Today’s tour location is the island of Arran, which is connected to the mainland of County Mayo by a bridge. The world feels wide open on Achill, Ireland’s largest island, where there are open roads, wide skies and, apart from Newfoundland, only the endless Atlantic Ocean. Whether you’ve seen the film Inisherin’s Banshee or not, it’s worth exploring.
Nowhere is the coast more violent than the roaring sea of Atlantic Avenue, the wild coastal road that is the temporary home of JJ Devine’s bar. Here you can see the gale force winds of the twisting cliffs.
Near the mainland, bougainvilleas are in full bloom and roads are lined with towering rhododendrons. Sheep feast on the razed meadows of the golf club and the town’s B&B billboards have eye-catching signs.
On a dazzlingly bright winter morning, the smell of wood smoke, or possibly turf, permeates the ice and snow: some islanders still harvest turf from the marshes of Argyll for fuel.
The beach here may not be part of the Banshees Location Trail, but Keel Beach is one of the stars of Achill and has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The dunes stretch out to pebbles, sand, sea and silhouetted cliffs. Along its two-mile expanse, the waves seem to be widescreen. Very… spectacular, anyway!
