When most people think of Ireland, they imagine bucolic green fields dotted with fluffy sheep, or cobblestone streets lined with signs advertising Guinness. But there is a lesser-known side to the Emerald Isle. It is deep in the grey, barren mountains of the Connemara region, in County Galway, hiking through land that has remained virtually untouched for thousands of years. The only remnants of human activity are scattered relics left behind by the few others who have been devoted enough to traverse this inhospitable environment.
During the Act of Settlement in 1653, Oliver Cromwell famously ordered Irish landowners to go “to Hell or to Connacht”, one of Ireland’s ancient kingdoms. The two were synonymous in his mind because of the rocky ground conditions and mountainous landscape. Today, Connacht encompasses five counties in the western part of the country, including Galway. But while farming has destroyed most of Ireland’s forested regions, the Maumturk mountain range in Galway’s Connemara region was agriculturally useless, and it was left to grow wild.
Culture and information are fluid in this part of Ireland, which is home to the country’s highest number of native Irish language speakers. As such, climbing these mountains requires an equal amount of science (in the form of a good relief map and compass) and reliable local knowledge. The Maumturks, a range of six peaks across Connemara, can also be spelled as Maamturks or even Mhám Toirc, and then sometimes colloquially referred to as “The Turks”.
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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