Lough Boora Discovery Park is way out in the middle of nowhere, which is where the best bits of Ireland can often be found. It’s a cutaway raised bog in County Offaly, somewhere between Birr and Tullamore, and can be reached by a narrow road that will severely punish the suspension of any vehicle you might happen to be driving and sternly chastise the limbs and ligaments of anyone inside that vehicle, so for the last stretch, go easy, for your own sake.

Bogs are a thriving and complex ecosystem, so naturally, we exploited the hell out of them, utterly devastating said ecosystems, and now only a fraction remains of the great raised bogs of Ireland. Various projects are ongoing to restore boglands, and they can be visited and their boardwalks traversed and you can soak up the sights of bog cotton and sphagnum moss. What’s different about Lough Boora is the art project that was undertaken in 2002. A number of sculptures were devised and installed by artists throughout the bog using materials to hand, including some left behind by the industrialised harvesting of peat for fuel. The result is a meandering walk that has something odd, strange and surprising around every turn.

We visited in October, when things were quiet and the air was cool. We’ve been in summer, and the ground tends to soak up and radiate back the heat of the sun, so it can feel a bit like being barbecued at times. We had a late lunch of toasted ham and cheese sandwiches at the cafe, sitting out on the deck and looking at the lake, admiring the little boats and the gleaming metal crown-like sculpture on the island, visited by a few fearless little birds looking for crumbs.

A bike hire service provided a few serviceable boneshakers. The roads and paths are mostly quite flat and level, so cycling isn’t too much of challenge, but it’s worth taking the time to get a bike that suits you. We then set out on a a gentle tour of the sculpture park and the Neolithic route. There are many old trains lying around, once used to carry loads of cut turf out of the bog, and the nine-year-old was unable to pass even one of them without stopping to take it for a drive. The most spectacular example is the Sky Train, lying atop a curved section of track on a bank of raised earth.

Past woodlands full of willow and birch and alder, along flooded ditches, through wetlands thronged with reeds, everything reddish and russet in the late Autumn sun, a windmill turning in the distance, sending me reaching for some metaphor about the ancient and the modern that I never quite managed to nail down. An hour’s bike hire passed surprisingly quickly as we stopped to examine sites and sights and sculptures every few minutes, and if we’d arrived earlier with more light left in the evening we wouldn’t have noticed the time passing.

Apart from the sculptures, there are fairy trails for the young, angling for the fishers, the mesolithic archaeological site, extraordinary works of art and craft like the Gathering Of Stones, hides for birdwatching and more history, biodiversity and art gathered in one place than you could ever have thought possible. There are assorted events on throughout the year, so do check out the website in advance to see if any coincide with your visit.

We returned our bikes and while the sun sank down and the air grew chill and the nine-year-old had one last drive of the old bog train painted to look like Thomas The Tank Engine, we sat by the lake and watched as swans flew by low overhead in a great arc around us and the fish rose to feed sending ripples and splashes across the mirrored surface.

For more information on Irish bogs and bog restoration visit raisedbogs.ie.

Nigel Quinlan spent his summers in the bog, drying and packing turf for winter fuel. Now he’s a children’s writer living in Tipperary, author of The Cloak Of Feathers and The Maloneys’ Magical Weatherbox. He tweets @Nigellicus.

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Drive vaguely and meanderingly northwest out of Galway city, following signs for Connemara or Clifden or Sheep On The Road or Invasive Species Do Not Eat. Through Oughterard with its pleasant riverside park on the far side, Maam Cross with a rather musty replica of the cottage from John Ford’s The Quiet Man and the film itself on repeat in the bar at the hotel, turning right down the genuinely spectacular Inagh Valley where your attention will be divided between the splendid bleak majesties of the open boglands, the rocky glories of the mountains and watching out for the sodding sheep that are ON THE ROAD.

Having survived the sheep of the Valley, turn left and brace yourself as you cross the top of the lake for the ridiculously and irresistibly picturesque sight of Kylemore Abbey. You’ll want to pop in there at some point to wander the house, visit the beautiful little church and soak up the colours of the gardens.

Beyond Kylemore is Letterfrack with its life-enriching furniture college on the location of what was once a dark and terrible orphanage. Diamond Hill shines down when the sun is out, and Connemara National Park surrounds it with a lovely visitor’s centre, a playground, a bog walk, a longer bog walk, and a bloody hell I hope your knees need a workout climb up Diamond itself. As a walk it is easy, clear, well-laid out and reasonably busy. As a climb it can be managed in two to three hours and an afternoon of basically sitting and waiting for the feeling to come back into your legs.

On a clear day at the top, though, all such earthly mortal concerns fall away, carried into the sky by the tangy sea breeze as you slowly survey the glories of the Twelve Bens.

Go right at Letterfrack, the sea on the left, drive out onto the Renvyle Peninsula to Tully Cross where old-fashioned, well-maintained, friendly-looking but cool-in-the-evenings cottages can be rented as a base for various adventurings.

In one direction is Glassillaun beach and its nearby scuba-diving school. A solid A for sandcastles and F for Freezing Water, then again it is the flippin’ Atlantic and takes some acclimatisation or teflon skin or something.

Beyond Glassilaun is Killary Fjord where you can wind your way past the sheep to the hostel where Wittgenstein spent a few wild years fishing for crabs with the locals (presumably – those German philosophers were off the hook), and take a boat ride round the fjord itself.

Assorted other diversions await back on Renvyle, including a glass-bottomed boat for ogling the sealife and the crabs lucky enough to survive Wittgenstein’s depradations. A castle belonging to legendary pirate queen and actual historical figure Granuaile can be viewed in much the same way most of her enemies viewed it – from a safe distance. White Strand Beach is gorgeous and gets an A+ for castle-building.

Out the road to the bustling town of Clifden, and the Sky Road, just the Road for visitors who have developed a dangerous addiction to spectacle and beauty and swerving around road-sheep. Deserted mock-gothic ruin Clifden House is a short walk off the road and affords the opportunity to lord it over the remnants of the glory days of the Irish landed gentry.

If you still need more, the boat to Inishbofin departs and returns daily, with bikes or canoes for rent on the island.

The beaches are lovely and calm and seabirds abound, but only a B at best for sandcastles.

Exhausted and replete, watched by the curious road-sheep, one may now drive carefully back to Galway.

Nigel Quinlan lives in Tipperary but likes to holiday with his family in the wilds of Connemara. He is the author of the children’s fantasy novels The Cloak Of Feathers and The Maloneys’ Magical Weatherbox. Follow or avoid him @Nigellicus That’s him in the blue hat.

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