IrelandUpClose

West of Ireland: Mayo/Galway: Killary Harbour.

A view of Killary Harbour at sunset with mist rolling in from the Atlantic. Mweelrea Mountain can be seen to the right of the image.

Killary Harbour is the only fjord in Ireland, carved out by glacial activity. It separates Mayo to the north (right of the picture) from Connemara in Galway to the south (left of the picture).

Mayo and Connemara have some of the most scenic landscapes and seascapes in Ireland and Killary Harbour is a fine example of this beauty.

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Killary-Harbour--W42829--Ireland-Photos--Galway.php

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Limerick-Lough-Gur--T2662--Ireland-Photos--Limerick.php Lough Gur in County Limerick and the surrounding land is of world-importance as an archaeological site. There are visible remains of six thousand years of human settlement, from Neolithic to Medieval times.

Lough Gur is also an important ecological area, botanically rich and a sanctuary for migratory birds.

Here is a bit of legend:

'The old folk had heard that night called All-Heal. They knew that if a sick person was not better by the eighth or ninth day of the moon he would hear Coolsidhe, The fairy music with which Aine the Banshee, spirit of Lough Gur, comforts the dying.

He would fall asleep to Suantraighe, the whispering song of sleep which Fer Fi plays on a three-stringed harp'.

An image of St Patrick looking out over the Boyne Valley at dawn from the monastery on the Hill of Slane.

http://www.irelandupclose.com/Image-of-Meath-St-Patrick-Hill-of-Slane--T14374--Ireland-Photos--Meath.php

The whole valley is a sea of mist. The hills in the far distance are the Dublin and Wicklow mountains. The trees peeping out of the mist in the middle distance are at the Neolithic site of Newgrange.