Achill Island

"Ireland's largest island — bog, cliff, deserted village, and some of the cleanest beaches on the western seaboard."

Achill is Ireland's largest offshore island, connected to the Mayo mainland by a short bridge. Its Atlantic coast is a string of dramatic headlands and empty strands; its interior is blanket bog and sheep.

The highlight for most walkers is Slievemore — the island's highest peak — and the abandoned booley village on its southern slope, a row of stone cottages that were occupied as seasonal grazing huts into the 1940s.

We base in Keel and walk different routes each day. Most afternoons end at Keem Bay, a cove so blue it doesn't quite look real.