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from £1,770 or €2,025
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Included – 5 ½ days guided trail riding, 7 nights comfortable en-suite accommodation, all meals – from arrival day evening dinner, daily full Irish breakfast and tasty lunch on riding days, luggage transport during the week.
Excluded – Getting there, alcoholic drinks and soft drinks, tips.
Weekly Saturday to Saturday from April to mid October
Getting There
International clients can fly into Shannon and then hire a car, or a transfer can be arranged.
Transfer
Transfers can be arranged from Shannon airport, they are approximately €55 each way per person.
Our Galway Clare Burren trail ride is a true post to post ride, where you will get to ride each day on a new route and the horses stay everyday on a different field, as you travel from the Shannon river close to the border of Galway up to the Atlantic Ocean close to the Cliffs of Moher.
On this week long guided ride you definitely get a great rural Ireland experience. International guests are in for a treat and those visitors closer to home will be blown away with the countryside that is on their doorstep, it’s a really rural stunning area to ride though.
You will be riding through rural farmland laced with famine ruins and miles of stonewalls, enjoying the great views of the river Shannon. In the stunning moss covered forests of the Slieve Aughty Mountains we come across so many deer who cross our tracks as well as some magical old fairy trees. On the extensive areas of coloured heather and bogland, where the peat is cut, you’ll see plenty of free roaming horses and cattle as this is typically “commonage” land. It definitely feels like a step back in time. Heading westwards we come to the unique scenery of the Burren national park. With it’s moon like landscape of limestone, famously beautiful flora and fauna as well as a stunning variety of prehistoric Celtic ring forts, dolmens, silent memorials of monastic settlements and spooky looking castle ruins. Reaching the rugged coast line, we ride along the well publicised wild Atlantic way, with stunning views of the see, the Aran Islands, the distant Connemara Mountains and the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher. It has to be one of the best ways to explore Ireland.
Your hosts Bertie and Nicola have been running trails for decades and have heaps of experience to make the trip special. It’s a lovely story; Bertie is a Galway man from rural farming background where horses were always part of life, Nicola is German but was brought up in Venezuala, later working for American Express Travel for many years. She met Bertie on a riding holiday and the rest is history. They bought a 300 year old farmhouse 20+ years ago and lovingly restored it and filled it with antiques..this now forms the guesthouse where you stay at the start of your ride. Combining Bertie’s horsemanship and farming knowledge with Nicola’s travel/guest knowledge and professionalism make them a fabulous duo to host you and Nicola runs the whole show and checks in daily to make sure everyone is happy.
Horses –Connemara, Irish Cob, Irish sport horse and crosses. Many of them are home bred and all are specifically trained by us for trail riding. They are happy to work, have a great attitude and are suitable for different riding levels.
Level of Riding & Pace – Riders have to be physically fit and safe at all paces. This is not a fast ride due to the terrain but some days you will ride for 6 hours.
Tack – English style and we have some Western saddles (on request)
Weight Restriction – 13 stone/85Kg/185lbs
Group Size – maximum 8 guests + 2 guides
minimum 3 guests + 2 guides
For the initial 4 nights (Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue) in the unique charming setting of the lovingly restored traditional 300 year old farmhouse in the An Sibin Riding Centre.
All meals are home cooked with many fresh ingredients out of the organic farm garden. A full Irish breakfast and 3 course dinner is served in the old stone farmhouse in front of a turf fire.
Wednesday night you will stay in a B&B in Corofin and have dinner in a local pub/restaurant of course with traditional music and sessions always an option.
Thursday night you will stay in a 3*hotel in Lisdoonvarna where you will have dinner (will be one of the hotels from the White group;The Hydro, Imperial or Burren Castle hotel depending what is available). There is great nightlife and pubs for more entertainment later in the evening if you wish.
On Friday you will transferred back to the farmhouse for the final night.
On the riding days the tasty lunch is served as a picnic/lunch buffet, when the riders meet our backup vehicle for the midday break.
Please Ask About
On the arrival day Saturday or on Sunday afternoon (no riding) you have time to visit the beautiful setting of the ruined monastic settlement on Holy Island per boat (EUR12 p.person) in the river Shannon. Driving distance 15min by car.
Or you can visit Portumna Castle and the Irish Workhouse Museum (EUR12 p.person), driving distance 25 min by car.
Galway Clare Burren Trail – Itinerary by Day
Day 1
Arrive and check into An Sibin Riding Centre. You will be staying here for the first four nights. On the arrival day you can just relax and recover from your journey, or take a stroll on the walking trails around our property. For the more adventurous among you, there is also the possibility to go on a guided boat tour to historic Holy Island with its monastic settlement of the 9th century. In the evening, you will get to know all your fellow riders for this week. You will have dinner in the tastefully restored 300-year-old farmhouse in our An Sibin Riding Centre by candlelight and turf fire.
Day 2
After breakfast you will be brought to the start of the trail, where your guide will allocate the horses according to your experience. Every rider can then get used to his horse for the week by brushing and tacking up – don’t worry there are always lots of helping hands around you! We will then leave for an easy ride across the extensive areas of bog land. There we might see local farmers cutting and drying the turf in the traditional way. A Neolithic dolmen – with the legendary name Oisin`s and Grainne`s Grave – beside the track proves that this area was already mystified about 5000 years ago. Much more recent (about 9th century) are the ruins of the monastic settlement on Holy Island, which we can easily spot by the typical round tower. We finish the first day ride on one of our fields where the horses stay overnight and we drive back to the An Sibin guesthouse for lunch. For the afternoon riders and horses take a rest and enjoy a relaxing evening.
Day 3
Today’s ride brings us across huge areas of heather and bog land with fascinating views over the majestic Lough Derg and River Shannon. Along the track we will be passing old farm ruins and miles of stonewalls and your guide will tell you about Irelands most significant incident in history: About 150 years ago many farms and villages where left because of the Famine. This was the time of the severe potato blight, which destroyed for a couple of years the sole source of food supply for the rural and poor Irish peasant and their livestock. In addition to that a Typhus- and Cholera epidemic enforced the disaster, leading to a flood of thousands of people emigrating to other countries. After our lunch break in the forest we will head on along the surrounding peaceful trails through the Slieve Aughty Mountains and ride past some rural farms to a new overnight field for the horses.
Day 4
Leaving the sheltered pasture we are heading this morning for the top of the hills overlooking endless woods and grazing land to the north, west and south. Long before we get there we can spot way under us the sandy shores of Lough Graney where we are heading for. After lunch our trail ride goes along the water and then we will be splashing right across the refreshing lake with our horses! The ride in the later afternoon takes us through typical farmland of rural Ireland with its juicy green fields and the endless old stone walls surrounding the peacefully grazing sheep and cattle.
Day 5
Today’s lovely wood tracks take us further westwards overlooking Glandaria (the valley of the Kings) the wide fertile valley of the River Shannon, where hundreds of years ago Irelands kings preferably used to settle. After the lunch break near a typical mountain river we will cross the boggy uplands. County Clare unfolds all around us up to the in the distance rising hills of the famous Burren National Park. On a clear day we will even catch the first glimpse of Galway Bay. This afternoon our horses will be transferred by lorry across the main road, to tomorrow’s ride across the fascinating landscape of the Burren. You will be staying tonight in the charming village of Corofin with its countless pubs and great Irish music sessions.
Day 6
The totally different and unique scenery of the world renowned Burren will accompany us for the next two days. The moon like landscape of this limestone area bears not only an immensely colourful flora and fauna with a large number of very rare species, but also reveals a stunning variety of prehistoric settlements. Dolmens and Wedge Tombs line up next to Norman stone fort ruins and Celtic ring forts. With a beautiful view across the Burren landscape, we will enjoy our lunch. It is amazing how many eye-catching sites this at first sight so vast looking landscape can offer us. The next two nights you will be staying in the Lisdoonvarna area, which is famous for the traditional music in the pubs. After dinner the guests have the opportunity to visit the fascinating Cliffs of Moher close up for sunset (taxi trip about EUR 8 per person) – an unforgettable experience.
Day 7
Today we head westwards through the Burren, learning about the impressive Poulnabrone Dolmen, and the extensive – and dangerous – cave systems in this special area. We lead our horse down along an old Irish famine green road, then rest for lunch overlooking the story telling rocky landscape. After the break we lead our horses up the last hill for the breathtaking view over the Atlantic Sea, the famous Aran Islands and the rugged Connemara Mountains. The extremely rough shore of County Clare stretches out way below us as we enjoy the last canters along the old stone walled tracks on Slieve Elva. In the glittering afternoon sunlight the impressive silhouette of the Cliffs of Moher rise in the distance. Near the ruins of Ballinalaken Castle our ride ends.
Day 8
After breakfast and packing it’s time to head home either by car or for international visitors back to Shannon airport.
Zara’s Planet Horse Riding Holidays Guarantee:
All our horse riding holidays are price guaranteed. We will refund the difference should you find the same horse riding holiday elsewhere at a lower price.
If you are having trouble finding exactly the right horse riding holiday for you from our horse riding holiday collection, please contact us directly using the form below and tell us in your own words what you would like to do and we will use our extensive knowledge to make sure we find that perfect horse riding holiday.
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