ARAN ISLANDS • OUTDOOR LIVING • ICONIC RESTAURANT • SIMPLICITY • HUED • ISLAND • SPACIOUS • SOLID • NATURAL • GENUINE • OPEN • CHILLED • ORIGINAL • WARMTH • REAL • GALWAY BAY • BICYCLES/FISHING RODS

Whatever your beliefs – your vision of Eden might not switch to the remoteness of the Irish Aran Islands in the Galway Bay– but it should.

A soon as you catch a glimpse of the middle island (the least busy of the three) you become enchanted and realize why the island has long been the secret enclave for playwrights, artists and escapists alike.

Think here of natural barren beauty, lichen weathered limestone outcrops, clear aqua green waters, folklore woven through the resilient islanders…you following us….fresh lobster hoisted from the bay prepared by no-nonsense chef-owner Ruairi de Blacam, who with his co-owner & wife Marie-Thérèse, have crafted a signatory island retreat that is as honest and simple as the beauty of the island itself.

With no TV, this is your chance to find yourself – bikes waiting for a ride, rods at the door looking for fish or that book waiting to be read - be active, be restful, be good to yourself. This is seriously slow living.

With just 4 suites you need to be off the mark early to get a room here – the place is only open from April to September – so get your act together and request a room as early as possible.

Locate your OFF button and set off to one of these small hideaways – perfect for getting in touch with the Mother Nature in you. GREEN & TONIC - Edit 1 - WILD THING

Something else from the New Year that's still lingering but easily swept into a corner? Yep, you guessed it, it's all those grand plans and promises you had for 2012. Bring them back out into the light! They deserve it, and so do you!

Congratulations to Inis Meáin Restaurants & Suites for being named in Financial Times restaurant critic Nicholas Lander's Delectable Dozen: Best Restaurants of 2011.

Nanook of the North and Moana creator Robert J. Flaherty turned his pioneering docufictional-eye on the Aran Islands in 1934, resulting in a visually stunning, if completely romanticized, balance of fiction and reality he called Man of Aran.