Derrygimlagh: Marconi, Alcock and Brown, and a Bog Full of History

Two pieces of history on one bog

A few kilometres south of Clifden, out on the open Derrygimlagh bog, two extraordinary things happened on the same lonely patch of ground. It is one of the best stories in Connemara, and you can walk the whole of it on a looped trail of about five kilometres. The site is one of the Wild Atlantic Way's Signature Discovery Points, and unlike a lot of heritage attractions, there is no ticket and no gate; it is just you, the bog, and a remarkable amount of history.

Marconi's wireless station

In 1907, the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi opened the world's first commercial transatlantic wireless station here. It was a vast operation for its day, a complex of buildings sending messages across the Atlantic in Morse code, and it employed hundreds of local people in a part of Connemara that had little other work. Choosing a Connemara bog was not romance; the flat, open ground and the position on the far west of Europe suited the huge aerials the station needed.

The station ran for years before being wound down and damaged during the Civil War in the 1920s, and what is left now is ruins: the condenser house, the power station, and the foundations where the masts once stood, scattered across the bog. Walking among them, it is hard to picture the scale of what was here, which is part of what makes it so affecting.

Alcock and Brown come down

The second story landed, almost literally, on top of the first. On 15 June 1919, the aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight, having taken off from Newfoundland the day before in a converted Vickers Vimy bomber. They flew through fog and ice for under sixteen and a half hours and crossed the Irish coast near Clifden, low on fuel and looking for somewhere to land.

What looked from the air like a smooth green field was in fact the soft Derrygimlagh bog, and when they put down the wheels dug in and the aircraft nosed over into the ground. Both men climbed out unhurt, walked to the Marconi station nearby, and announced that they had just flown the Atlantic. They were knighted within days. A cairn out on the bog marks the spot where they came down, and the achievement is remembered as one of the great firsts in aviation, eight years before Lindbergh flew solo.

Walking the loop

The Derrygimlagh loop is around five kilometres, on a mix of boardwalk and bog path, and it is flat and easy, though completely exposed to the weather. There is a car park at the Discovery Point, and interpretive panels along the way explain what you are looking at, because the ruins themselves can be hard to read without a little help. Allow an hour and a half to two hours to do it properly and take in both the wireless station and the landing site.

Wear proper footwear, because the ground is wet bog, and bring a waterproof whatever the forecast, because there is no shelter out there. On a still day it is a quiet, almost eerie place; on a wild one it gives you a real sense of the conditions Alcock and Brown were flying into.

Why it is worth the trip

Plenty of places will tell you they are historic. Derrygimlagh actually is, twice over, and it wears it lightly. There is no grand visitor centre and no entrance fee, just a bog road south of Clifden, a car park, and a loop that takes you out to where the modern world reached across the ocean, first by wireless and then by air. For a town that is mostly known for its scenery, this is Clifden's deepest claim on history, and it is one of the most rewarding short walks in Connemara.