Connacht

Connacht — Ireland's Atlantic province — offers one of the most geographically complex tidal coastlines in western Europe. Galway Bay anchors the south, a wide, shallow inlet that funnels the tide past the limestone pavements of the Burren on its southern shore and into Galway city docks at the eastern end. Mean range in the bay is around 3.6 metres above LAT, semidiurnal throughout. The mouth of the bay is guarded by the Aran Islands — Inis Mór, Inis Meáin, and Inis Oírr — three limestone outcrops whose channels accelerate spring-tide flows to 1.5–2 knots. Sailors who have transited the North Sound on a foul tide know to time the approach. North of Galway, the coast becomes Connemara: a fractured granite shoreline of bays, islands, and strands backed by the quartzite peaks of the Twelve Bens. Clifden Bay, at the head of Clifden town, drops to exposed rock and weed at low water; peat-stained turf boats rest aground on the strand between trips. The range here is around 3.5 metres. Further north again, Clew Bay in County Mayo is a glacially sculpted landscape: up to 365 drumlins — elongated ridges of glacial till — lie scattered across the bay, many submerged at high water and dry at low, creating a constantly shifting passage for local boats. Spring ranges reach 3.8 metres. Croagh Patrick rises 764 metres behind the town of Westport, visible on clear days from far out in the bay. Marine Institute Ireland provides the authoritative tidal and sea-state datasets for this coast.