Area · Co. Mayo
The national park of the Nephin Beg Mountains — 150 square kilometres of Atlantic blanket bog, one of the largest expanses in Europe, with the most remote point of land on the Irish mainland in its bounds.
Wild Nephin (Néifinn Fhiáin in Irish) is a national park in northwest County Mayo, Ireland. It includes much of the Nephin Beg Mountains and one of the largest expanses of peatland in Europe, consisting of 150 square kilometres of Atlantic blanket bog. It is a unique habitat with a diverse flora and fauna — the bog, the peaks and the coast, and the park is the place where the wild country of the Nephin range is protected as such.
It was established as Ballycroy National Park in 1998, then expanded and re-named in 2018, with plans to re-wild the additional lands acquired at Nephin Forest to the east of the Nephin Beg Mountains. Wild Nephin includes the most remote point of land on the Irish mainland — the park is the wildest place on the mainland, and the re-wilding plan is the thing that will make it wilder still. The park is a candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC) as part of a site known as the Owenduff/Nephin Complex, and the conservation status is the reason the country is the way it is.
The park is the country of the Nephin Beg Mountains: the peaks, the bog and the coast, with the Atlantic on the west and the bog running up to the peaks. The blanket bog is the thing the park is known for — one of the largest expanses in Europe, and the habitat of the flora and fauna that the park protects. The walks in the park are the walks that go over the bog and up to the peaks, and the weather on the bog is the whole story.
Wild Nephin is in northwest County Mayo, a drive from Ballina and the Nephin country; the park is big enough for a day or two, and the bog walks are the thing to do first. The park is open ground with no cover — check the forecast before the walk, and the bog is rough underfoot in wet weather.
Where to stay
Ballina or the Glen Nephin villages put the bog, the peaks and the coast all within a drive — the walk is the point.
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