Barracladdy Ballynakill Harbour County Galway Republic of Ireland

Having spent an afternoon and an evening off Cleggan, we had always planned that we should continue on Monday 16 June but probably a late start. However, when we awoke, the wind had gone southerly and picked up, and the swell was starting to work its way down to the bottom of the bay. Sitting beam on to it we were rolling rather and it was likely to only get worse so we decided to move sooner rather than later. We had wanted to go to Inishturk and then on to Clare Island on Tuesday but the bay off Garranty Harbour at Inishturk is open to the south, as are the moorings off Clare Island, so we decided to move to the next deep bay to the north, Barrynakill Harbour.

Looking back at the entrance to Barrynakill Harbour with the islands
and fish farm we had worked our way past

It’s only a few miles to Barrynakill and the wind was pretty brisk, so we unrolled most, but not all, of the genoa and made our way around the corner. At the entrance to Barrynakill Harbour, the route in becomes relatively convoluted, with small islands and fish farms to skirt around and rocks to avoid (though new lateral buoys have been installed to help vessels avoid the most dangerous rock, Ship Rock.

We had planned to continue well into the bay for (allegedly) maximum protection from the wind, and from the swell, but as we rounded Ross Point it was clear that, with the wind still in the south, we would definitely NOT have the protected anchorage we were after.

So we scurried back to a beach we had passed closer to the entrance, where the high ground to the south broke the wind and the islands and rocks to the west kept the swell away.

We had a lovely afternoon at anchor, doing various jobs and wishing that the cloudbase were higher so that we could enjoy the view of the hills and mountains to the east, of which we had only tantalising glimpses.

Barracladdy, Ballynakill Harbour, County Galway, Republic of Ireland