Annascaul Ireland

Annascaul Ireland is a very small village, it appears somewhere in the range of 300 individuals make the town their home. It has a church, two grocery stores a number of inns and pubs as well as a coffee shop and art gallery which I sadly didn’t make it in due to the hours we were in the village. 
Annascaul is however most known for its famous former resident Tom Crean. Tom Crean was a Antarctic explorer who was born near Annascaul in 1877. After his many expeditions around the world he returned to the small village to open The South Pole Inn with his wife in the 1920s.

Annascaul was also where the sculptor Jerome Connar was born, though he emigrated to the United States when he was quite young. Jerome Connar is known for a number of monuments in Washington DC, including Nuns of the Battlefield. He is also responsible for the memorial of Tom Crean in the Annascaul public park.

I was injured out for day three of hiking so I could to explore the whole of the village while I waited for my ride. Which didn’t take long. The main street is probably only a half a mile long and like most things in Europe the stores didn’t open until much later than I was there. But despite the size, it was one of my favorite stops. Small and quiet with of course the kindest people imaginable. While there isn’t a lot to do here, if you find yourself in the area it is worth a stop in.