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Barna, a quiet, seaside village with its stone pier and excellent restaurants, located 8km from Galway City along the R336 coast road, is slowly becoming part of the suburban expansion of the city. Barna Woods lie to the right as one drives from Galway, and the left turn brings the visitor to Silver Strand, one of Galway’s most popular beaches. Fine views of the Burren Hills in Co Clare can be obtained from here, and the Aran Islands can also be seen when conditions are right.
Barna Pier
Barna Woods
Once a satellite of Galway city, the village is now rapidly becoming one of its suburbs. Officially the village is regarded as Irish speaking and is therefore a constituent part of the regions of Ireland that make up “An Gaeltacht”. However, because of its absorption into the city, it has become only recently, a mainly English speaking village. Nonetheless, Irish is still the main language of its western and northern hinterland and the village has now effectively become the gateway to the largest Irish speaking region in the country, Connemara.
Barna Woods
Barna Woods is located to the East of Barna and approximately 3 miles from Galway city centre. It has the last natural growing oaks in the west of Ireland. The woods are a conservation area, owned by the Galway County Council. A wonderful place for a quiet country walk.
Bearna Golf Course
Silver Strand
Silver Strand
Galway’s blue flag (an award for facilities and cleanliness) beach is 3 miles west of the city, so you’ll need a car for this, but it’s well worth a visit.
Bearna Golf & Country Club
Barna Golf and Country Club inaugurated in 1996, With more than 100 hectares of unique countryside, has resulted in generously proportioned fairways, with Water coming into play at thirteen of the eighteen holes. The Club’s motto ‘Failte and Ceol na Fuiseoige leat’ meaning ‘Welcome, and May lark-song accompany you’ is intended to signal the tranquillity and reception which awaits the visitor on every fairway. The skylark’s trill, the seagull’s cry, the scampering of the hare into deep rough, the startled flap of wild duck feeding in stream of lakelet, and the jumping of wild trout in Lough Inch or in the The Forbidden Lake are just some things which vie with golf-ball for attention, and bring the player into a more intimate relationship which nature and self.