Mayo Routes
Ballina is the major county town, though the market town of Castlebar is better if you want a central touring base from which to make a few daily tours, Westport is a party town with good accommodation on the west coast for the N59 route while Belmullet is the place for the romantic with its wild, treeless landscape and for political activists with the nearby Shell and Corrib gas terminal.
Route 1. From Castlebar take the N5 past Turlough (museum) and hang a left on N58 to Foxford (museum) and north on N26 to Ballina. Take the R314 north through Killala and onwards to the awe-inspiring 5,000 year-old Ceide Fields (the Stone-Age farmers, beneficiaries and then victims of local climate change) and the Mayo coast road. Take a detour north off the R314 to Portacloy harbour & Broad Haven Bay.
The 'Corrib' gas-field has been found offshore and this area along the R314 and around Broad Haven Bay will be developed by Shell as the onshore terminal for the pipelines, holding tanks and operation centre. See this area of natural beauty before it is destroyed for ever.
Continue to Belmullet town & explore Mullet island and the Atlantic Coast, one of the least populated areas in Ireland. Ride south on the N59 Bangor to Mulrany (long straights broken by sudden 90° kinks) with only one petrol station and a few houses in 20 miles. Take the bridge to Achill Island and ride west to Keem Strand, and up Knockmore Mountain 340m to get the "Edge of the World" feeling.
Continue back to Mulrany, thru Newport and either continue south to Westport, east to Castlebar and Ballina via Pontoon by the R310/R315 or direct to Ballina by back-roads past Beltra Lough.
Mayo Museums
Achill Folklife Centre, Dooagh, Achill Island
www.achill-fieldschool.com
Ballintubber Abbey, Ballintubber
www.museumsofmayo.com/ballintubber.htm
Ceide Fields, Ballycastle
(open March to November)
www.heritageireland.ie
Clew Bay Heritage Centre, The Quay, Westport (open Apr to Oct)
www.museumsofmayo.com/clewbay.htm
Eachliem Heritage Centre, Aughleam, Belmullet (open Easter to September)
www.museumsofmayo/deirbhile.htm
Foxford Woolen Mills & Admiral Brown Museum
www.museumsofmayo.com/foxford.htm
Knock Museum, Knock Shrine
www.museumsofmayo.com/knockfolk.htm
National Museum of Ireland - Country Life
Turlough Park, Castlebar (open all year but closed Mondays)
www.museum.ie
www.croagh-patrick.com
Partry House, Partry
(limited open days - see website)
www.partryhouse.com
the Quiet Man Cottage, Circular Road, Cong
(open March 17th to October 31st)
www.quietman-cong.com
Landscape & Roads
Ceide Fields Ride-out Way West '07
Route 2. Leave Westport and ride west along R335 to Louisberg then south through the desolate Doo Valley and Lough to Delphi. Then out of the valley into Killary Harbour, a long wild fjord. Follow the N59 to Lennane if you need petrol.
From Lennane the N59 returns northwards to Westport, or westwards to Clifden. Irish motards would strongly recommend the third option - the R336 touching Galway to Maam, and then the R345 along Lough Corrib to Cong (museum), and north to Ballionrobe, Partry (return to Westport by R330), Ballintubber and Castlebar. Another option is to head north on the N59. Past Erriff Bridge take a right across the Partry Mountains to Touramakeady on Lough Mask and then northwards to Partry or eastwards across the Plains of Mayo to Kiltimagh and Knock.
Alternatively, at the end of Doo Lough, take the left turn up a side valley, and follow this "paved" (twisty, with a poor surface) road through forestry amid the Sheefry Hills to the junction with the Leenane - Westport road N59.
Dave in the Sheefry Hills off Road No. R335