Cong Rally - Co. Mayo

Our rally site at Cong was a long day's drive from Rosslare, about 220 miles, so we set off early in the rain. We found the Irish roads not as suitable for towing as ours back at home, there were very few places to stop for coffee, lunch or toilets, and they were not very well surfaced. We arrived at Cong about 7.00pm, still in the rain and met our stewards John and Margaret. Once we were set up we put the heating on, again! and made our dinner and then went to bed early, again!
Next morning, what a different world, the sun was shining, the grass was green and we were warm. John took a couple of us ladies in to the town to see where the shops were, so we came back with bacon and eggs and newspapers in time for breakfast.
As it was our first time rallying we were not sure what to expect, but as more people turned up we all got chatting around coffees and drinks and were asked what we would like to do. There were a few excursions arranged, but we did not feel pressured to go. As Cong is renowned for the making of the film 'The Quiet Man' we had a showing of it one evening in the little cinema on the site. The next day we went on a walking tour of the town/village to see all the locations used in the film.


One outing was to drive up to Westport, where we took a cruise along the Killary Fjord which was beautiful, even more so as it was again a nice sunny day.

After the cruise we went for a look at Westport House, as well as Kylemore Abbey and Gardens.





Brian and I like walking and were spoilt for choice around the grounds of Ashford Castle which was right next to our campsite, so we spent a few pleasant afternoons wandering and watching the wildlife on Lough Corrib.



We also had a beautiful drive around Lough Mask, stopping to talk to some fisherman repairing their boats at the side of the Lough. We saw some old houses with lots of land, where they have now built new houses alongside.





Cong village itself was quite pretty, with plenty of watering-holes for the inevitable Guinness and was a pleasant 20 minute walk across the golf course.

We had a few evenings aranged with auctions, quizzes, games and watching DVD's; one very hot afternoon we all decided to go and play crazy golf on the course next door , ending up with about 20 crazy adults having a competition!


All in all a very interesting fortnight with other folk, made all the better by the fact that we probably had the best weather of the summer. There were 18 units at this rally and 9 of us were driving on to Killarney to the 3 week rally there (although we were only going for one week).......see you at Fossa Camp site!