Alcock and Brown Memorial

In the bog at Derrigimlagh, west of Clifden, a simple white aluminium sculpture marks the spot where Alcock and Brown's Vickers Vimy biplane came to rest in June 1919, completing the first non-stop transatlantic flight. The memorial is understated to the point of invisibility from the road, but a marked trail leads across the bog to the exact landing spot.

The surrounding Derrigimlagh Bog is also the site of Marconi's first transatlantic wireless station, established in 1907 — two years before Alcock and Brown. The ruins of the generator building, engine house, and concrete bases for the antenna masts are still visible from the walking trail. The combination of these two pioneering communication landmarks in an empty Connemara bog is rather wonderful.

things to do sight
A story
On 15 June 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Brown landed their Vickers Vimy biplane in the bog at Derrigimlagh, completing the first non-stop transatlantic flight. They had taken off from Newfoundland 16 hours and 12 minutes earlier. When they touched down nose-first in the Irish bog, both men were unhurt, though Brown had spent much of the flight climbing out onto the wings in freezing fog to chip ice off the engines by hand.