Yesterday, I started telling you about the trip from Galway to Kylemore Abbey and how I got detoured nearly 2 hours. You can see the post here.

By the time I made it to the James Joyce craft and gift shop, I was ready for a break. I’d been battling down very narrow, winding roads, and past several sheep and cars on roads which proved to be a bit stressful since they weren’t on a map and nothing was labelled. The craft shop is on the N59 road, and after not having seen any place to stop, this looked like a nice place – not only because of the complex of small shops – but also because it had a couple of eye catching monuments that made me want to stop. Pulling over, however, I found that the monuments were rife with Irish humor.

This is a sculpture of the Connemara Giant. It’s huge, and made out of granite. It sits directly in front of a sort of art deco shield type monument, which one would expect would have names or commemorate something important. Upon closer inspection, the sign under the Giant says:

The giant was erected for no apparent reason. It cracked me up. As I maneuvered myself around to the second monument that sits just behind the Giant, I was again greeted with a but of humor that even PT Barnum would have appreciated.

Yep, on this site in 1897, Nothing Happened.

After getting a drink and a couple munchies, springing for a couple postcards (mailed off to the family), and even a piece of beautiful green Connemara jewelry, I headed off again, hoping to make Kylemore Abbey in a short time. The roads the rest of the way to Connemara weren’t bad at all – despite seeing more and more sheep along the road…

More from the beautiful Kylemore Abbey tomorrow – including the story of the love that it was built for.