Village · Co. Mayo
“The stone fort of the beeves” — the Georgian planned town at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, a Tidy Town three times over, with the tree-lined Mall, the stone bridges and Croagh Patrick ten kilometres west.
Westport (Cathair na Mart in Irish, meaning “the stone fort of the beeves”, historically anglicised as Cahernamart) is a town in County Mayo in Ireland, at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast. It is a tourist destination and scores highly for quality of life: it won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition three times, in 2001, 2006 and 2008, and in 2012 it won the Best Place to Live in Ireland competition run by The Irish Times.
Westport is designated as a heritage town, and it is one of only a few planned towns in Ireland. The town centre was laid out in the Georgian architectural style, and it incorporates the Carrow Beg river into the design composition. That provides for the tree-lined promenades — known as The Mall — and the several stone bridges that cross the river through the centre. The walk through Westport is the walk along the Mall and across the bridges, and the heritage designation means the town keeps the shape of that plan, which is the point of coming.
The pilgrimage mountain of Croagh Patrick, known locally as “the Reek”, lies some 10 km west of the town near the villages of Murrisk and Lecanvey, and the coast road from Westport runs out to Achill and the Clew Bay islands. Clew Bay itself is the town’s front garden: the water, the islands and the Atlantic behind them, with the town at the corner where the bay narrows. A day out of Westport can be the town, the bay, or the drive west to the Reek — the town is the base for all three.
Westport is at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, a short drive from Ballina and a drive from the west coast; the Mall and the bridges are in the town centre. The town works as the base for Clew Bay, Achill and the Croagh Patrick country — the plan of the centre is the walk to do first.
Where to stay
Westport puts the Mall, the bay and the drive west to the Reek all within a short reach.
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The largest island off the west coast, linked to the mainland by a bridge over Achill Sound since 1887 — wild Atlantic headlands, black-pebble bays, a lighthouse with a story, and a landscape that has shaped Irish life for a thousand years.
The 764-metre mountain near Murrisk, traditionally the place where St Patrick fasted — a broad, windswept summit and one of the great walking and pilgrimage places in the country.
“Mouth of the ford” — the town at the mouth of the River Moy near Killala Bay, with the Ox Mountains to the east and the Nephin Mountains to the west, and the Bronze Age Dolmen of the Four Maols behind the station.
“Mouth of the Mullet” — the coastal Gaeltacht town at the isthmus, with the two bays of Blacksod and Broadhaven linked by Carter’s Canal running through the town, and half the population able to speak Irish.