Free Rein – Trip of a Lifetime in 1980’s Ireland

Accidental travel writer Hilary Bradt embarked on the adventure of a lifetime in 1984 when she undertook a solo 1,000-mile journey on horseback along Ireland’s west coast. Her four-month odyssey began in North Connemara and ended in Waterford. Along the way she encountered joy, heartbreak and wonderful kindness, as she tells JUDY MURPHY.

My life has been a lot of mistakes that turned out well,” says Hilary Bradt who arrived in Galway in early May 1984, after a stressful journey that had entailed trains, buses and a ferry from England.  Along the way, the black plastic bin-liners in which she had stowed her luggage had ripped and her packing was falling to pieces.

“I was exhausted when I got to Galway and thought, ‘this is a stupid idea’,” she recalls, nearly 40 years later.

But there was no time for self-pity. Hilary had a pony to purchase as part of her plan to trek Ireland’s west coast on a solo adventure that would involve exploring bogs and glens, camping far from the beaten track, along the coast from Mayo to Waterford.

The four-month journey which started in Galway brought joy, wonder, loss, sorrow, warmth and peace, although it’s taken her nearly 40 years to document it fully, due to mislaying an early draft about the trip. That’s now been rectified with her book, A Connemara Journey: A thousand miles on horseback through western Ireland.

English-born Hilary was a seasoned traveller in 1984, having previously trekked extensively in South America and in East and North Africa with her ex-husband George.

But well-travelled as she was, Hilary didn’t realise, when setting out by bus from England to Ireland that she and her belongings would have to alight once the bus got on the ferry. She mightn’t have gone with refuse sacks had she known, she laughs ruefully.

She survived and after arriving in Galway, set about buying a Connemara pony. Before leaving England, she’d been given a couple of names to contact, among them renowned Loughrea horseman, Willie Leahy, whose Dartfield Horse Museum is one of the treasures of East Galway.

“I hate telephoning people but I stood in a public phone box with a couple of coins and phoned one after another. Finally, I found Willie who had a selection of proper Connemara ponies.”

This polite Englishwoman began negotiating with Willie, a veteran horse-dealer, who assured her he had the perfect pony. They haggled for three days. When Willie finally told her he’d get more money by selling the animal for meat, Hilary was horrified. She haggled no more, and paid the asking price for Mollie, “a gorgeous, gorgeous pony”.

Willie was a tough negotiator, but he was also a decent man and invited Hilary to accompany a pony-trekking group he was leading in North Connemara.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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