Kinvarra

Galway Hooker in Kinvarra Harbour, Aug 2012, Photo by Matt Care

There’s no point being a blogger on a trad sailing work-boats website and living within an hour and a half of the centre of Galway Hooker restoration, Kinvarra, just south of Galway, if you can’t indulge your own passions for things non-barge occasionally. Today we went all touristy and headed off first for the ‘wrong’ Kinvarra (there are several, and this one was in Connemara so it seemed like a good bet. We enjoyed superb West of Ireland mountain + lake scenery for an hour or so, but that Kinvarra proved to be 3 houses and a farm. No beach, no harbour. We headed in along the north side of Galway Bay and on through the city of Galway, then South to the next Kinvarra on the list, the one down in Cliffs of Moher / The Burren country. Here not only did the town signs have hooker logos on them, but as soon as we could see harbour we also spotted the lovely black hull of the big hooker Cliona na Toinne moored alongside (plus a smaller one, possibly of the type they call “púcán”)

Trad Boat Festival Poster, Pic by Matt Care

Naturally we had to stop and take so many photo’s I filled my memory card. Not only that, we discovered notices around the town saying that the Traditional Sailing Boats Festival is Friday (tomorrow!) Saturday and Sunday of this weekend. Will we be heading back, do you think?