Mayo Advertiser, January 22, 2010.
Castlebar is 'traffic-choked'
By Geraldine Carr
According to the ninth edition of the Lonely Planet Ireland guidebook, which was published this week, many areas in Mayo were highly recommended as places to visit as the county has "pub saturated Ballina, busy Castlebar, and Georgian jewel Westport".
Lonely Planet describes Westport, with its "central location" as a "convenient and enjoyable base for exploring the county" and "the town's Georgian streets, lime tree-shaded riverside mall, and colourful pubs are about as photogenic as Ireland gets."
Other picturesque areas noted include the recently opened Ballycroy National Park as it "is a gorgeously scenic region"; the "pristine beaches of the Mullet Peninsula", and the River Moy, "which pumps right through the heart" of Ballina is "one of the most prolific rivers in Europe for catching the scaly critters".
Castlebar is described "as a hub for shops and services, but most places of interest for visitors lie outside the town centre" and it has a "traffic-choked (and poorly signed) one-way road system".
The overall consensus of this recent travel edition is that Ireland "needs to draw on more of its unique culture and traditions in order to continue to attract tourists from around the world".
Westport, historically known as Cahernamart is a town in County Mayo, Ireland. It is situated on the west coast of Ireland, at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. Westport has a gracious town centre in the Georgian architectural style, as one of the few planned towns in the country (by James Wyatt in 1780). The planning of the town was commissioned by Lord Sligo of the stately home, Westport House, as a place for his workers and tenants to live. Among the picturesque features of the town are its tree-lined, flower decorated, promenade (The Mall) and several stone bridges over the river Carrow Beg.
Westport is designated as a heritage town and is unusual in Ireland in that it one of only a few planned towns in the country.[8] The design of the town is attributed to James Wyatt, a famous English architect. He also completed Westport House,the stately home of the Marquess of Sligo and designed its dining room. Westport House had originally been built by Richard Cassels, the German architect, in the 1730s, on the site of the original O' Malley Castle. The dungeons of the O' Malley castle still remain. The most notable feature of James Wyatt's town plan is the lovely tree-lined boulevard, the Mall, built on the River Carrowbeg.
