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"The islands in the bay which was of gold colour, look like so many dolphins and whales basking there," wrote the English novelist W.M. Thackeray on a visit to Westport in 1842. Set in a picturesque eighteenth-century landscape on the shores of Clew Bay, WESTPORT , is a comfortable, relaxed town, still recognizably Georgian - it was planned by the architects Richard Castle and James Wyatt - with a leafy mall, octagonal square, a canalized river and one of Ireland's great stately homes, Westport House. For the past ten years, it has capitalized on its fine architecture and busy urban buzz to offer some elegant town living in the midst of the wild scenery of the remote west. During summer, the place is tremendously lively, with Irish, British, French and German visitors returning annually to resample its charms, and a couple of excellent festivals. In its heyday the town was extremely prosperous, fattened by the trade in linen and cotton cloth and yarn. However, like many places throughout Ireland, Westport was hit hard by the Act of Union of 1801. Although local landowners like the first Marquess of Sligo supported the Act in the belief that it would be of economic benefit, the reverse was in fact true: Irish hand looms were no competition for the new spinning jennies in Britain's industrial towns, the national linen and cotton industries declined, and Westport's economy was ruined. Mass unemployment forced a choice between reverting to subsistence farming or starting a new life in America. Its quiet Georgian beauties and its lively modern streetlife apart, the reason Westport is on the tourist trail nowadays is Westport House (June daily 1.30-5.30pm; July & Aug Mon-Fri 11.30am-5.30pm, Sat & Sun 1.30-5.30pm; Sept house only daily 2-5pm; www.westporthouse.ie ; house GBP6/?7.62, children's pass for house, animal and bird park and amusements GBP7.50/?9.52), a mile or so out of town towards Clew Bay. Built on the site of one of the castles of the sixteenth-century pirate queen Grace O'Malley (a direct ancestor of the current owner , Westport House was beautifully designed in 1730 by the ubiquitous Richard Castle, with later additions by Thomas Ivory and James Wyatt. This was one of the first Irish houses opened to the public - and it's had a go at any and every way of making money. There's a bird and animal park in the grounds, a water slide, bouncy castle and mini-railway for the kids plus horse-drawn caravans for rent, while the dungeons (which belonged to an earlier house) have everything from a trace-your-ancestor service to ghostly sound-effects; the loos are billed, with some welcome self-irony, "Westport House Toilet Centre". On the plus side, though, the delicate response of the house to its luminous surroundings of land, light and water is undimmed and wonderful if you can ignore the commerce - and feel like shelling out the swingeing admission fee. Inside the house there's a Holy Family by Rubens, a violin which used to belong to J.M. Synge and, on the first floor, a room with lovely Chinese wallpapers dating from 1780. A lot of the mahogany in the house was brought back from Jamaica by the first marquess, who was instrumental in freeing slaves during his time as governor there. On the walls of the staircase, a series of paintings of local views by James Arthur O'Connor, commissioned by the second marquess in 1818 and 1819, shows an idyllic nineteenth-century landscape, an overweeningly romantic version of the dramatic scenery at Delphi and bustling activity as sailing boats are unloaded at Westport Quay. This was wishful thinking - Westport in the 1810s was already overshadowed by the changes in the relationship with England, and by 1825 was finished as an industrial centre. Further out on The Quay, the Clew Bay heritage centre (Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat-Sun 2-6pm; GBP2/?2.54) - an engaging but chaotic jumble of old coins, agricultural implements, typewriters, ration books and other detritus - fails to live up to its grandiose title
Your Tip for Westport
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