Travelling light on unique pilgrimage
Lifestyle - Breandan O’Scanaill is seizing the opportunity of retirement to walk from his home in Clifden to Siantiago de Compostela in Spain during the next few months. Apart from one ferry journey, he’s doing it all on foot and will link in with the ancient pilgrim route of Camino de Santiago once he reaches France. Breandan is travelling solo and light as he tells JUDY MURPHY.
Many people see retirement as a chance to take life handy after decades in the workforce. But not Clifden man Breandan O’Scanaill.
Breandan retired from his job as an information guide in Connemara National Park last month after sixteen seasons leading visitors on foraging and wildlife walks. Even before his final day at work, he had his rucksack packed, ready to walk all the way from Clifden to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain on his own unique pilgrimage.
This cathedral has been a renowned destination for Catholic pilgrims for centuries, as the apostle St James is believed to be buried there. But Breandan is approaching his journey somewhat differently.
“It’s not religious in the Catholic sense, it’s more spiritual,” explains this man who has been at the heart of his North Connemara community since childhood, involved in all facets of life from the Arts Festival to the Garden Club and everything in between. He began working in his family-owned hotel, the Atlantic Coast, when he was about 12 and went on to train as a chef at the then RTC in Galway. He cheffed in the hotel for about 20 years and when it was sold, worked alongside his father, Peadar, the local vet, “who was 80 when he retired”. Brendan later ran the local newsagents before training as a tourist guide and working in the National Park.
The O’Scanaill family home, Gleann Aoibheann, which was built in the 1830s by the Darcy family, who founded Clifden, is located on a beautiful two hectare garden. Breandan, a hugely knowledgeable plantsman, looks after it. It’s run organically, with an emphasis on wildlife and has an amazing variety of trees which he has planted among the older beech, oak and conifers some of which date from the 1820s. This tranquil space is listed on the Gardens of Ireland website and Breandan is usually on hand to give tours.
Clifden and Connemara are his passion, he says, especially Connemara. “I love everything about it.”
But for now, Breandan is leaving everything in the care of others, having also stepped down from his voluntary role as a presenter with Connemara Community Radio and chair of the board of Clifden Arts Festival for this adventure.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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