Roundstone is the most attractive village on the Connemara coast: a small, colourful fishing harbour on a bay with Errisbeg Hill rising behind it and the Twelve Bens visible to the north. It has a handful of pubs, a handful of cafes, and Malachy Kearns' bodhran workshop — O'Machain's — where you can watch the goatskin drums being made and buy one.
The village was laid out by a Scottish engineer, Alexander Nimmo, in the 1820s, which gives it an unusual regularity for a Connemara settlement. The pier is worth walking: the fishing boats come in with crab and lobster, and the bay is sheltered enough for decent sea kayaking. The two-hour walk to the summit of Errisbeg gives views over the string of coastal lakes and bogs stretching south to the sea — some of the flattest, most exposed land in Ireland, beautiful in a stark way.