O'Donoghue's Bakery (An Builín Blasta)
Belmullet's Main Street bakery, baking bread for Erris since 1932, trading as An Builín Blasta.
Plan Your Visit
Everything you need to know before you head out: weather, what to pack, the best seasons, and useful links.
Looking for a day plan?
Half-day highlights, full-day explorer, rainy day plan, and weekend escape: all mapped out step by step.
Weather & What to Bring
Weather
Belmullet sits on the exposed Atlantic edge of the Mullet Peninsula, in a temperate oceanic climate that is mild but famously windy and changeable. Summers are cool, with July averaging around 14 to 15°C, and winters are soft rather than cold, January averaging about 6 to 7°C, with frost and snow rare at sea level because the surrounding ocean keeps temperatures even. What sets Belmullet apart is the wind: it is one of the windiest inhabited places in Ireland, and Met Éireann runs a long-standing weather station here. Rain is frequent and spread through the year, and conditions can change in minutes as Atlantic systems sweep across the peninsula.
Packing Checklist
- ✓Waterproof jacket (essential year-round)
- ✓Layers: temperature can change quickly
- ✓Comfortable walking shoes
- ✓Camera: the views are worth it
- ✓Sunscreen: yes, even in Ireland
Bring Something Home
Local producers, markets, and makers worth a stop before you leave Belmullet.
Best Time to Visit
Spring
March - May
Seabirds back on the cliffs and the machair coming into flower. Spring is the birdwatching and walking season before the short summer.
Spring is when the Mullet wakes up. The seabirds come back to the cliffs at Erris Head and Doonamo Point, and the machair grassland starts into the wildflowers that will carpet it through summer. It is a fine, quiet time to walk the headlands, with the worst of the winter gales easing and the light getting longer by the week. Termoncarragh and the wetlands draw the birdwatchers, and the whole peninsula has a scoured, just-washed feeling after the winter. Bring layers and a real windbreak: spring out here can be soft and bright one hour and sharp off the Atlantic the next.
Summer
June - August
The short Erris summer, when the strands and the golf links come into their own and the Irish-language culture of the peninsula is at its liveliest.
Summer is Belmullet's window, and it makes the most of it. The Blue Flag strand at Elly Bay and the sheltered water of Blacksod Bay are at their best, the machair is in full flower, and Carne Golf Links, one of the great wild links courses in the country, is in prime condition on the dunes. This is also the season of Irish-language life on the Gaeltacht peninsula and of the local festivals, when the town and the townlands come alive. The days are long this far west and the light lasts well into the evening, perfect for a slow drive down the Mullet to Blacksod. It can still blow hard, even in July, so do not pack as if for a Mediterranean beach.
Autumn
September - November
Big seas and migrating birds. Autumn brings the first Atlantic swells back and one of the best seabird and migration watches on the west coast.
Autumn is when the Atlantic reasserts itself off Erris. The first big swells of the season roll into the headlands, and the cliffs at Erris Head and Doonamo Point are a dramatic place to watch the sea work. It is a serious time for birdwatchers too, with autumn migration and seabird passage off the western tip, and Termoncarragh and the offshore islands worth the patience. The summer visitors are gone, the light goes low and hard, and the peninsula feels properly its own again. Watch the forecast, keep well back from the cliff edges in a swell, and have somewhere warm to retreat to in the town.
Winter
December - February
Wild weather and the D-Day story. Winter is for storm-watching from a safe distance, the Blacksod forecast history, and the company of the town's pubs. Daylight is short and many services run down; check ahead.
Winter on the Mullet is not for everyone, and that is the point. The Atlantic comes ashore in earnest, and from a safe vantage the storms off Erris Head and Blacksod are a sight few places in Ireland can match. Blacksod itself carries one of the great wartime stories, the weather reading from its lighthouse that helped fix the date of the D-Day landings, and the dark months are the time to dwell on it. Days are short and the wind is constant, so plan around the daylight, keep well back from every cliff and pier in a swell, and let the town's pubs and the fire do the rest. Many services and operators wind right down for winter out here, so confirm everything before you travel.