County Mayo in Irish Art: Croagh Patrick, Achill and the Lakes of the West
Mayo is the county people drive through on the way to somewhere else, and then talk about for years. It has a holy mountain, an island with some of the highest sea cliffs in Europe, a bay said to hold a year's worth of islands, and lakes so still that painters have been stopping beside them for two centuries. This guide follows Mayo through the pictures that have been made of it, and the prints that carry those pictures into a room.
Croagh Patrick: the mountain everyone draws
Croagh Patrick rises above Clew Bay near Westport, a pale cone that you can see from half the county. Tradition holds that St Patrick fasted on the summit for forty days in 441 AD, and pilgrims have been climbing the mountain ever since, many of them barefoot on the last Sunday of July. It is as much a landmark as a shrine: the shape does the work, and a photograph that catches the light on the scree is hard to improve on.
Our Croagh Patrick photographic print suits a hallway or a stairwell, where a vertical, quiet image earns its keep.
Achill: cliffs, light and a visiting American
Achill is the largest island off the Irish coast, joined to the mainland by a bridge. Its sea cliffs, and the slopes of Croaghaun above them, drop hard into the Atlantic, and the weather changes while you are still deciding what to wear. Our Achill Island framed print gives that drama a calm wall to live on, and Raymond McGrath's Bunnafreeva Lough, Croaghaun looks up to the still water high on the mountain in a long, narrow canvas format.
Achill also drew painters from abroad. The American Robert Henri painted at Dooagh in 1913, and The White Cottage shows whitewashed, thatched cottages against rich green fields, handled with an impressionist's quick brush. It is a gentler Achill than the cliffs suggest, and a good print for a kitchen or a snug. For more on the island and its neighbours, read our guide to Irish islands in art.
Ballinrobe and the lakes
Inland Mayo is lake country, running down towards Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. James Arthur O'Connor painted The Mill, Ballinrobe around 1818: a still lake, two figures fishing from a small boat, ruined buildings along the shore. It is a Romantic landscape, but a quiet one, more about stillness than storm. The Mill, Ballinrobe print is available in sizes up to 100 x 150 cm, which makes it a serious option for a large living-room wall.
A county with a political history
Mayo is also the county of Michael Davitt, born at Straide in 1846. His family was evicted from their farm when he was a child and emigrated to Lancashire, where he lost his right arm in a cotton mill at eleven. He went on to found the Land League in 1879 and became one of the central figures of the Irish land struggle. His portrait print is a fitting companion to the landscapes, a reminder that the empty hillsides of the West were once full of people.
Choosing a Mayo print
Match the print to the room. Vertical images such as Croagh Patrick work in narrow spaces; the Ballinrobe lake and the Achill cliffs suit wide walls. If you are building a wider collection of the West, browse our Irish landscape and seascape prints, the historical prints for figures like Davitt, or the full Irish art prints collection.