County-Mayo Travel Guide
Mayo's chief town (Ballina) is 101km (63 miles) N of Galway, 193km (120 miles) N of Shannon Airport, 246km (153 miles) NW of Dublin, and 311km (193 miles) NW of Cork
Rimmed by Clew Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, County Mayo boasts many diverse attractions, although it has been widely identified as The Quiet Man country since the classic John Wayne movie was filmed here in 1951. The setting for the film was Cong, a no-longer-so-quiet village wedged between Lough Mask and Lough Corrib and backed up against the County Galway border. Most of Mayo, however, has resisted the pull of Hollywood, and still has remote bogs, beaches, cliffs, and crags where quiet splendor prevails.
Among Mayo's other attractions are the 5,000-year-old farmstead settlement at Ceide Fields, the Marian shrine at Knock, and some of Europe's best fishing waters at Lough Conn, Lough Mask, and the River Moy. Ballina, Mayo's largest town, calls itself the home of the Irish salmon. And Westport is a little resort town guaranteed to steal your heart.
