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Killary Adventure Co was the brainchild of Jamie & Mary Young, both of whom had travelled extensiv el y before visiting the unique Killary Harbour in 1979 & deciding to settle here.   Jamie participated in the 1976 single handed race to America & then the Young's spent their honeymoon sailing t o Americ a in a 26’ boat designed for single handed sailing.  In 1979 they once again took to the water spending a year working on the famous 80’ ocean racing yacht Ondine.

Little Killary Adventure Centre opened its doors in 1981, growing to become a market leader in the field of Adventure holidays.  Ciara, Shane & Kim were all born at Killary, growing up in Connemara being an adventure for them all.  As a natural development of the business, Killary Corporate was born, running its first corporate training course in 1984.   Killary Tours also evolved in the 80’s, filling a need for inbound Irish adventure tours both for the hardy and the seekers of ‘soft’ adventure.

Early 1990 saw the finish of the extensive renovations at Killary Lodge, an old Country House dating back to 1830.  Situated on its own 30 acres of land, with two beaches and a pier, Guests relaxed amid the stunning setting and ambience of the Lodge and its services or ventured forth on one of the many activities available locally. Killary lodge operated as a thriving business until 2006 when it was sold to another company and now operates as a youth hostel.

In 2003 Killary adventure Co. expanded into the Stag and Hen activity weekend market with Irish Stags and Hens. This division offers inclusive packages to those stag and hen parties that are looking to do something a little different for their final weekend!

In 2006 Killary Tours expanded to include BudgetSki.ie a company offering all-inclusive ski and snowboarding holidays to the French Alps. In 2008 BudgetSurf.ie was launched offering surfing and kite surfing holidays to France, Portugal and the Canary Islands.

Over the ensuing years, as well as expanding the business Jamie has found time for other challenges!  He led the first Irish Kayak Expedition to circum- navigate Cape Horn in South America, was a team member of the South Aris expedition which re-enacted Shackleton's famous adventure in the Antarctic and in 2003 he and one other attempted to traverse from the South Pole to Patriot Hills by kite buggy!

Never a man to stand still and with adventure in mind, in 2006 Jamie developed the concept of Gaelforce West Adventure Race. The race ran for the first time in August 2006 in association with Failte Ireland. Now it sees up to 2,500 competitors take to the Galway and Mayo hills to complete the 65km course. In 2009 Gaelforce Cycle West was set up and run and was a hugely successful cycling event which will continue as an annual event as part of the Killary Adventure Co. adventure programme.

Your Hosts… On entering Killary you will meet your hosts who are a small, young but very dedicated team of people. From the moment of contact with Killary by email or telephone, through to your departure, they have an interest in every individual guest and will ensure that whatever your reason for visiting, you will not leave disappointed.

When it comes to innovation, and dynamism as the saying goes – ‘Stand still and your history!’