rain all night.