The Wild & Wonderful West

Western Ireland boasts some of Ireland's most varied and spectacular countryside.

Mayo County dazzles the eye with its stark rock formations and subtle hues. Its farming roots go deep, as you'll discover at Céide Fields, where five millennia ago a thriving community sowed wheat and barley, and grazed sheep and cattle. The site has been excavated and is explained at an award-winning Interpretive Centre. From here, wind your way round the coast, past wild, storm-tossed beaches, to the pub-packed heritage town of Westport.

County Sligo offers a different kind of natural wonderment. It's famous for its magnificent flat-top mountains and verdant pastoral scenes, which directly inspired the poet William Butler Yeats. The county boasts an improbable bounty of prehistoric sites, and is home to some of Ireland's finest traditional musicians.

Western Ireland's heartland, County Galway, has a spellbinding beauty, and its fabled Connemara region is woven with hiking and biking trails, stone walls, weathered mountains and white-sand beaches. The county's wild landscapes and thriving traditions invariably claim visitors' hearts, and chances are your first visit won't be your last. Linger at Leenane on Killary Harbour, where the walking, kayaking and adventure sports rank among Ireland's best. Then continue southward down the scenic coastal route or the stunning inland route to Galway, where you can explore Ireland's oldest continually used Medieval church.

County Clare combines an Atlantic-pounded coast, and dramatic and unique wind-swept landscapes with artefacts from prehistory through medieval times. The county is also Ireland's centre for traditional Irish music. Learn the fabric of this water-dashed, windswept land and soon you'll be singing your own songs of joy.

County Kerry is mythical Ireland: a Celtic kingdom of misty mountains. Between the county's snow-capped summits are medieval ruins, glacial lakes, coastal peninsulas, blustery beaches, deserted archipelagos and secluded hamlets. Marvel here at the rocky and windswept Burren, the epitome of hardscrabble rural Ireland.

Flung out on the far-western reaches of Ireland, County Cork comes very close indeed to the nostalgic vision of Ireland cherished by many visitors. But then you come to Cork city, giving Dublin a run for its money as it swaggers into the 21st century. If you want cocktail bars, modern-art galleries and avant-garde theatre, they're all here.