The Pigeon Hole Loop is a great location for a walk on a 'fine soft day'

Cong was viewed by director John Ford as the quintessential Irish village when he was filming The Quiet Man

Hikes & Trails: Pigeon Hole Loop

In the 1930s and 1940s, movie-making was dominated by the Hollywood studio system. Films were created to a formula. Put together as assembly line productions, they were mostly shot in the controlled environment of huge sound stages, sometimes with specially built sets. Actors and crew involved in making a movie, which was supposedly set in an overseas location, could conveniently return to their Californian homes each evening. Classics such as Casablanca were shot inexpensively under this system, with great acting and high production values, but little authentic feel for location.

During this period, John Ford, whose parents hailed from the West of Ireland, became one of Hollywood’s most influential filmmakers. Winning Oscars as best director for classics such as The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley, he continued to harbour one further ambition. Ford wanted to make a film based on The Quiet Man — a short story by well-known Irish author Maurice Walsh. And he wanted to do this on location in Ireland.