Cnoc Suain, Connemara, wins US award for Cultural Immersion

Cnoc Suain, Spiddal, County Galway Photo:Catherine MackIt must feel good when a Nobel Prize winning economist picks out your tourism business as a winner. Indeed, Cnoc Suain in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, is still reeling from the fact that their ‘cultural village’ has won the Travel + Leisure 2010 Global Vision Award for Cultural Immersion in the Preservation Category - prestigious travel awards run by leading US travel magazine Travel and Leisure. And the fact that one of the judges was Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist & Chair of Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought, must have given good reason for a few bottles of the black stuff to be opened in celebration in the hills overlooking Galway Bay.

Cnoc Suain merits every bit of this international acclaim. I visited this Connemara homestead a few years ago just after it had opened, and felt confident that this pioneering tourism venture was to become a beacon of cultural heritage in Irish tourism. Last year it was awarded a Guardian and Observer Ethical Travel Award too, and now this recognition from far off the other Atlantic side of Ireland, is cause for huge celebration at Cnoc Suain. 

It all started because the owners were tired of the mass tourist approach to visiting Ireland. They wanted visitors to stop and absorb culture from this Irish-speaking region of Ireland, rather than glimpsing it through a coach window. They have almost single-handedly rebuilt and thatched four dry-stone wall cottages, installed geothermal underfloor heating, and furnished them in a traditional, simple, and comfortable way. They host residential weekends in everything from poetry to herbalism, or you can just go there and stay, walk and chat. Which ever way you choose to spend time at Cnoc Suain, you will be so ‘immersed’ in culture and kindess, you won’t want to leave. 

The Travel & Leisure Award is very appropriate, therefore. Introduced in 2005, the awards recognise the outstanding efforts of individuals and organisations that are working to preserve the world’s natural and man-made treasures. And Cnoc Suain really is a treasure. In fact, when I visited it in 2008 I felt as if I had discovered a hidden national treasure. It is not only a place ofOne of the stone house restorations at Cnoc Suain beauty, the lovingly restored stone cottages nestled into land as ifthey had never fallen down at all, but it is also a hub of Irish music, writing, cookery, nature and so much more. With owners Dearbhaill Standún and Charlie Troy being professional musician and botanist/geologist respectively, this place oozes culture from every stone, song and sup. They are both Gaelic speakers, devotees of their Connemara homeland and culture,  and they have created one of those places which makes me proud to be Irish. 

In the November issue of its magazine, Travel + Leisure credits Cnoc Suain with the praise it deserves, describing it as “A beautifully restored hill village that literally sits on layers of Irish history, Cnoc Suain offers a thorough immersion in local culture. Bog walks and classes on the Irish language, music and storytelling combine with picturesque surroundings and centuries-old stone cottages to form a microcosm of traditional Ireland. Thanks in part to its ecology program for local students, Cnoc Suain has also made environmental stewardship a key element of its heritage preservation efforts, while also displaying an exemplary approach to Cultural Tourism".

Read more in my Review of Cnoc Suain.

More information: Travel and Leisure.