Shore Excursion: Full-day Connemara National Park Self-Guided Tour.

Shore Excursion: Full-day Connemara National Park Self-Guided Tour.

This self-guided 1-day tour gives you an opportunity to explore a variety of nature walks in Connemara National Park located on the stunning Wild Atlantic Way route. The park covers some 2.957 hectares of scenic mountains, expanses of bogs, heaths, grasslands and woodlands. The Park's mountain's, namely Benbaun, Bencullagh, Benbrack and Muckanaght, are part of the famous 12 Bens mountain range. The Park offers safe and easy trails that allow the whole family to participate, to the challenging tracks and trails specifically for those who enjoy their walking.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Connemara National Park & Visitor Centre, Connemara National Park Connemara National Park Connemara, Co Galway Near the village of Letterfrack, Galway Ireland

Connemara National Park offers safe and easy trails that allow the whole family to participate and also includes the challenging tracks and trails specifically for those who are very serious about their walking. Spend a wonderful day outdoors and breathe in the pure, fresh Connemara air. The park also have a wonderful playground for smaller children. The playground features a variety of wooden equipment including see-saws, slides, chin-up bars, tunnel & playhouses. There are picnic tables with views of Diamond Hill and small woodlands are alongside the playground.

Arrive at Connemara National Park in Letterfrack in the morning and view an exhibition on the Connemara Landscape (multi-lingual) before experiencing an interesting Audio Visual Show (multi-lingual) at the visitor center.

After that explore the park and you can choose to walk any of the following nature trails: 0.5 km/0.3 miles - Ellis Wood Nature Trail, 1.5 km/0.6 miles - Sruffounboy Walk, 3.0 km/1.9 miles - Lower Diamond Hill Walk, and 3.7 km/2.3 miles - Upper Diamond Hill Walk.

With this package you get a voucher to have lunch at the Connemara National Park Tea Room, situated in the park. The lunch consists of a delicious homemade Soup of the Day, served with homemade brown bread, plus a freshly made sandwich (plain or toasted), with two fillings of your choice and tea or coffee.

After lunch it's suggested walking up Diamond Hill. The hike takes approximately 3 hours. On the various walks you can discover the parks fauna and flora. Western blanket bog and heath land are the predominant vegetation types to be found in the Park. Heather covers the mountain sides, with ling, cross-leaved heath and bell heather all very prevalent. Insectivorous plants form an integral part of the bog community. Sundews and butterworts trap and digest insects with their leaves to gain nutrients, which are in short supply in the bogs. Rare plant species from the colder areas of Europe and the Arctic may be found high up in the mountains, such as roseroot, purple and starry saxifrages, lesser twayblade, and mountain sorrel.

The bird life of the Park is varied and includes Meadow pipits, skylarks, stonechats, chaffinches, robins and wrens. Birds of prey are sometimes seen, usually kestrel and sparrowhawk, with merlin and peregrine falcon making occasional visits. Wild Red deer can be seen occasionally too. Rabbits, foxes, stoats, shrews, and bats are often observed at night. The largest mammal in the Park is the Connemara Pony. Although a domestic animal this pony is very much part of the Connemara countryside.

When you reach the top of the Diamond Hill you will witness stunning views across the National Park across to the 12 Bens mountain range, the village Letterfrack and the many islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Before ending the route breathe in the purest air of the wild west of Ireland!

Duration: 8 hours