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The pleasant, bustling regional capital started life as a fortress of the O’Connors of Connacht. Colonized in 1232 by Anglo-Normans, it became a prosperous seaport: some fine buildings survive, notably 16th-century Lynch’s Castle (now a bank), and 14th-century St Nicholas’s Church. A great atmosphere, with plenty of music and traditional shops.

Galway City

The vast expanse of Lough Corrib’s cool waters, feeling more like part of the Atlantic Ocean than a lake, is Ireland’s second largest, and a popular resort area for angling, boating and walking.

The little road around Galway Bay passes through a score of villages that are breathtaking in their prettiness and grandiose location. The most charming is Kinvarra, with its fishing harbour and pier cottages. It’s the setting for a traditional music festival in May, and a fishing-boat gathering in August.

The woods, lakes and paths of this national park and wildlife preserve, with its red deer and red squirrels, were once the grounds of a great Georgian mansion, home of Lady Augusta Gregory (see Abbey and Peacock Theatres). She hosted the most famous novelists and playwrights of her day and the Irish Revival began here. Names carved on the Autograph Tree include Shaw, Synge, Sean O’Casey and many more. The house itself fell into ruin and was dismantled.

Poised on the narrow strip between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask, the attractive village of Cong lies just across the Galway border in County Mayo. Cong Abbey was an important Augustinian community founded by the King of Connacht in 1128 and became a leading spiritual centre. Closed down during the Reformation, it fell into ruin. What survives remains majestic; the cloisters have been partly reconstructed.

On the shores of Lough Corrib, this village has become a small resort area. Its chief prize, however, is Aughnanure Castle, beside the lake – a handsome remnant of a 16th-century tower-house of the O’Flaherties, the Connacht clan who terrified the ruling Anglo-Norman families of Galway.

Follow the sign “Yeats Tower” to reach the old towerhouse in which WB Yeats and his wife Georgie spent much time during the 1920s. A sturdy little fortress, it was restored and converted by Yeats, and is described with touching detail in many of his poems. It is now lovingly preserved as a homage to Yeats.

An astonishing set of monastic ruins survives here. The original church established in AD 610 was enlarged over the centuries and replaced by a cathedral in the 14th century, though keeping many features of the older buildings, including a 10th-century door. Around it are a number of other intriguing 13th- and 14th-century ecclesiastical buildings. There’s also a Leaning Tower.

Officially Irish-speaking, and with a Gaelic summer school, Spiddal makes a pleasant stop on the Galway Bay coast road. Several craft workers have set up shop in the Spiddal Craft Village, where you can see pottery, weaving, knitting and other skilled work in progress, or buy the finished goods.

The poignant folksong “The Fields of Athenry” (pronounced Athen-rye) gives little clue about this evocative reminder of the Anglo-Norman colonists. In 1211, Meiler de Bermingham made Athenry his seat, enclosed it with sturdy ramparts, built a little castle, and founded a Dominican Priory in 1241 where he and his descendants could be buried. Today, though damaged, much survives, together with a broken 15th-century cross erected in the central square.