Looking for peace and serenity? Explore Connemara's winter wildness

You may have to wrap up warm but visiting majestic Connemara in low season, means you often have the place entirely to yourself, writes Yvonne Gordon

Pines Island in autumn at sunset, Derryclare Lough, Connemara, County Galway

If you stand at the top of Diamond Hill in Connemara National Park, you can see all the way to the sea; the silvery curves of Ballynakill Harbour, the pointy peak of Tully Mountain, the long, low shape of Inishbofin Island. 

To the north are the dark mountain shapes of Clare Island and Achill Island. Far below is Letterfrack, where Kylemore Abbey sits silently overlooking a dark blue lake.