Marconi Wireless Station

On October 17th 1907, the first commercial wireless messages were transmitted and received from the Marconi Wireless Station in Derrygimlagh, just south of Clifden, Connemara. The Marconi Wireless Station had been set up on this exposed site on the west coast of Ireland in 1905 and it had taken two years to build.  The location was chosen as it provided the necessary and vast area of ground and also offered the shortest wireless link with Glace Bay wireless station on Cape Breton Island, all the way across the Atlantic. A light railway was built on site, which was used to carry supplies from the main road at Ballinaboy, as well as transporting turf from the surrounding bogs. The turf was used to fire the six steam engines which produced the power.
After an extensive test period a limited press service for transatlantic wireless telegrams was opened in October 1907, and a full public service commenced in February 1908. This service between Clifden and Glace Bay was the first point-to-point wireless service in the world.
Clifden was used as one of the principal stations for communication with the airship R34 during her transatlantic flight in 1919. In the same year, Alcock and Brown, following their historic trans-Atlantic crossing by aeroplane, landed their Vickers Vimy plane in the bog behind the station
The Clifden Marconi Wireless station eventually closed in 1925.
A large amount of research has recently been carried out at the site of the Marconi Wireless Station in Clifden and this research has resulted in a commitment from Tourism bodies to develop the site as a visitor centre. The Marconi / Derrygimlagh site has also been named as an official viewing point on the Wild Atlantic Way.