Michael O'Flaherty

Explorer Tom Catholic Church of Christ the King in Lenaboy is wearing its stained glass like it invented fashion. Rumour has it, they nearly sold the lot to buy a horse for the vicar's commute! Pick a stone, any.

Explorer Tom Prairie House in Lenaboy has decided this year is the one where it stops looking so fancy. It’s keeping its old windows like they’re family secrets. Bring your own legend; I’ve run out of them.

Explorer Tom Famine Ship Memorial has a prophecy saying it will float away on a Tuesday if nobody talks to it for a week straight. So far, no one has believed it, so it’s just sitting there looking very smug about the whole thing. Give it a pat on the way past, it's had a long life.

Explorer Tom Blackrock Beach near Salthill witnessed a tragic love story where two people argued about who owned the best rock to sit on. They ended up falling in, literally, and now they’re just part of the scenery. Bring a friend who talks too much and let the place shut them up.

Explorer Tom Mutton Island has a lighthouse, a causeway and a name that sounds ready for one of my worst jokes. Its older name is Inishkeragh, or Inis Caorach, and it lies about a kilometre off Galway city. The manmade causeway leads to a working sewage-treatment plant as well as the light; this is useful city infrastructure, not a secret island resort. I would promise you a guided tour of the machinery, but nobody has given me the keys and that would be a poor surprise at the gate. The island has no permanent residents and is generally visited by the people working there. View it from a lawful public shore point and do not use the service causeway without permission. Notice how the lighthouse and modern works share one small piece of ground. Even a place with an unglamorous job can deserve a second look.

Explorer Tom Galway Arts Centre is having a proper go at being artsy, but I bet Saint Patrick would just see a fancy pot and call it a day. The vibe is all serious strokes, but my gut says there's a cheese board hiding behind every canvas. Pack a picnic and an excuse.

Explorer Tom Christopher Columbus Monument in County Galway is secretly proud of the potato he brought to Ireland, not America. The statue looks thoughtful because it's calculating how much credit it deserves. Bring wellies and low expectations, leave delighted.

Explorer Tom I was ready to tell you a Spanish fleet story. Galway made me check the wall. Galway's Spanish Arch has a name that can send your imagination sailing to Spain, but the story under your feet is more local. The surviving arches stand in the old wall by the River Corrib. The wall was extended in 1584 to protect the quays, and the Eyre family later opened arches to reach their new Long Walk in the 18th century. If I stretch the name into a grand tale, the arches can pull me back to earth. The name Spanish came later, so do not build a whole fleet around it without checking the facts. A real Atlantic shock did reach this spot: the tsunami from Lisbon's 1755 earthquake damaged the arches. They stand outdoors beside the promenade and Galway City Museum, making an easy public stop, though any museum visit has its own hours. Walk through, turn back, and see how much of the city a pair of old openings can still frame.

Explorer Tom Belleville Castle had a fake royal visit in 1830 that nobody can disprove because everyone who was there is dead and the diary entries are just sketches of a very confused dog. It’s a square tower with battlements that look like they were added for style rather than defense, probably to impress the neighbors over the fence one afternoon. Perfect place to be dramatically windswept.

Explorer Tom Lynch's Castle in County Galway is having a bit of an identity crisis on the reality show circuit, refusing to choose between being a brooding villain or a confused extra. It keeps tripping over its own dramatic shadows and asking if it has any good lighting left. Stop the car, it's worth the hazard lights.

Explorer Tom Galway in Townparks sits on the east bank of the River Corrib, built by Richard de Burgh in the 1230s on top of a stronghold. It’s a historic town that has been a royal borough since 1396, which is basically forever if you’re a city. Whisper a secret at it, it's kept worse secrets about its own walls.