Westport, Ireland - May 12th to 15th, 2025

We originally picked out Westport as a destination for the sole purpose of cycling the Great Western Greenway. But we enjoyed exploring the town just as much as the bike ride. Ashford Castle was also a short drive away, where we had a reservation for a Hawk Walk with the School of Falconry there.

Monday was a drive day, from Doolin to Westport, both in Ireland. It was only a two and a half hour drive. After having one last wonderful breakfast at Doolin Inn, we hit the road. It was a pretty uneventful drive, going through several small villages and skirting around the city of Galway. After about an hour and a half, our bladders were asking for a bathroom break. We pulled into a Top gas station, just before the town of Headford.

The gas station had a little food counter called Mace. It looked decent enough, so we decided to have our lunch there. Ann had the sweet chili chicken wrap while Keith had the chicken Caesar wrap, both of which they heated up for us. There was even a little seating area to enjoy our sandwiches and bottles of ginger beer.

We arrived at Clooneen Guest House around 2 pm. We found a parking spot along the street right in front of the guest house. They already had our room ready, so we hauled our luggage up to it and relaxed for a little while.

The weather forecast had predicted rain that day, but we didn’t encounter any. It was overcast with occasional sunshine along with temperatures in the low teens Celsius (50’s Fahrenheit). We went for a stroll around town to stretch our legs and get some fresh air.

The town is larger than the ones we’ve been staying in lately. The main road through town is rather busy and noisy, but there is a large downtown area with lots of shops, restaurants, and several squares.

Adjacent to the town is Westport House estate. It is a large complex with walking trails, a campground, and a large house to tour. We walked around a little bit and added it to our list of things to come back to.

We checked out where the Westport Bike Hire was located, because we were booked on a shuttle for 9:30 am the next morning to bike the Great Western Greenway. It was a good thing we stopped in, because our names were missing from their list. We had booked the rental back in December and the reservation didn’t get written down in their book. That’s the second time that a reservation that we’ve made so far in advance has been lost (Kilkenny, Ireland - April 22nd to 25th, 2025). No harm done. Luckily, there was still room on the shuttle for us. If there hadn’t been, they would have arranged another form of transport for us.

For dinner, we ended up at J.J. O’Malley’s. Instead of eating bar food on the ground floor, we went up to the restaurant on the first floor (what Americans call the second floor). The restaurant had a nice atmosphere with lots of memorabilia to look at. Ann ordered the chicken and chorizo pasta while Keith had the spaghetti with tomatoes and bell peppers along with garlic toast. The pasta had a nice flavor, but Ann would have liked her sauce to be a little thicker because it didn’t really stick to the pasta. The garlic toast, although tasty, had no discernible garlic flavor to it. That was another disappointment for Ann, because she loves lots of garlic.

For dessert, Ann had the Eton Mess while Keith ordered the crème brûlée. Both of our desserts were served with what looked like a cherry tomato with a husk attached that looked like a tomatillo husk. The fruit tasted pretty tart. After a little research, we believe it was Peruvian groundcherry, goldenberry, or Cape gooseberry. It has been cultivated in England since the 18th century. And yes, it is related to the tomatillo.

Tuesday was our bike ride on the Great Western Greenway. After breakfast at Clooneen Guest House, we walked over to Westport Bike Hire, less than a ten minute walk. There we picked up our bike helmets and met the other four people on our shuttle. Two were from Australia and the other two were from England.

It was about a 40 minute ride to the other end of the greenway, in Achill. The Great Western Greenway is about 49 kilometers long (30 miles). We got started at about 10:20 am. As we took a little longer to get our bikes adjusted and to mount Ann’s phone mount on the handlebars, the other four people set out ahead of us and we didn’t see them the rest of the day.

The people we did see most of the day was a large group that was traveling together. It looked like it was some sort of school or youth group, as they all looked to be teenagers. They were all wearing high visibility vests, so they were hard to miss.

The trail goes through two towns along the way, Mulranny and Newport. In Mulranny, just off the trail is Number 9 Doherty’s Bar. We stopped there for refreshments. They were still serving breakfast and didn’t start serving lunch until 12:30 pm, so we ordered cream tea. Cream tea consists of tea and a scone with butter, jam, and clotted cream. Keith had a cappuccino instead of tea.

Although Doherty’s is not far off the trail, it is downhill from the trail. The hill was just long and steep enough to get our hearts pumping and our calves burning by the time we walked our bikes back up to the trail.

About half way between Mulranny and Newport, there is a side trail over to Nevin’s Newfield Inn. The English couple on the shuttle were talking about eating there previously. The restaurant is known for their robot waiters, which bring out your food. The sign for the side trail said it was only a four minute ride to the restaurant. Had we known that ahead of time, we might have skipped the stop at Doherty’s and gone to Nevin’s instead for lunch.

Since we were still full from our cream tea, we continued on to Newport. Once we reached town, the signs for the trail were a little sparse, but it basically goes right through town. Since there was no bike lane in the center of town, we walked our bikes along the sidewalk. After crossing the bridge, we stopped at Gráinne Uaile for lunch. We both had the grilled halloumi salad and split an order of crispy duck spring rolls. Halloumi is a type of cheese from the Eastern Mediterranean, with a squeaky texture. The food was pretty tasty.

The section of the trail from Newport to Westport was our least favorite. The trail follows alongside the N59 highway, with its noisy traffic, for quite a while. As we entered Westport, we lost the trail, but still managed to find our way back to the bike shop to return our bikes around 4 pm.

According to our tracking with our AllTrails app, we rode 44 kilometers (27.4 miles) with an elevation gain of 543 meters (1782 feet), which we completed in five and a half hours (including stops). The trail was nicely paved most of the way, with wonderful views of the surrounding mountains, bay, bogs, and pastures.

The scenery, although beautiful, was not what we expected. For some reason, we were expecting dramatic coastal views, like the stunning coastline we had experienced on the Kerry and Dingle peninsulas and the Aran Islands. The views were pretty, but we wouldn’t classify them as dramatic or stunning. According to the Great Western Greenway website, the trail was voted one of the top three cycle trails in the world. We haven’t been on that many trails around the world, but we probably wouldn’t rate it that high. Of the ones we’ve been on, we would rate Glenwood Canyon Recreation Trail in Colorado higher than the Great Western Greenway, but it is only half the length. We would still recommend riding the Great Western Greenway as it is a nice ride, especially if your expectations are set properly.

After cleaning up back at the guest house, we went to the Everest restaurant for dinner. It is an Indian restaurant in what looked like an old church. We both had the chicken tikka masala with rice and garlic naan. Before our meal, they brought out some papadam with three different sauces. One sauce was spicy, another was sweet, and the third was some kind of mint. Papadam is black gram bean flour cooked with dry heat until crunchy. The texture is sort of like Chinese crispy noodles, but without the oil. The tikka masala was a little sweeter than what we’ve had before in the States. However, the garlic naan did have a mild garlic taste to it, unlike the garlic toast we had the night before.

To drink, Keith had a Cobra lager. The Cobra brewery was founded in London in 1989. Their lager is based on a traditional Indian blend of barley malt and yeast, with maize, hops, and rice. It is known for being smooth and less gassy. Ann liked the pretty glass it was served in.

We’ve noticed that most restaurants list the common allergens in each of their menu items, using a numbered code. We thought that the 14 allergens were listed in a standard order, but the allergen list at the Everest was in a slightly different order. So if you have food allergies, just pay attention to the codes for the restaurant you are in. We’ve also noticed that many waiters will ask you if you have any food allergies.

After dinner, we walked over to the SuperValu grocery store to pick up some needed supplies, like dental floss, deodorant, and super glue. Along the way, we noticed that the Porterhouse had live music playing. We thought that most of the places didn’t start their live music before 9 pm. However, the English couple we met that morning told us that several pubs have an early session most evenings, such as Matt Malloy’s. We were too tired to stop and listen to the music, but we made a note of it to come back on Thursday evening.

Wednesday, we spent the day at Ashford Castle. The castle was initially built in 1228 and was expanded several times over the years. It was owned by the Guinness family from 1852 to 1939. In 1939, it was turned into a hotel and has been a hotel ever since. It is currently a five star hotel, with a golf course, spa, tennis courts, and estate gardens and grounds. But we weren’t there to rent a room. We came for the Hawk Walk at the estate’s School of Falconry.

It was about a 40 minute drive from Westport to Ashford Castle. Our falconry reservation wasn’t until 3:30 pm, but we arrived at the castle around 11:30 am. The man in the top hat greeted us at the entrance gate, looked up our names, and let us in. We parked in the visitor parking lot near Mrs. Tea Boutique and Bakery, on the east side of the Cong canal.

Since we had a Hawk Walk reservation, we were allowed to walk around the grounds of the estate, as long as we stayed away from the entrance of the castle, as that area was reserved for hotel guests only. We walked around for about an hour, before returning to Mrs. Tea’s. The castle is pretty impressive from the outside.

We hung out at Mrs. Tea’s for a few hours, sitting outside on the patio, enjoying the wonderful weather, watching the players on the golf course. First we drank a cappuccino and a tea paired with a croissant and a pain au chocolat. Ann has a hard time passing up a pain au chocolat when she sees one. A flaky pastry with chocolate inside, what’s not to love?

A little later, we had a couple of popsicles. Ann got the mango flavor while Keith ate the Ninety Nine flavor. We’re not sure what the 99 means, but the ingredients listed were Cadbury’s chocolate flake, vanilla ice cream, and crushed wafer cone.

Then we sat some more, watching the birds come by to peck crumbs off the ground, and a cat that kept walking by. Our last treat was two bottles of Bundaberg ginger beer. So far, it seems like there are two popular brands of ginger beer. One is Bundaberg from Australia. The other is Fentimans from England. It had been a little while since we had a Fentimans, but, from what we remember, the Bundaberg ginger beer is a little sweeter and Fentimans is a little spicier, with a little more “bite”. We haven’t decided which one we like better yet, but we’re leaning towards Fentimans.

As we were drinking our ginger beer, Keith heard a faint sound of bells. Then we realized it was coming from a bird flying overhead. It was a falcon. Then we saw the falconer standing over by the golf course, swinging the lure around on the end of a cord. The falcon sat on the roof of the thatched cottage across the street from Mrs. Tea’s for a little while before going after the lure again. The bird finally caught the lure.

We found out later that the falcon was a peregrine falcon named Ted. Bells are attached to the bird’s feet so the falconers can spot the birds easier. Falcons need more open space to fly and are not very well suited for flying in the woods. They are built more for speed. The lure is made of leather, sometimes with feathers or wings attached, somewhat resembling what a falcon would like to hunt for, smaller birds. The falconer swings it around to attract the falcon and tries to keep the bird from catching it for a while, to give the bird exercise and hone its hunting skills. At the end of a session, the falconer will let the bird catch it, then reward it with food.

It was now about time for our Hawk Walk, so we walked back over to the School of Falconry, about a ten to fifteen minute walk from Mrs. Tea’s. Our experience was wonderful. Our falconer for our walk was Alyse (we’re not sure how her name is spelled). She started off with some simple explanations and information and showed us some of the birds they have housed at the school. Then Alyse fetched the bird we would be walking with. Our bird was a Harris hawk named Samhradh, the Irish word for summer.

Ireland’s School of Falconry at Ashford Castle is the oldest falconry school in Ireland, founded in 1999, but falconry in Ireland goes back to the 7th century or further. Falconry is a partnership between a falconer and a bird of prey. The falconer provides shelter, protection, and easy food for the bird. In exchange, the bird hunts animals for the falconer.

First Alyse attached the GPS transmitter to the hawk’s leg. Sometimes the birds don’t want to return to the falconer, so they want to be able to track their location. Occasionally, birds will stay away overnight or even as long as several days, but they usually come back, if they can find their way.

For hawks, the falconer uses a protective glove for the hawk to perch on and receive its reward of food. There are two leather straps attached to the bird’s legs that the falconer can hold onto to prevent the bird from taking off. After securing the GPS transmitter to Samhradh, Alyse transferred the hawk over to Ann’s glove and had Ann grasp the leather straps inside her closed fist. Then we walked out of the school and into the woods.

Once we reached where Alyse wanted Samhradh to fly, she had Ann open her fist. The bird, even though he knew he was now free to fly, stayed on Ann’s arm for a little while before taking off. Perhaps he was just checking Ann out.

To call the bird back, all Ann needed to do was raise her glove up, just a slant above her elbow and Alyse would place a little treat on top of Ann’s fist, on top of the glove. When the bird decided he wanted the treat, he would fly back and land on Ann’s arm and take the treat. Then when Samhradh wanted to, he would fly away again, usually up to a tree branch. Sometimes he would come back right away when Ann raised the glove, but sometimes he would wait a little while.

About half way through our walk, it was Keith’s turn to wear a glove and have Samhradh land on his arm. As we walked through the woods, feeding the bird with treats, Alyse would feed us with a lot of interesting information about birds of prey and their behaviors, and about falconry. At one point, Samhradh spotted a mouse at the base of a tree, snagged it and ate it almost faster than we could notice what was going on. As he was eating the mouse, he fanned out his wings and tail, protecting his prey from others who might try to steal it. This behavior is called mantling.

We learned that the birds don’t actually eat their prey right away. They store the food in a pouch located in their esophagus called the crop. After the birds are done hunting, they will later find a safe place to go to digest their food. So by the time our Hawk Walk was over, we could see the bump on the front of Samhradh’s neck where he was storing his food.

After Samhradh’s last flight, Alyse gave him a large treat. Then Keith held the leather straps as we walked back into the falconry school. After returning Samhradh to his girlfriend in their cage, Alyse took us around to the rest of the birds in the school.

We were introduced to Ted, the peregrine falcon we saw earlier over by Mrs. Tea’s. He decided it was hot out and had fully emerged himself in his container of water. By the time we saw him, he was still soaking wet, spreading out his wings and trying to dry off in the sun.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Alyse and all the birds. It was such a great experience and we learned a lot. It is something we would highly recommend to everyone.

Afterwards, we strolled back over to Mrs. Tea’s. We had dinner reservations for Cullen’s at the Cottage for 5:45 pm. Cullen’s at the Cottage is the restaurant inside the thatched cottage across the street from Mrs. Tea’s. We were about a half an hour early. Mrs. Tea’s was closing up, but we were still able to sit on the patio outside until our dinner reservation.

Dinner was nice, but a little more expensive than the places we had been eating lately. Ann had the rotisserie chicken with broccoli slaw, fries, and péri péri sauce. Keith had the rib eye steak with triple cooked chips (fries). He couldn’t decide whether he wanted the peppercorn sauce or the garlic butter sauce, so he had both. Ann never had péri péri sauce before, but had seen it on quite a few menus in England and Ireland. The spicy sauce is made with red chili peppers (péri péri peppers). Ann found it very tasty.

For dessert, Ann had the profiterole with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce while Keith had the vanilla custard tart with blood orange sorbet. A profiterole (also called a cream puff) is a French pastry usually filled with custard or cream. However, this version was filled with ice cream. Both desserts were a great way to end a great meal.

Thursday we explored Westport. First we walked over to the Westport House and went on a guided tour at 10 am. It was well worth our money and time. The house was initially built around 1730 by John Browne, the 1st Earl of Altamont. Several additions were built over the years. The Brownes are direct descendants of Grace O’Malley, the Irish Pirate Queen. In the 1960’s the Brownes turned the property into a tourist attraction. A campground was added. Attractions included things like carnivals. The Brownes sold it to the Hughes family in 2017, as they could no longer afford to maintain it. Almost all of the items inside the house are original acquisitions of the Browne family.

The house is open for self-guided tours during the day, with three guided tours per day. However, it will be closing in August 2025 for major restoration. The Hughes plan to spend tens of millions of euros to restore the interior of the house. The work is expected to take two years to complete.

Currently, there is still a campground on the property. From what we saw, it looked like a nice facility, with ample space between sites along with hookups and a bathhouse. For entertainment, there are trails through the woods, swan pedal boats for floating across the damned lake, and an adventure center. The adventure center has several options of admission prices, depending on which activities you want to participate in. The activities include a net park, a climbing tower, giant slides, a climbing zone, a giant swing, a quarry edge leap, aerial trekking, and a twin zipwire. There is also a toddler area for ages 1 to 3. It looks like a great place to camp for a family.

After our house tour, we walked through the estate grounds over to Westport Quay. The quay has a row of shops, hotels, and restaurants, with views out over Clew Bay and the mountain peak of Croagh Patrick across the bay.

For lunch, we stopped at Charlie’s at the Towers. There was both a restaurant inside and a food truck with tables outside. Sitting outside would have been nicer, but the fish tacos on the menu caught Ann’s eye and they were only available at the restaurant, as the food truck had a more limited menu.

The fish tacos were very tasty, served with a small salad and fries. There was a small container of hot sauce that tasted like Frank’s Redhot Sauce. We’re not sure if that always comes with the fish tacos, or they added it because the waiter noticed we were Americans and warned us that Irish fish tacos are not very spicy. Either way, Ann enjoyed dipping her fries into the hot sauce.

On the way back to our guest house, we stopped in a couple of stores for some needed items. One of Ann’s sports bras had ripped that morning, so she bought a replacement. Keith also needed some heartburn meds from the pharmacy. Then Ann hung out in our room while Keith went back into town for a haircut.

For dinner, we went to Westport Woodfire Pizza and Restaurant. It was a pizza recommendation from the barber at McKennas Barber Shop. We split a pepperoni pizza and a small house salad. They were both delicious. Thank’s for the recommendation! To wash the food down, Keith had a Jackrabbit ginger beer, the alcohol version, from Kinnegar Brewery in Letterkenny, Ireland.

After our wonderful meal, we walked down Bridge Street to see if any bars had some early trad music sessions. A sign outside of the Porter House Pub indicated music would be starting soon, so we went inside and ordered a pint. Ann had the Orchard Thieves cider while Keith had a Guinness.

The music started around 7 pm. The trio of musicians were great, on par with the talented musicians of Dingle. One alternated between playing the Uilleann pipes (Irish pipes) and a concertina. A second alternated between banjo and acoustic guitar along with performing some of the vocals. The third musician was a jack of all trades. He switched from acoustic guitar, to an Irish bouzouki (similar to a guitar), to an Irish whistle, and to a fiddle, in addition to performing some of the vocals. He said he had more instruments, but they wouldn’t let him bring them all out. We slowly sipped our drinks for about an hour while enjoying the wonderful music. Then we reluctantly headed back to our room. We needed to get to bed on time as we had a long day of driving the following day.

Westport turned out to be a better experience than we expected. The Great Western Greenway did not live up to our expectations, but the falconry experience exceeded our expectations. The Westport House was an unexpected treat along with the wonderful traditional Irish music.

Check out our related video: Westport, Ireland

(Ann)