BALLINROBE
is probably worth visiting only if you're here in the third week of July, for the
Ballinrobe Races
. This is Irish racing as you've imagined it, with a great atmosphere at a picturesque and compact course; there's excellent viewing and it's all very relaxed and amateur. For accommodation, there are a couple of
B&Bs
- book early for race week - try Mrs Anne Mahon's
Riverside House
in the Cornmarket (tel 092/41674; £33-40/?41.90-50.79).
South of Ballinrobe, on the R334 around Neale, is clustered a sequence of monuments, ancient and not-so-ancient. They range from a series of stone circles, nearer Cong, to a cross and another of the mysterious monuments that abound in Ireland, a massive stone-stepped
pyramid
, with an almost indecipherable inscription, including the name George Browne and some worn Roman numerals, dating it somewhere in the eighteenth century. The Brownes are the family who occupy Westport House; but the reason for the pyramid remains obscure.
