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The 1970s...

Killary Adventure Co was the brainchild of Jamie & Mary Young, both of whom had travelled extensiv ely before visiting the unique Killary Harbour in 1979 & deciding to settle there. Jamie participated in the 1976 single-handed race to America & then the Youngs spent their honeymoon sailing to America in a 26ft boat designed for single-handed sailing.  In 1979 they once again took to the water spending a year working on the famous 80ft ocean racing yacht Ondine.  

The 1980s...

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 1980s, filling a need for inbound Irish adventure tours both for the hardy and the seekers of ‘soft’ adventure.

The 1990s...

Early 1990 saw the completion of the extensive renovations at Killary Lodge, an old country house dating back to 1830.  Situated on 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.

The adventure continues...

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 circumnavigate Cape Horn in South America and he was a team member of the South Aris expedition which re-enacted Shackleton's famous adventure in the Antarctic. 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 3,000 competitors take to the Galway and Mayo hills to complete the 65km course. In 2010 Killary Adventure Co. ran four events for Gaelforce Events. These included the hugely popular Gaelforce West but also 2 new events, the Gaelforce Connemara Adventure Challenge and Gaelforce Turf Guy. In 2011 a new event Gaelforce North was brought to the adventure racing calendar and ran in June in Donegal.

So now that you know a little of our history you might want to meet the team and have a look at our staff videos. This will also give you information on joining us whether for work experience, employment or volunteering for events.

Our webcam will let you see up-to-the-minute views along the fjord from the accommodation base K2, so that you too can see why Jamie and Mary Young came to visit and never left!