Moycullen Heritage Trails -Siúlóidí Oidhreachta Mhaigh Cuilinn

Maigh Cuilinn (Moycullen) is a Gaeltacht village situated 10 km northwest of Galway city. It is near Lough Corrib, on the road to Oughterard and Clifden. It is the gateway to Connemara.

The name Maigh Cuilinn can be interpreted as ‘plain of the holly’. However, the mythological interpretation of Maigh Uilinn tells the story of Manannán Mac Lir slain by Uilinn in a battle on the western shores of Lough Corrib approximately 1000 B.C. Uilinn was the grandson of Nuadu of the Silver Hand, King of Ireland in the time of the Tuatha Dé Danann. A great stone (Cloch Mhór Liagán) is said to mark the burial place of Uilinn, and you will pass a sign noting its probable location on the Sean Reilig Trail.

The village of Moycullen as we know it today is formed by the coming together of four townlands at the crossroads (Ballyquirke, Killarainey, Kylebroughlan, and Gortyloughlin). The original village surrounded the O’Flaherty castle located in Home Farm, which you will pass by on one of the trails. We hope you explore and enjoy these trails.

As you venture along these trails, you will pass over bridges and canals, walk through woodland and bogland with views of our beautiful lakes and rivers. Your journey will bring you from ancient wells, early Christian sites, famine graveyards and soup kitchens, Cromwell, the RIC, penal times, and the ancient tribes of Galway to our past and present schools and churches. From the Bianconi stagecoaches to the Galway–Clifden railway, in the company of modern and ancient poets, scholars, and authors.

Take time to enjoy the old ivy-clad stone walls and hedgerows, our bogs and woodlands, our flora including honeysuckle, ferns, mosses, buttercups, rhododendrons, anemones, blackthorns, foxglove, ground elder, primrose and dogrose — to name but a few. Our hazel and holly trees and our lakes and rivers are full of perch, bream, roach, rudd, and pike.

You will hear the sounds of our wood pigeons, pheasants, thrushes, and blackbirds, as well as our other native birds. You may be lucky to come across our native animals on a quiet evening such as foxes, badgers, hares, and rabbits throughout these trails.