At the Edge of the AtlanticNotebook No 141June 2026
A Connemara island reached by a forty-minute crossing, where the year still keeps its old shape.
Collected by Deborah. Read her editorial perspective
Leave the mainland behind in Cleggan. We board the ferry and cross forty minutes of open water to Inishbofin, an old Connemara island where the year still keeps its ancient shape. The island rises low and green, two fists joined at the wrist, a deepwater harbor carved into its southern side.
Slieve League
We suggest taking the two o'clock ferry out and the eleven o'clock back two days later for a good trip. The Inishbofin House Hotel above the pier is a good option, or Doonmore on the other side of the harbor. Two good pubs serve the island's 170 winter residents, swelling to 300 in summer.
Nobody here is just passing through. That is the difference an island like this offers that a peninsula cannot. Three days here resets you in a way three weeks on the mainland never will.
The Ireland Edit Way
Cut the itinerary in half, then cut it again. The letter we send before every first visit.
Every hotel change costs you half a day. Luxury, in Ireland, is staying put.
Six questions we apply before booking any room in Ireland. The November test, the dinner-twice test, the landscape-over-room test.
To understand Ireland, stop looking at the castles and start looking at the kitchen table.
From the notebook
Collected notes. A few times each season.