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Often seen as simply a passage between scenic Galway and literary Yeats country, County Mayo is little visited - though it's hard to see why. Like Galway to the south and Sligo to the north, it has a landscape of high cliffs, lonely mountains and bright fuchsia hedges; in the wild, boggy area to the northwest are the vestiges of a Gaeltacht ; and on Lough Conn there's some of the best fishing in Ireland. The Georgian town of Westport , an elegantly urban playground for travellers needing a break from the dazzling lights and landscapes of the wild west, is the only place that's really on the international tourist trail. Achill Island , the biggest of the Irish offshore islands and a traditional Irish family holiday resort, has an oddly fly-blown air that won't suit everyone. Some of the most exciting country, however, is the little-travelled northwest. The interpretive centre at Ceide holds the key to understanding a landscape that's hardly changed for millennia. The area is easily accessible: the railway will take you right out to Westport, and there's an international airport at Knock (with cheap flights designed for pilgrims to the shrine of the Virgin Mary). Furthermore the whole of the county is magical cycling country. Mayo is bound to become busier, but for the moment it remains wonderfully empty.
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