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LETTERFRACK itself is an orderly nineteenth-century Quaker village in a rugged setting. The village is tiny, but there's good food (especially wholefood and cheeses), and occasionally music, at Veldon's and discos in The Bard's Den (Fri & Sat). In the east end of town is the thatched restaurant, Pangur Ban , which has an attractive, eclectic menu including delicious tempura, though for a real culinary treat try Rosleague Manor (tel 095/41101), which serves wholesome and filling traditional food in elegant surroundings. There's also a post office, phone, shop and bureau de change and the lovely, rambling independent Old Monastery hostel (IHH; tel 095/41132, oldmon@indigo.ie ) with camping , bike rental and great food; breakfasts of baked scones and porridge are included in the price, and dinners are also available. It makes a perfect base for walking in the national park. Bog Week (the weekend leading up to the first Monday in June) and Sea Week (the weekend leading up to the last Monday in October) see Letterfrack at its liveliest, when a heady mix of conservationists and musicians descend upon the place for field trips, conferences and sessions. Two miles east of here, the neo-Gothic towers of Kylemore Abbey sit in a rhododendron-filled hollow against lush deciduous slopes. Its white castellated outline, perfectly reflected in the reed-punctured lake, has made it the subject of many a postcard. It's home to Irish Benedictine nuns and houses a girls' boarding school, but the library and entrance hall are freely accessible, and there's an exhibition telling the history of Kylemore (Easter-Oct daily 9am-5.30pm; GBP3.30/?4.19). A stroll through the woods leads to the Gothic church, a small-scale copy of Norwich Cathedral built in 1868. The abbey also has an impressive heritage shop and restaurant. Renvyle House , some eight miles northwest of Kylemore Abbey, is of immense interest in Irish literary and political history. At one time it was visited by the great Edwardian comic twosome Somerville and Ross, authors of Stories of an Irish R.M. , but the house's most famous owner was Oliver St John Gogarty, the distinguished surgeon, writer and wit. An associate of the Gaelic League, he attended the literary evenings of Yeats, Moore and AE (George Russell), and is immortalized as "stately plump Buck Mulligan" in Joyce's Ulysses. Renvyle House is now a hotel (tel 095/43511 or 43444, www.renvyle.com ; GBP70-90/?88.88-114.28) offering facilities - which are also available to non-residents - such as horse riding, wind-surfing and a swimming pool. About a mile west of the hotel lies a ruined O'Flahertie castle , superbly positioned overlooking the sea. On Derryniver Bay, one mile west of Renvyle is the Ocean's Alive Aquarium and Visitor's Centre (tel 095/43473; GBP3/?3.81), featuring a reconstructed traditional cottage, a mini farm and a short coastal walk where you can examine old fishing boats.
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