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Connemara National Park Facts

Connemara National Park Facts
Connemara National Park is a 2,957 hectare park located in County Galway in western Ireland. A large portion of Connemara National Park's land was once part of Kylemore Abbey Estate and Letterfrack Industrial School. Many of the former buildings of Letterfrack are now used for park purposes such as the park office. The oldest evidence of human existence in the area dates back 4000 years, with megalithic court tombs. Evidence of the land's use for agricultural purposes in the past exist today as cultivation ridges, ruined houses, sheep pens and old kilns. The park was opened to the public in 1980.
Interesting Connemara National Park Facts:
One of the original founders of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, from the early 1800s, once owned the land that encompasses the southern area of Connemara National Park.
Connemara National Park is state owned today.
The park office building was once the Letterfrack Industrial School infirmary.
Connemara National Park's landscape is comprised of grasslands, heaths, bogs, mountains, and forests, as well as a graveyard dating to the 1800s.
The most common vegetation types growing in Connemara National Park are heathland (shrubland) and blanket bog (peatland).
There are carnivorous plants in Connemara National Park. These plants lure, trap, and consume (digest) insects for survival as they grow in areas where the soil does not provide enough nutrients. The two most common carnivorous plants in the park are butterworts trap and sundew.
Other plants that can be found growing in Connemara National Park include mosses, lichens, bog myrtle, orchids, lousewort, bog cotton, milkwort, and bog asphodel.
The most common plant growing in Connemara National Park is purple moorgrass. This plant creates colorful cascades across the park's countryside.
Birds are common in Connemara National Park and are one of its visitor draws.
Songbird species common in the park include Eurasian wrens, European robins, common chaffinches, European stonechats, skylarks, meadow pipits.
Birds of prey common in the park include the peregrine falcon, merlin, Eurasian sparrowhawk, and the common kestrel.
Migrating species that winter in Connemara include the woodcock, common starling, song thrush, redwing fieldfare, and common snipe.
Although they are often difficult to spot, mammals do exist in Connemara National Park. They include species such as field mice, foxes, rabbits, shrews, bats, red deer, stoats, and the Connemara pony - the park's largest mammal species.
In recent years mink have been seen within the park boundaries which pose a threat to native species within the area.
Visitors to Connemara National Park can bird watch, watch the Connemara ponies, enjoy walks on nature trails, use the picnic areas, or visit the tea room.
The four nature trails within Connemara National Park include Ellis Wood Nature Trail (0.5km), Sruffaunboy Walk (1.5km), Lower Diamond Hill Walk (3km), and Upper Diamond Hill Walk (3.7km).
There is no overnight camping in the park, but entrance is free. There are a variety of events throughout the year and the park grounds are open all year but the visitor center is only open from March to October.


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