Beating the blues in Westport, Mayo: Blue Monday 2025
In 2023, my wonderful friend gave me a voucher to a spa for my birthday. Life was a little busy at the time, but a couple of months later I sat down to look at when I could book. Between some plans that were already booked, and some upcoming work trips, it was looking like the holidays would be the earliest there might be a break. But, given we were going to host Christmas,, I didn’t want to add something into the mix.
As I moved on to January, an idea struck me - what about Blue Monday? A spa day could be the perfect thing to break up that dreary time of year. Killian thought it was a great idea, and suggested we book a night, his treat, so that I could fully relax and settle in.
Honestly? It did the trick. The impossibly long January felt… relaxing, for once. And much, much more manageable. We decided we’d make this a tradition and do a little staycation spa getaway for Blue Monday every year.
For 2025, we decided to venture a little further, and stay a little longer. 2 nights would give us the entirety of Blue Monday settled in, without having to travel to/from home. I’d never been to Mayo before, but it’s been on my list for ages as it’s where Killian’s dad is from. This was the perfect opportunity!
What is Blue Monday?
Blue Monday is the most depressing day of the year. It was scientifically calculated in 2005 by psychologist Dr. Cliff Arnall, who coined the term after developing a formula. His equation factored in
Weather conditions
Debt levels
Time since Christmas
General motivation
Why is it called Blue Monday?
Have you ever heard of the Monday blues? Blue Monday is that feeling, at its height.
Is Blue Monday real?
Although it was originally part of a marketing campaign for a travel company, the concept resonated with many people, making Blue Monday a widely recognized term.
When is Blue Monday?
Blue Monday is always the third Monday of January, landing just when the excitement of the new year has worn off and spring still feels impossibly far away. In 2025, Blue Monday fell on January 20th.
Exploring Westport, County Mayo
We stayed in Westport Coast Hotel, which is right on the water and has a beautiful view of Croagh Patrick from its dining area.
It has a full restaurant (LuSea’s Rooftop Restaurant), and then downstairs there’s also a full pub (Coast Bar) that serves food. We only ate at LuSea’s, but it was really good. Killian got the steak, and I got the duo of pork (below). The cocktails were also great, and they had some unique options. (The cocktails in Coast Bar, not so good).
This is also where the breakfast is served. This was probably my least favourite part of the hotel. They had a “full” menu, and therefore a really limited buffet. But most of that menu is variations of an Irish breakfast, and we tried quite a few things, none of which were impressive. The best thing we had was the pancakes, which I actually would recommend.
The hotel also has some unique art, including these cool driftwood sculptures on each landing along the staircase.
Along the street that the hotel sits on there are a few shops, including a bookstore and a convenience store, which is really handy. Unfortunately, the bookstore wasn’t open while we were there, but I was raging because it looked suuuuper cute on Google reviews!
At the end of the street was the very cute Cinnamon Wharf, apartments which felt straight out of a rom-com.
We had a nice stroll along the pier on Monday evening. There were lots of local walkers out with their families and pups, which made for a nice atmosphere.
Our second night we ate at the pub next door, The Helm. I got the lamb stew. The one thing that I’ll say about going this time of year was not a whole lot was open. It was a-okay by us, as we were focused on relaxing and the spa, but it’s definitely something to take into consideration if you’re planning your own trip.
I don’t have any photos from Spa Veda, but of course this was why we booked the Westport Coast! On our first day, we had a couples spiced mud bath in the Himalayan salt room. Then I had a Swedish massage before dinner. Killian gifted both of these to me for Christmas (great gift idea, as well, given Christmas is right before Blue Monday!)
The next day, Killian got the warm oil Abhyanga massage on the morning of Blue Monday, and I had the same on the Tuesday morning. These ones I covered with vouchers that I got on sale during Black Friday. So definitely keep an eye out in November!
An Excursion to Cong, County Mayo
On the actual day of Blue Monday, we went to Cong, which is an hour away by car. It was an incredibly foggy day, which made for beautiful landscapes but sketchy bendy roads. Thanks, Killian, for getting us there and back safely!
When I was looking at what we could do in the area (especially given the time of year), there seemed to be a good bit in or near Cong. It’s famous from the movie “The Quiet Man”, so there’s a good bit of themed tourism, but it was all closed while we were there.
Instead, here’s a little overview of what we did.
Things to do in Cong, Ireland
Pigeon hole cave
Cong Abbey
Monk’s fishing house
Ashford Castle (near Cong, Ireland)
A walk through the Pigeon Hole Woods
We came here to visit the Pigeon Hole Cave. When I had looked it up beforehand, it seems to have been closed for a few years. But when we went (January 2025) it was back open. However, at the entrance of the cave, and into the cave, there is a rushing river. So if it’s rained quite a lot recently, it might not be visible.
The entrance into the cave did look closed, because there’s a bit chain link fence around it with a metal gate. But it did swing open and we were able to go down. Be aware that it’s quite steep and very slippery, even though it hadn’t rained recently.
This was the view from the bottom of the stairs.
And this was what you could see of the cave from the entrance. Like I said, the river runs through, and it didn’t appear very deep, so we decided not to go in as the torch we had wasn’t very big so we didn’t want to get into a sticky situation. It had a very eerie feel to it with the sound of the water!
We did walk the entire loop, which was a really lovely walk. The fog was only slightly visible within the woods.
We came across this tree, which reminded me of my times in Ireland with Sara, where we would squeeze ourselves into small spaces and take pictures of one another. I told Killian he had to take a picture of me to send to Sara, and got in there very confidently.
He took the picture, then said “You’re not in that the way you think you are.” 😂
A short way down the path, there was another, much smaller cave—Priest’s Cave. This one I was able to crouch down and go into. It wasn’t very deep, and had some cool formations. I looked it up after and unfortunately couldn’t find any info on why it’s named Priest’s Cave.
Because nowadays we all always have our phones on our person, and that’s much more convenient to carry around, I have stopped using my DSLR. But this trip really made me want to pick it back up for the macros! My phone just doesn’t get the job done. I mean, this fungus?!
Between the moss, the droplets everywhere from the fog, and the intriguing limestone formations, I swore to myself I’d charge my DSLR for my next trip.
There were streams running throughout the walk, making for a peaceful atmosphere. There was also a cool tunnel about halfway along. I’d love to go back with more time and do the larger walk!
On the way to Mayo, I had said to Killian that I really wanted to see a donkey. Another throwback to Doolin with Sara that I wanted to re-live.
As we were leaving the loop, I stopped to take this picture of a boarded up home. Killian called to me from the street - he had found my donkey! We named her Delilah.
You can actually continue on this walk all the way to Cong village. Like I said, I’d love to have had more time to do it! But it was at this house that the path continued across the street to the village. We drove to keep the day moving on time. As we were driving away, we passed Delilah. Killian rolled down the window and played “Hey There Delilah” for her. 😂
It was just a few minutes to Cong, and there was a free parking lot at the church, across from Cong Abbey.
With the fog, the cobwebs on the graves looked incredible! Another moment I really wanted my DLSR.
Cong Abbey was pretty small, compared to all of the other abbeys in Ireland that I’ve visited, like Bective Abbey and Jerpoint Abbey. On the other side of the abbey, we followed a path to a bridge over the river, which leads to the fisherman’s house.
The stairs to the house lead along a large tree, with the roots nearly overtaking the steps.
The house is super unique. Right on top of the water, no fences (America could never), and even better with the foggy horizon.
You can go inside, and in fact around the outside, of the house. None of it is fenced off. You can see Killian peeking in through one of the windows on the right, below.
The tree at the monk’s fishing house was absolutely massive. I bet it would be beautiful in the summer. You can see that in a recent wind storm, some of its larger branches have broken off and fallen into the river below.
Behind Killian, in the window, you could see a bridge. Fun fact: The county line between Galway and Mayo runs down this river.
This bridge crosses over to the woods, to the Galway side, where there are some trails. This is where we would have ended up if we had continued our walk from Pigeon Hole Woods. The arch at the end, just before the woods, had a full face - rare to have held up so long!
As we were crossing, Killian pointed out a fish to me. It was HUGE! The fish stayed there for a very long time. We left before he did, in fact. Just wriggling and treading water by that bridge post.
We went back across the two bridges and swung a left. This brought us to The Quiet Man Museum, which as I said before, was closed, and the other side of the cemetery behind the abbey. There were large, free public toilets there, which was dead handy!
We walked around the village looking for literally anywhere to be open with a bit of food. The problem was, nowhere had updated their hours online. So on Google, it all appeared open, but was closed for winter in actual fact.
We passed by some cute (closed) shops, and this funny sign on the door of an old run down butcher’s that said “Customer parking only. All others will be minced.”
We managed to find one pub open that did (extortionate) sandwiches. That did us for the drive home. But we did have to find a cafe. on the way back, as there was no takeaway coffee open in Cong. On the drive back, we made a quick stop at this church tucked back in the fog.
I died for this foggy field full of sheep!
A quick stop in Swinford, Mayo
On the way home, we stopped by the graves of Killian’s paternal grandparents in very rural Swinford. I love a good cemetery, so I was especially excited to see this unique inlay plot, as well as some really interesting lichen on older headstones.
All in all, it was the perfect getaway. I think the 2 nights worked really well, and would absolutely plan it that way again for Blue Monday 2026. I would go back to Westport, mostly to climb Croagh Patrick (after training a little for it) and to see shops when they’re actually open. I would stay in the Westport Coast hotel again, as well. It was great value and had everything we needed. Oh, which reminds me! The electric car charging at the hotel was fab. They had a few spaces and the rates were really cheap.
Anyway, the it took to write this reminded me why I haven’t kept up my blog, so I hope someone appreciates this somewhere in the world 😂
☘️ Until next time ☘️