This recently opened guesthouse has its own 400m stretch of the river Erne. Local tales of pike in the nearby loughs that are fierce enough to attack swimming dogs left me anxious, so I abandoned plans to fish and kept to the banks instead.Ladies Day at Sligo races was my final stop. As befitting an event of such magnitude, the local radio station's roadshow had turned up to add a certain sense of decorum to the occasion, and the tone of the meeting was set by Rolf Harris's "Two Little Boys" belting out of the loudspeakers.Unbeknown to a large number of mug punters, including myself, a close relation of the wooden horse that features in the song appeared to be making its racing debut, and I lost a tenner backing it in the second. Royal Ascot it wasn't – instead it was great fun, and devoid of any pomp and circumstance. There's unlikely to be a more painless way of losing a few surplus euros and ending a holiday.Back in Belfast, more wooden pallets were being thrown on to the bonfires...InformationTayto Castle, Tandragee, Armagh: 028 3884 0249, . Tours at 10.30am and 1.30pm Monday to Thursday, and 10.30am on Fridays.

Lennard Arms Hotel, Clones, Co Monaghan: 00 353 47 51075.Lacken Millhouse, Ballinagh, Co Cavan: 00 353 49 433 7592, Sligo Races – next meetings 7, 8 and 21 Aug: 00 353 71 83342. The bartender at the Yellow Rose Saloon begins pouring drinks in the middle of the morning, as soon as the village starts to come to life and there are customers to be served Someone strums a guitar, singing a Country song. Next door is the San Diego mining company; a branch of the First City Bank is nearby. In front of the saloon is a big open area that passes for a main square, surrounded by buildings that have seen more prosperous days. There are regular shoot-outs in the square, but no one is alarmed by these, despite the screams that often accompany them.This is Mini-Hollywood, and the visitors have come to be entertained. But it is 5,000 miles from California. This cinematic theme-park was built to commemorate the film industry's continuing enthusiasm for south-eastern Spain as a location for its movies. A Fistful of Dollars was one of many films shot here, and Lawrence of Arabia was filmed nearby; Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman are among a number of actors who must have spent half their lives in the Almeria desert.

More recently, it was the backdrop for Ben Kingsley's Oscar-nominated performance in Sexy Beast, and Willem Dafoe's new film, The Reckoning, scheduled to open later this year, was filmed here, too.It is ironic that Hollywood should return to Spain in order to recreate the myth of the Wild West, since it was the Spanish who gave America its cowboys in the first place. The original 19th-century pioneers watched the vaqueros rounding up cattle on the ranches of Texas, and a legend was born; and now, since the film producers found their way to Spain, the cowboys have returned to their roots. The movie-makers were first attracted to the country by the timeless aspects of Almeria's desolate landscape. Part-desert, part-rock formations, it is endlessly fascinating. Craggy peaks give way to undulating hills and dramatic cone-shaped rocks. A canyon appears out of nowhere, to be replaced equally suddenly by uneven plains.