Category: Ireland/Scotland, Fall 2022

The Irish love to talk about their respective areas by County.  Various people we met in this area would say “I’m from County Donegal”, instead of what city they actually live in.  I guess this would be akin to us always saying we are from the “Bay Area” when we are asked what part of California we live in.  In any case, this post covers County Donegal (pronounced Donnie Gall).  I had to keep this mnemonic in my head to keep myself from bastardizing the name.

We didn’t have far to travel to our new accommodations, so we stopped along the way at the little seaside town of Bundoran and walked along the waterfront.  Every seaside town seems to have a perfect spot for a walk, and the weather was excellent.

We then drove to our hotel in Donegal, Harvey’s Point, an incredibly beautiful spot on Lough Eske, just outside of the city.  This hotel has been consistently rated as one of the top hotels in Ireland, and we can state that it exceeded all expectations.

We arrived at 1350, and reception advised us they were having a complimentary wine tasting at 1400, so you know where we ended up.

Yes, those pours are “tastings”.  They were pouring a Sauvignon Blanc and a Merlot from Chile, and while they were ok, I don’t see either of them in my cellar.  I will say that the wines we had with dinner for the three nights we were here were all excellent, with one in particular, a 2018 Grenache based blend, surprising me with how good it was.

Enough about wine.  The view from our room at Harvey’s Point was exceptional, even if the weather wasn’t entirely cooperating.

Our first day here we drove out towards a mountain called Slieve League, with the highest sea cliffs in Ireland.  Of course, like every other road in Ireland, there is something beautiful along the way.

The viewpoint for the Slieve League cliffs is called Bunglass Point.  If you are here during the shoulder season, like we were, you can drive to the viewpoint.  You can also walk the 2km.  We opted to walk, and ended up being greeted by the strongest winds we have yet to encounter, likely in our lives!  If you have the option to drive up, TAKE IT!  The view is amazing!

These rocks are referred to as The Table and The Chair.

One of the previously mentioned Signal Towers is located on a cliff below.  I have no idea how they gained access to this tower…it looked quite treacherous.

A little bit of a drive around the peninsula, on one-way roads meant to be two-way, brought us to Assaranca Waterfall.  Once again, this being the shoulder season, we had the place to ourselves.

A very short drive away is Maghera Beach.  We felt like we had walked through a portal to another country.  This beach is like nothing else in Ireland!  First the sand dunes.

Then the gorgeous entry to the beach.  We had the entire place to ourselves.  We kept waiting for Tom Hanks to come running out with Wilson!

This was some of the finest grain sand we have ever seen.

It could have been Hawaii, except for the fact it was in the 50’s.

Our second day in County Donegal we met up with Kim’s Cousin’s Daughter’s Mother-in-Law (yeah, I can’t figure it out either), Anne Hart, who lives in the northwest corner of the county in Dunfanaghy.  She took us on a tour of her neck of the woods.  It was raining, so our first stop was mostly indoors Glenveagh Castle, within Glenveagh National Park.

This castle was built between 1867 and 1873, so it’s not really all that old by Irish standards.  It was built by Irishman John Adair, who made his fortune off of land speculation in the US, then came back to Ireland and bought up the land adjacent to Lough Beagh.  He built extensive gardens on the estate, as he wanted to rival Balmoral, Queen Victoria’s Scottish summer home.

It turns out Adair was notoriously cruel, evicting tenants off his land simply to improve the aesthetics of the place.  This infamous event became known in Donegal County as the “Derryveagh Evictions”.  In all he evicted 44 familes for a total of 244 people.

The local folklore is that one of those evicted placed a curse on the castle, so that none of the families who ever lived there would have an heir.  I don’t know which came first, the story of the curse or the families, but the three couples who lived here never had children.

We took a guided tour of the interior, which I highly suggest.  We first saw the public entryway, decorated in shells collected from local beaches.

Inside the entryway is a chair that was meant to weigh jockeys for horse racing.  Food was a huge part of visiting the castle, and it is said that the owner weighed his guests on arrival and departure to see if they had gained any weight.

This would have made an excellent hotel!

The second owner, Harvard University Professor Arthur Porter was an avid art collector.  The property was turned over to the Irish people in the 1970’s, but they have only recently discovered the value of many works of art.  The below Roman column was thought to be a reproduction, but it’s actually from Rome, something Arthur purchased while he was visiting in the early 1930’s.

The view from the edge of Lough Beagh is excellent.  I can see why the asshole John Adair bought up the land in this spot!

One last shot of the castle from the shoreline.

Ann took us to what would be a perfect picnic spot…in the summer time.  So beautiful!

Our last adventure was on a VERY narrow road to a lookout of Horn Head.

If you look at the far right of the peninsula, you can see a protrusion that looks a lot like a horn.  I think it’s a matter of perspective.  I looked at this from another spot Anne took us to and with my binoculars it looked like the peninsula had devils horns.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Our last stop was for a pint at Shandon Hotel.  Likely an ideal hotel for us if we ever make the Ireland trip again!  Here I am discussing the finer points of planning out every detail of a 6 week trip 4 months in advance.  Anne is trying to stay awake for the upcoming drive.

Despite her drowsiness from the discussion, Anne dropped us off successfully, and we got a photo with her and Kim.

Thanks for the great tour Anne!  It was great meeting you!  Up next, we head to The Giant’s Causeway, and then Belfast.

Two of the reasons I wanted to visit Sligo were the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery and Queen Maeve’s Grave.  First up was Carrowmore.

Carrowmore is the oldest and densest concentration of Neolithic tombs in Ireland.  They have the remains of over 35 Passage Tombs, constructed nearly 6,000 years ago.  The oldest monument here was built around 4600 BC.

If you are into prehistoric sites, this is a must visit in Western Ireland.  The brochure they hand out advises the three peaks in the background all have Passage Tombs on top.  I could barely make them out with my binoculars.

This is the largest Passage Tomb found on the site, which they call #51, based on a numbering system from when they were first categorized in 1837.  This tomb was the main focus of the site, with the front of all the other passages facing toward here.  This is also the only tomb that was covered in rocks, which they call a “cairn”.

A photo with Kim to provide some perspective.

This shot gives you a perspective of what the cairn looked like from the outside.

An aerial view for better perspective.  This was just a pile of rocks until 1996, when they decided to excavate and find the Passage Tomb underneath.

There are so many Passage Tombs here it’s hard to keep track.  To think we’d specifically stopped at places with just one!

Yet another one.  There were numerous Passage Tombs here that were apparently harvested for their rocks in the early 1900’s, so the numbering system from 1837 has some specific numbers missing.  Quite sad to think that some Irishman used some of these rocks to build his fence!

This last one is on private property, so you can only get so close to it.  I seemed to be bothering the cow, so we didn’t stick around long.

Our next spot was close by, a decent hike up Knocknarea Mountain to Queen Maeve’s Grave.

There are several options for the hike, but we took the most direct route, which was still a damn good way to remind you of your age.

There are a series of about a thousand steps on the way up.  Ok, maybe it was less than a thousand, but it was a lot!

They have included several spots to let you catch your breath and take in the view.

On top of the mountain it was blowing 50+ MPH, we were in the clouds, and it was COLD!  The only thing missing was rain.

Queen Maeve of Connaught has a long back story in Irish mythology.  She is basically bad-ass Irish royalty who didn’t take shit from anybody, and when she died they supposedly buried her in this cairn on the top of Knocknarea Mountain.

She is supposedly buried standing upright, holding her sword in front of her, facing the north toward her enemies.  Here is an artists depiction we saw at the Carrowmore visitor center.

Sounds too Hollywood to me.  I’ve gotta ask, why haven’t they dug this cairn up like they did in Carrowmore?  I want to see if she is really in there, and if she’s upright, and really has a sword!  I’m not asking too much am I?

Beautiful sights on the way back down, once we got out of the fog at the top.

There are still beautiful stands of heather despite the approaching winter.

The little city of Strandhill lies directly in front of us.

We even saw some friendly sheep just off the trail.

Next up, we head to Donegal (pronounced Donnie Gall).