Parks in Co. Galway
3 places
1.Connemara National Park
Free entry to 2,000 hectares of Twelve Bens hills
Connemara National Park protects 2,000 hectares of bog, heath and woodland beneath the Twelve Bens, with the summit of Diamond Hill as its signature walk. Entry and parking are free, year round.
- Highlights
- Four waymarked trails from the Visitor Centre
- Summit of Diamond Hill (Red Route)
- Views of the Twelve Bens and Kylemore Abbey
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
2.Rinville Park
Free coastal park with castle ruins and bay views
Rinville Park is a 100-hectare coastal estate near Oranmore where tarmac woodland trails, a 16th-century castle ruin and open Galway Bay views are all free to wander.
- Highlights
- Free admission, open all year round
- Over 100 hectares of woodland, farmland and shoreline
- Ruins of Rinville Castle and Rinville Hall
- Facilities
- Restrooms · Wheelchair access
3.Coole Park
Where Yeats's seven woods meet a vanishing lake
Coole Park is the old Gregory estate that became the heart of the Irish Literary Revival — now a 400-hectare NPWS nature reserve of woods, turloughs and lake where W.B. Yeats wrote, and where the Autograph Tree still carries the carved initials of Ireland's great writers.
- Highlights
- Lady Gregory's Autograph Tree with Yeats, Shaw, Synge and O'Casey initials
- Two waymarked trails (1.75 km family and 4.5 km Seven Woods)
- Coole Lake and its globally important turlough wetland
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access