Dodging mountain sheep as I made my way along the rugged coastline of the tiny island of Inishbofin, I stopped to take a deep breath and soak it all in. Having laughed and cried my way through The Banshees of Inisherin , the Oscar-nominated film starring Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan and Brendan Gleeson, I had loved everything about it. The story, the characters, the magically eerie island ofInisherin.
.. I couldn’t get enough.
Though the place doesn’t exist IRL, it’s based on one of the three Aran Islands (Inismór, Inishmaan and Inisheer) the rocky isles in the mouth of Galway Bay – and after watching that movie, I vowed to to a trip there as soon as I got the chance. The Aran Islands form part of the Wild Atlantic Way: a tourism trail that snakes around the Ireland’s west coast: it starts in Derry, at the Inishowen Peninsula and ends in in County Cork. Within the Wild Atlantic Way, there are 157 discovery points, 1,000 attractions and more than 2,500 activities.
It took two years, but I finally I had the privilege of picking up part of this epic road-trip: starting in Galway, before heading to Inismór, and then Inishbofin, a a small island off the coast of Connemara. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video Whether you’re a film buff like me who wants to see the Banshees filming locations, or you’re just interested in Irish hospitality, dramatic landscapes and a Guinness or two, you’ll wan.