Village · Co. Galway
“Seal's rock” — the village on Roundstone Bay opposite Inishnee, known as a haven for people in the creative arts, with the strikingly round rock that stands like a marker at the bay's entrance and the regatta in July.
Roundstone (Cloch na Rón in Irish, meaning “seal's rock”) is a village on the west coast of Ireland, in the Connemara region of County Galway. It lies opposite the island of Inishnee on Roundstone Bay, and by road it is 76 kilometres northwest of Galway and 18 kilometres southeast of Clifden. The village is a haven for people in the creative arts, and it hosts an annual regatta in July — the boats, the bay and the round rock that gives the place its name.
The anglicised name is usually considered an error on the part of the British colonial Ordnance Survey, which translated the village name: while Cloch certainly means “stone” or “rock”, Rón means “seal”, not “round”. Still, the names Cloch na Rón and Roundstone may be totally independent — the bay is referred to as Round-stone Haven as early as 1684, in Roderick O'Flaherty's account, and the rock after which it is named stands like a marker at the entrance to the bay, and is strikingly round. The name is the village: the seal, the rock and the water, and the story of how the mapmakers got it wrong.
The bay is the village's front garden: Roundstone Bay sweeps around behind it, Inishnee lies out across the water, and the regatta in July is the day the bay belongs to the village. The walk along the quay is the walk that gets done — the boats, the rock at the mouth, and the light on the water in the evening. The village works as the base for the west-coast coves of Connemara — the headlands, the lifeboat country and the bays that the coast road runs through.
Roundstone is on the coast road between Clifden and the Carna country, 18 km from Clifden and 76 km from Galway; the quay and the bay are in the village. The regatta runs in July — confirm the current dates before travelling, and the cove walks are open ground: check the forecast first.
Where to stay
Roundstone puts the quay, the regatta and the coves all within a walk — the bay is the point.
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