With the wild Atlantic Ocean on one side and the stately peaks of the Twelve Ben Mountains on the other, the Connemara National Park is Ireland at its most dramatic. It’s a place to free the soul, calm the mind and make the heart beat a little faster as you travel through an achingly beautiful landscape. In the midst of the park sits cone-shaped Diamond Hill, a gem of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way named for its sparkling appearance when sunlight reflects off its quartzite rock surface.
The 7 kilometres Diamond Hill loop walk takes you to the peak of this mountain gem, along gravel footpaths and wooden boardwalks stretching over the bog that leads to the western slopes where you climb to the 445 metres-high summit ridge. From the top the views are exhilarating. Look towards the Wild Atlantic Way to see the islands of Inishturk, Inishbofin and Inishshark which lie off Connemara’s stunning coastline. To the north and east tower the Twelve Bens, a favourite of serious hikers and hill walkers who relish a challenge. You can also look down on the gothic turrets of Kylemore Abbey, a wonder of nineteenth-century architecture and said to be Ireland’s most romantic building. And directly north, the summit of Mweelrea, Connaught’s highest mountain, stretches into the sky.
The Diamond Hill loop walk starts and ends at the visitor centre in Connemara National Park, a welcoming spot for refuelling after the climb and for enjoying the ‘Man and the Landscape’ exhibition and multi-lingual audio visual show. The 2,000 hectare park is also home to Connemara ponies, red deer and an enormous variety of bird-life which populate its grasslands, mountains, bogs, heaths and forests. Remote and rugged, the park, and its highlight, Diamond Hill, is the perfect destination for those eager to escape for a while from the hustle and bustle of twenty-first-century city life.  Walking in Connemara. It’s one of many beautiful, unspoilt places to be discovered along the 2,500 km Wild Atlantic Way, the world’s longest defined touring route. Hugging Ireland’s wave-lashed western seaboard from Malin Head at the tip of the north-western county of Donegal, down to the southern town of Kinsale in County Cork, it’s a route that has more than enough wonders to fill your heart with Irish joy again and again. 
Hanan Scheers I travel the world to find unexpected stories. 15 February 2019
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