Biking into the West

AS I STAND at the Mulranny Park Hotel in Co Mayo on day one of a weekend trip, my eye races over the empty spaces, trying to comprehend the beauty of the interlocking mountains, the sweep of the sea, the sense of boundless landscape.

On the north side of Clew Bay you look across at the imposing Croagh Patrick and the sun-filled bay while, reputedly, 365 islands lie like a pod of sleeping whales. Again the eye races to where a silver river disappears into a wood. A village nestles in a cove. Everywhere nature assails you.

Food sourced locally — not least, trout, salmon and lobster — is served at the Mulranny Park. Suppliers bring in truckloads of vegetables and the outstanding Carrowholly cheese. In fact, visitors can take part in a gourmet trail to visit Kelly’s butchers in Newport, the Curraun Blue trout farm, Croagh Patrick Seafoods, Achill Island Turbot and Keem Bay Fish Producers.