Connemara has a reputation for wild and desolate beauty which is certainly well deserved - it is like a sort of extended English Lake District, but with fewer people. We saw it in bright sunshine and the blue lakes, soaring hills and rugged coastline were most attractive. I understand that it is equally beautiful in the rain.
And then you come up against the morons of the Irish Tourist Board and dark thoughts of murder and mayhem fill your mind!
Take, for example, Clifden. This little town has only one claim to fame: the nearby Marconi Wireless Telegraphy station, the first in the world. So when you reach the town you expect to find a brown tourist sign directing you to it. Is there one? You must be joking!
There are brown signs pointing in every direction to all the pubs and B&Bs in town, to the gas works and the sewage works, the undertaker and the now-defunct-butcher (I exaggerate slightly), but nary a pointer to this important historical site. There isn't even a sign directing you to the library, which we just happened to notice as we drove round the town centre for the second time. By good fortune it was open and the librarian was most helpful and gave us detailed directions.
Our mood was not improved when we reached the last turning and discovered not one, but two signs pointing down the lane. Why wasn't one of them in the town centre?