Achill Island & Local Sites

The bleak remains of this deserted (though there are lots of sheep) village at the foot of Mt Slievemore is slowly being reduced down to rock piles, a poignant reminder of the island's past hardships and a vanished way of life. When the Potato Famine took hold, starvation forced the villagers to the sea and its alternative food source. The adjacent graveyard compounds the desolation.

Mt Slievemore (672m) can be climbed from behind deserted Slievemore Village for terrific views of Blacksod Bay.

The 8km drive west from Keel to what is literally the end of the road is spectacular, with sweeping views across the water as the road climbs the sheer rock face.

One of Achill's most remote Blue Flag beaches, at the far west of the island, but after you spiral down to this perfect cove, it's like finding the pot of gold at the end of an Irish rainbow. Beautiful.

Rising right next to the shore, this lovely 40ft-high 15th-century tower house at Kildavnet is associated with the pirate queen Grace O'Malley

Rising from a narrow isthmus, the hillside village of Mulranny overlooks a wide Blue Flag beach on the road from Newport to Achill Sound and on the cusp of the Curraun Peninsula. It's a prime vantage point for counting the 365 or so seemingly saucer-sized islands that grace Clew Bay.

This village is where Don Allum, the first person to row across the Atlantic Ocean in both directions, landed in September 1982 in his 6m-long plywood boat, dubbed the QE3, after 77 days at sea. Opposite the monument marking this feat, the Pub (that's its name) has associated memorabilia.