walking, cycling or on horseback. The environment offers many contrasts of terrain. Walk, cycle or trot along the many booreens or developed routes and experience first hand the living breathing bogland, machair and sand dunes, mountains and cliffs, sandy beaches and rocky coves but most of all fill your lungs with clean air from a pristine environment. Mayo offers a wonderful variety of short walks, hill walks and way marked trails. The terrain varies from level, to easy going to tough mountain climbing where specialist equipment is essential. Whatever you choose, the scenery is unfailingly stupendous and walks are almost always uncrowded. Stretching along the western coast for over 170km this way marked way takes the walker from the fjord of Killary Harbour at Leenaun on the Co. Galway border to the base of the Ox Mountains on the Co. Sligo border. The variety is tremendous as the route crosses rugged mountains, small roads and winding leafy lanes and forest tracks. The route enters the Mayo Gaeltacht region as it moves north and through the wild bog landscape through Erris and Tirawley until it reaches Ballycastle, near the 5,000 year old Céide Fields. A detailed map is available in local tourist offices. |