Connemara National Park, National park in County Galway, Ireland.
Connemara National Park is a protected natural area of around 2,000 hectares spread across the Twelve Bens mountain range in County Galway. The terrain includes mountains, bogs, heaths, grasslands, and patches of woodland that create a varied landscape.
The park opened to the public in 1980 on land that had belonged to the Kylemore Abbey estate. Its visitor centre and offices occupy the farm buildings of the former Letterfrack Industrial School. The grounds hold a 19th-century graveyard and megalithic court tombs about 4,000 years old.
The park entrance and visitor centre occupy the farm buildings of the former Letterfrack Industrial School, and the exhibition inside explains how the surrounding bog formed and how turf was cut and used. The 19th-century graveyard and the 4,000-year-old megalithic court tombs in the park are remains of earlier inhabitants.
The park entrance and visitor centre are in Letterfrack on the N59 between Galway, Clifden and Westport. The longest waymarked trail runs from the centre to the summit of Diamond Hill, which rises over 400 metres. The centre has an exhibition on bog formation and peat use, plus a cafeteria and playground.
The park's highest point is Diamond Hill, over 400 metres, reached by the longest of the marked trails from the visitor centre. The summit of the Twelve Bens range, Benbaun, lies outside the park. The visitor centre itself occupies the farm buildings of the former Letterfrack Industrial School.
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