Page 211 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Ireland

THE WEST OF IRELAND  209

Statue of St Patrick at the foot of Croagh Patrick, looking out to Clew Bay
4 National Museum  Foxford Woollen Mills and Our Lady, a modern basilica and
of Ireland – Visitor Centre Marian shrine. Knock Museum,
beside the basilica, portrays life
Providence Rd. Tel 094 925 6104.
Country Life Open daily. Closed 1 Jan, 16 Mar, in 19th-century rural Ireland. An
Good Fri & 24–26 Dec. 8 = 0
Turlough Park, Turlough, off the N5, 7 Exhibition Centre. Apparition section covers the
8 km (5 miles) east of Castlebar, Co ∑ foxfordwoollenmills.com background to the miracle.
Mayo. Tel 094 903 1755. Open 10am–
5pm Tue–Sat, 2–5pm Sun. Closed E Knock Shrine and Museum
Mon, Good Fri, 25 Dec. 8 = - 7 Tel 094 938 8100. Open daily.
∑ museum.ie 6 Knock Closed 25 & 26 Dec. & museum
8 7 = - ∑ knock-shrine.ie
Road map B3. Co Mayo. * 575.
Explore rural life in Ireland in this k 15 km (9 miles) N of Knock. @
award-winning museum set in n May–Sep: Knock (094 938 8193).
the grounds of Turlough Park. ∑ discoverireland.ie 7 Croagh Patrick
The collection focuses on the Road map B3. Murrisk, Co Mayo.
period from 1850 to 1950, when In 1879, two local women @ from Westport. n Westport (098
tenant farmers were struggling to saw an apparition of the Virgin, 25711). 0 ∑ croagh-patrick.com
become owners of the land they St Joseph and St John the
worked. The museum’s exhibits Evangelist by the gable of the Ireland’s holy mountain, named
illustrate the traditional way of Church of St John the Baptist. after the national saint (see
country life while providing It was witnessed by 13 more p285), is one of Mayo’s best-
historical context of this difficult onlookers and validated by the known landmarks. From the
time. Four floors display fascinat- Catholic Church amid claims of bottom it seems cone-shaped,
ing artifacts, such as handcrafted miracle cures. Every year, over an impression dispelled by
harvest knots and wickerwork; 1.5 million believers make the climbing to its flat peak. This
spinning wheels and boats, and pilgrimage to the shrine, quartzite, scree-clad mountain
hand-operated machinery. including Pope John Paul II in has a history of pagan worship
1979 and Mother Teresa in 1993. from 3000 BC. However, in
Its focal point is the gable where AD 441, St Patrick is said to have
5 Foxford the apparition was seen, which spent 40 days on the mountain
Road map B3. Co Mayo. * 1,000. @ is now covered over to form a fasting and praying for the Irish.
from Galway. n Westport (098 25711). chapel. Nearby is the Basilica of Since then, penitents, often
barefoot, have made the pil-
This tranquil market town is grimage to the summit in his
known for good angling in honour, especially on Garland
nearby Lough Conn and for its Friday and Reek Sunday in July.
woven rugs and tweeds. In the From the start of the trail at
town centre is Foxford Woollen Campbell’s Pub in Murrisk,
Mills, founded in 1892 by an Irish where there is a huge statue of
nun, Mother Arsenius (originally the saint, it is a two-hour climb
named Agnes). The thriving mill to the top, at 765 m (2,510 ft).
now supplies top fashion houses. On Reek Sunday mass is cele-
An audiovisual tour traces the brated on the peak in a modern
mill’s history, and visitors can chapel. A visitor centre has
see craftspeople at work. The cone-shaped Croagh Patrick mountain amenities for exhausted hikers.

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