. A large part is fed by visiting yachts. One of the great barriers here is rounding Slyne Head and having no easy-to-access harbour where you are safe in all weathers.
Because once autumn comes – certainly post-Halloween, the tourism season will stop. Maybe it is then when the real Connemara – the place that bewitchedBy lunchtime on Wednesday, the rain had come heavily, though an art auction in a marquee in Ballyconneely was busy. Everywhere, people scuttled indoors. Cyclists disappeared, leaving the streets ofThis was an afternoon for finding one of those fabled west of Ireland pubs, with a turf fire and settling down with a good book.
“There are unexplored opportunities. For instance, people say nothing grows here. But if you take foliage, the bits of greenery in bouquets, that is a €6 billion-a-year market. And it grows like weed in Connemara. “You’d see a turbot draped over the side of the crate. Hundreds and hundreds of finest prime fish. Much of that has gone. Overfishing. Gill nets probably were a disastrous thing for fishing.”