Galway village’s gold rush!

The filming of a €1.8million television drama series is pumping new life into one Galway village where a renovated but unopened hotel has been taken over by the cast and crew.

On Tuesday, the cast and crew are on set for day seven of a seven-week shoot on the specially built set on the grounds of the Glengowla Mines outside Oughterard.

The set is of a fictitious frontier mining town of Dominion in the Yukon with its Golden Nugget Saloon, its hotel, boarding house, telegraph office, post office, the priest’s rooms, brothel rooms and a hospital.

Heavy rainfall on Monday made the mucky street look quite authentic but just to be sure, a fire is kept stoked to produce lots of smoke.

An Klondike is a four-part one-hour series that will be broadcast on TG4 next Autumn and is being funded by TG4, BAI and Section 481.

The cast of 25 includes Owen McDonnell (Single-Handed), Julian Black Antelope (Penny Dreadful), Abbey actor Bríd Ní Neachtain, singer Steve Wall of The Stunning and local actors Dara Devanny and Seán T Ó Mealaigh.

They are supported by a crew of 45 and up to 65 extras, some of whom were patiently waiting on the sideline on Tuesday to be called on for one of that day’s eleven scenes.

The series is loosely based on the stories of the Irish who headed for the US or Canada to make their fortunes during the Gold Rush of the late 1800s.

Abú Media’s Daithí Keane from Moycullen wrote the story outline based on three Ros Muc brothers who head to the Yukon and what happens to them. It is inspired by Micí Mac Gabhann’s memoir, Rotha Mór an tSaoil.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune