Connemara Rainbows and Snow

The weather has turned really cold and crisp. Yesterday morning (12th Dec)it was snowing as I travelled the Inagh Valley between #Kylemore Abbey and Recess. It is such a beautiful stretch of wilderness with the sun catching the golds of the landscape and the blue sky, between the snow showers, reflected in the clear lakes below. There was a rainbow (or snowbow) over Kylemore and a heavy dusting of snow over the Twelve Bens and Maamturks mountain ranges which flank this valley.

A white Christmas is a rare event here as snow doesn’t settle here for more than a few days as we have the benefit of the gulf stream warming the waters along the coast. Despite the high rainfall of up to 3000mm of rain at mountain tops little falls as ice or snow. The bookies odds are looking more and more  favorable for white Christmases in Dublin and Cork weather stations http://www.paddypower.com/bet/novelty-betting/weather/white-christmas-2013. No betting for Connemara but I’m hoping that we can spend days over the holidays crunching across frozen bogs and maybe even build a snowman or have a snowball fight!

Photo 1: Mweelin in Snow

Photo 2: Derryclare mountain with hand cut turf bank to the fore

Photo 3: Derryclare Mountain with Lough Inagh

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