Cleggan County Galway Republic of Ireland

Raising the anchor late morning on Sunday 15 June we headed over to say ‘cheerio’ to Cahoots (they were planning on heading to Clare Island). As we were doing so, 3 young men came out in a dory to a small Farr 31 raceboat, which had arrived overnight and which was swinging on one of the large moorings. They kindly asked if we wanted to use the mooring, saying that it belonged to the chap who ran the ferries. We declined as we were just leaving and then one of the men asked, ‘do you remember me from Galway?’ At which point we did – it was Cormack who had helped us with our lines when we had arrived there!  It turned out that he and his mate were sailing the Farr 31 to Westport for the 5-day regatta, starting on Wednesday, that Daria and Alex had mentioned was going on. We wished them well for their racing – I wonder if we’ll see them there.  

Leaving Inishbofin Harbour

Mainsail hoisted, we negotiated the entrance and headed east towards Cleggan.  It wasn’t a long passage but it was rather gentle and very pleasant. 

Cleggan Harbour

Once in Cleggan Harbour, we dropped anchor in about 6m just outside the mooring field, close to the little landing craft ferry on a large mooring to which, interestingly, a red yacht, that had been on the big mooring buoy in Inishbofin when we arrived, was now tied alongside.  Maybe they don’t like anchoring?We took the dinghy ashore to explore, discovering that rarity in Irish ports, recycling facilities but, predictably, no rubbish bins.  Having checked to see if we needed to book a table at Oliver’s (we didn’t) we set out to walk across and around the Cleggan headland. 

Looking towards Omey Island over the sands

On the south side of the headland is Omey Island which is joined to the mainland via a HUGE expanse of sand at low water.  We could see several houses on the island and there’s a causeway across the sand marked, as in Secret Water, by large stakes.  We even saw a couple of vehicles drive down off the island and across the causeway.

Selerna Beach

We returned to Cleggan via the beautiful white sandy Selerna beach that we had sailed past earlier that day. It would be a fabulous place to anchor in the right conditions.

And so to dinner at Oliver’s, which was excellent and a good lead-in to our wedding anniversary.

Cleggan, County Galway, Republic of Ireland