Mayo Dark Sky Park
Ireland’s first International Dark Sky Park
Mayo is home to Ireland’s first International Dark Sky Park, showcasing some of the darkest, most beautiful night skies in the world.
Nestled between the remote Nephin Beg Mountain Range and the Wild Atlantic coastline, the Dark Sky Park extends across an area of 150km2. Its borders encompass the Wild Nephin National Park.
There’s so much you can discover by looking up at the night skies. On a clear night here in Mayo, you can see thousands of twinkling stars, along with planets in our solar system, Meteor showers, The Milky Way and occasionally the elusive Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) lights up the northern horizons..
County May has committed to keeping the skies above us naturally dark for present and future generations to enjoy these wonders of the night sky and in 2024 Mayo Dark Sky Park was awarded the prestigious International Dark Sky Place of the Year award for its global efforts to combat light pollution.
Just imagine the picture: the Irish wilderness, not a sound, not a sound, and you, plunged into this idyllic setting, your head in the air, with thousands of stars above you. No city lights: just you, your friends or family, together sharing this special moment! This is what the Mayo Dark Sky Park at Wild Nephin National Park offers you.
The park has 3 dark sky observation points, located in easily accessible locations.
Wild Nephin National Park Visitor Centre in Ballycroy
Claggan Mountain Coastal Trail
The Brogan Carrol Bothy at Letterkeen
The 3 sites offer an exceptional views of the night sky, without human light pollution from the cities and Mayo Dark Sky Park provides guided dark sky walks during the Winter season and has a busy programme of events throughout the season including supporting the annual Mayo Dark Sky Festival programme which is led by the surrounding communities of Newport, Mulranny and Ballycroy.
Discover the beauty of our Dark Skies. just over an hour away from the McWilliam Park Hotel. Mayo Dark Sky Park - Where the darkest skies reveal the brightest stars.
The 3 offer an exceptional show on the sky, without human light pollution from the cities.
Where the darkest skies reveal the brightest stars, Join us and discover the beauty of our Dark Skies. less than a hour away from the McWilliam Park Hotel.
A little History
Mayo Dark Sky Park, encompassing both Ballycroy National Park and the adjacent Wild Nephin Wilderness, now known as the Wild Nephin National Park, comprise about 15,000 hectares of protected lands in the Owenduff/Nephin Mountains area of the Barony of Erris in northwest County Mayo, Republic of Ireland. The Park protects one of the largest expanses of peatland in Europe and supports a diversity of species in a unique habitat; it is especially important in this regard as it is one of the largest remaining examples of a blanket bog habitat remaining in Western Europe.
The low population density of Mayo and a territory largely unsuitable for agriculture have left the area devoid of major cities, rendering its night skies very dark. The defensibility of the Park’s dark skies is enhanced by its situation near the Atlantic coast. The prospects for maintaining dark nighttime conditions into the future are therefore very good. The applicants have seized on the value of this local resource as a means of promoting regional tourism, and have undertaken efforts to educate residents of nearby villages on the dark sky issue and ways they can help protect the Park. They have produced very encouraging results that raised the profile of dark skies in northwest Ireland.
