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The east shore of Lough Corrib provides a gentle route between County Mayo and Galway city, which is less dramatic than the Connemara roads. The lake shore and the many rivers are popular with fishermen (for trout and salmon in summer, pike in winter), and visitors with no taste for field sports have a number of medieval ruins to admire. Two miles north of Headford, virtually on the border of County Mayo, is Ross Errilly (or "Ross Abbey"), the biggest and best-preserved Franciscan abbey in Ireland. It was founded in the mid-fourteenth century, but the bulk of the buildings belong to the fifteenth - the Franciscan Order's greatest period of expansion. The church buildings themselves are impressive, with a battlemented slender tower (typical of Franciscan abbeys) and well-preserved windows, and there's a wonderful tiny cloister, but it's the adjacent domestic buildings and the picture they give of the everyday life of the order that are perhaps the most interesting. Stand in the cloister with your back to the church and you'll see the refectory ahead and to the right, with the reader's windowside desk up in the far northeast corner. Straight ahead is a second cloister (this one without arcading) and behind that the bakehouse. To the northwest of this second courtyard lies the kitchen, where you can see a water-tank used for holding fish and an oven which reaches into the little mill-room to the rear. Five miles south of Headford, a detour off the main road leads you right down to the lough shore and the ruined Franciscan friary of Annaghdown - far less impressive than Ross Errilly - and a nearby Norman castle. It was at this site, after all his voyaging and preaching, that St Brendan finally died, nursed by his sister, who was head of Annaghdown nunnery. The road then loops back to rejoin the main Galway Road. The road opposite the one that leads to Annaghdown takes you to the townland of Corrandulla, where the seventeenth-century Gregg Castle (tel 091/791434; GBP90-110/?114.28-139.67) provides unusual B&B accommodation : a place of beautiful faded splendour. Everything is geared towards relaxation (with breakfast till noon) and conviviality: the owners are garrulous traditional musicians and enjoy evenings with guests around the log fire in the Great Hall. Self-catering is also available. Another quality B&B option in the area, with wonderful views over Lough Corrib, is the welcoming Balindiff Bay Lodge , Luimnagh, Corrandulla (tel 091/791195; GBP40-55/?50.79-69.84).
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