On the 23rd, we spent the late morning and early afternoon hiking a few small nature trails in Connemara National Park. Both the park and the roads were filled with beautiful Connemara ponies and blackfaced long-wool sheep. We had to drive carefully in fact, since the sheep and their lambs often liked to graze just off the road or cross it at their own pace.

We spent the evening in Cong after having some false starts finding a place to stay—the fishing season had started since the mayflies were beginning and Cong lay on a river between two lakes thus got trout, steelhead, and salmon. We toured the ruined abbey and (my favorite) the ruined monk’s fishing hut, a small stone building over the river with a slot in the floor with the water running underneath to put a net down. It also had a fireplace so the fishing monk could stay warm on chilly days. We also visited the dry canal, a 4-mile structure built during the famine that was completely non-functional after three years of labor when they discovered that limestone is porous and water soaks completely through.