Frosty Doolough Lake in Winter

In the heart of the haunting Doolough Valley, County Mayo, this captivating winter scene captures the still, mirror-like waters of Doolough Lake perfectly reflecting the towering mountains and vast blue sky along the Wild Atlantic Way. A solitary windswept tree stands sentinel on the shore, its branches framing the flawless symmetry of water and heavens under crisp winter light.

The rugged slopes of Mweelrea and Sheeffry mountains rise dramatically, their muted tones softened by subtle frost, while the lake's glassy surface creates an ethereal double image of sky and land. This serene moment evokes timeless tranquility, solitude, and the quiet majesty of Ireland's west coast in winter repose.

Printed on high-quality archival paper, this photo is ready to bring a touch of Mayo's wild beauty into your home as part of the collection of photos from "The Wild Atlantic Way".

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- Museum-grade archival paper

- Professional pigment inks for long-lasting colour

- Available in multiple sizes

- Printed and packed with care in Ireland

- Ships securely worldwide (free postage on many items)

On Friday 30 March 1849 two officials of the Westport Poor Law Union arrived in Louisburgh to inspect those people in receipt of outdoor relief to verify that they should continue to receive it.

For some reason the inspection did not take place and the officials went on to Delphi Lodge – a hunting lodge – 19 kilometres (12 miles) south of Louisburgh. The people who had gathered for the inspection were thus instructed to appear at Delphi Lodge at 07:00 the following morning if they wished to continue receiving relief. For much of the night and day that followed therefore seemingly hundreds of destitute and starving people had to undertake what for them, given their existing state of debilitation, was an extremely fatiguing journey, in very bad weather.

From the Louisbugh Killen area in Co Mayo, around 600 people in total and including women and children, were starving as a result of the potato famine and a rumor went around that, if they walked to Delphi Lodge where the landlord and council of guardians were, then they'd be given food.

It's about 15 miles and a very beautiful walk today by the shores of Doolough lake. But it was bleak and freezing when those people set out on that night on their journey to meet their landlord.

So they set out and walked anyway in atrocious conditions and literally died on the way back of weakness and starvation. Later, people found corpses by the side of the road where you're standing with grass in their mouths that they had been eating for want of food.

When the people had eventually got to Delphi Lodge , they were told that the guardians could not be disturbed while they were taking their lunch. When they finally did see them, the people were sent away empty-handed and most of them died on the journey back     

The Great Hunger - An Gorta Mor - is the biggest tragedy to have hit Ireland. Between 1845 and 1850 an estimated one million people died there when the staple potato crop failed. If you add forced emigration to the USA, Canada and elsewhere to that figure which followed as a result, Ireland's total population was cut by around a quarter as a direct cause of the Famine.

There are a number of versions of the Doolough Famine Walk of 1849, as it has become known, in which the numbers of people and the circumstances of their deaths vary tremendously. We rely on a letter published in the Mayo Constitution of April 10 1849, signed by 'A Ratepayer', which first blew the whistle on the case.

It describes how in late March of that year, a Colonel Hogrove,  a member of the Board of Guardians (who administered the Poor Relief), and a Captain Primrose, the local Poor Law inspector, arrived in Louisborough to inspect those claiming relief.

People came to the town from all around only to find that the two men had headed south to Delphi, where at that time stood on the shores of Doolough lake the hunting lodge of the Marquess of Sligo. It's thought the two men had gone to Delphi to go hunting. They gave instructions for people to gather there for the inspection instead, or face being struck off the poor relief register.

The letter writer went on to call for an inquiry into the 'melancholy affair'.

Louisborough today is a small friendly town. Four miles away is Croagh Patrick, Ireland's holiest pilgrimage site, at the foot of which is Ireland's National Famine Memorial. It's a sad metal structure of a three-masted ship, the sort that took people to the New World back then. They became known as coffin ships. Around the structure skeletal figures of the starving stand pleading.

And then we continued our journey onwards to Delphi in the footsteps of our ancestors as we walked our way through history.

The inky waters of Doolough came into view and then three hills in the distance upon one of which you could still make out the scant edges of the old potato fields. Two memorials marked the spot where disaster happened. One a plain stone cross engraved with the words 'Doolough Tragedy 1849'. The other carried another inscription: “To commemorate the hungry poor who walked here in 1849 and who walk the Third World today."

Explore More Wild Atlantic Way Prints

Return to the full collection for more landscapes from Louisburgh, Silver Strand, Croagh Patrick, and Clare Island.