{"id":345378,"date":"2026-03-14T04:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/345378\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T04:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:47:13","slug":"in-remote-western-ireland-travel-moves-at-its-own-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/345378\/","title":{"rendered":"In Remote Western Ireland, Travel Moves at Its Own Pace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou get this feeling when you enter the Burren’s limestone landscape,\u201d says Aoibheann MacNamara of the moonlike karst in County Clare<\/a>. \u201cIt has an energy, and a history that permeates.\u201d A dynamic entrepreneur, MacNamara champions slow food at her Galway restaurant, Ard Bia<\/a>, and slow fashion through her homespun label, The Tweed Project<\/a>. I’ve made my way through those starkly serene karst fields to her most recent undertaking, Summerage, a reimagined farmhouse set on 32 acres that’s the ideal place to reflect on the region’s timeless appeal. The Scandi-minimalist interiors and deliberate lack of Wi-Fi mean a stay here is all about reading, picking blackberries, or staring out the window at the shaggy-maned ponies, Crunchy and Holly.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Aoibheann MacNamara and her dog, Puffy, at her home in a 150-year-old building in Galway\u2019s West End<\/p>\n

Taran Wilkhu<\/p>\n

In recent years here in western Ireland<\/a>, a clutch of openings in counties from Clare to Mayo have become incubators for a modern take on the term \u201cslow travel<\/a>\u201d\u2014from village pubs turned design-led retreats to pop-up feasts on organic farms. It’s why I’m zigzagging along the Atlantic coast to speak to the people who are putting a twist on the region’s age-old way of life and reviving dying traditions.<\/p>\n

I drive inland and northeast to the more leafy setting of Bullaun in County Galway to find Danny Africano. Working toward self-sustainability at his restaurant, Lignum<\/a>, the 30-something chef preserves the glut of what’s grown in the kitchen garden for the winter months. Arriving for lunch here on a balmy Sunday, I pass the bountiful veggie patch before entering the restaurant, where a dimly lit preservation room is filled with neatly labeled jars of pickles and preserves. Artfully plated courses appear from the sizzle and smoke of the open kitchen: local mussels set in their shell, foam-topped fire-licked pork.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

A sitting area at Summerage in Burren, featuring a mohair blanket and cushions from local brand The Tweed Project<\/p>\n

Summerage\"Image<\/p>\n

Glazed carrots with labneh, za\u2019atar, pistachio, and pomegranate at Ard Bia in Galway<\/p>\n

Ard Bia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou get this feeling when you enter the Burren’s limestone landscape,\u201d says Aoibheann MacNamara of the moonlike karst…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20269,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-345378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-arts-culture","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}