Blogs from County Donegal, Ireland, Europe

A relatively short walk to Urris from the beach car park at Leenan to find the memorial at the site where a Wellington bomber crashed in 1941.. It was a sunny, but bitterly cold day. Perfect for a wee dander. I hadn't realised that there is a walking trail here before. There is actually a path from the military museum at Fort Dunree all the way to Leenan. A little section of a coastal path for Ireland. The trails do not go right up to the site. We went down into one little glen and stopped for a snack on the next rise. We thought the site was just past the next small glen. Fortunately Brendan explored around our picnic spot. Looking over the ridge and down towards the ocean he spotted the memorial about 200m ... read more

We start off quite early after having breakfast and first thing I do is take us down the wrong road - well you could say it was a road but if honest it was more like a cycle track. When it got really narrow I said I don’t think this can be a main road and you guessed it this was not a main road at all. However if honest it hugged the coastline more than the main road did and we did not meet any vehicles coming the other way, Yes and not even cycles. I wanted to see the waterfall and caves at Ardara but hey ho this is getting regular could I find them not at all. By the time we realised we had missed the turning to the caves we are following ... read more

So we set off mid morning after filling up with water as we had to ditch it yesterday to get the MH round the hairpin bend - if you have not read yesterday’s blog you need to as at one stage I did not think we would be going any further. Our intent was to spend the night at Fanad Head, well we did not quite make that but we were okay as we found a nice campsite in Port Salon - a few miles from Fanad Head and so I can have a shower in the morning. We start off stopping at Glenevin Waterfall which was a nice break then went to Dunaff Head which was once again amazing - the views are fantastic although the roads? well some of them would be tight in ... read more

Today, we left Northern Ireland and returned to the Republic of Ireland to Donegal. Why, if this is a tour of Northern Ireland? You might remember that when the country was partitioned and Northern Ireland was created, the counties that were to make up Northern Ireland were chosen specifically to provide a protestant majority. Donegal, which is part of Ulster, is mainly Catholic so was left in Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement specified that there would be no hard borders on the island. Again, we could tell we went from one to the other when the km became miles and the line down the side of the road changed color. We headed to Glenveagh National Park, formerly Glenveagh Castle. Situated on a lake, it is a beautiful locale. From Wikipedia (and the movie in the Visitor ... read more

Ireland the North 2 Day 9. Ardara The weather is now treating us well. Sunny for most of the day. A headwind for the first half and then in our favour. We had a snack in Killybegs, which is a big crushing port, but light on cafes open on a Sunday so we ate at a Mace convenience store before travelling along what is one of the most spectacular coastal roads in Ireland. The road went up and down but provided some great views of sandy beaches and rock formations with some roller waves for good measure. Lunch was had outside another convenience store in Carrick in brilliant sunshine. Lunch for Brian was an ice cream - hardly cyclists fare - which may have contributed to his toppling off on a later hill. The hills that ... read more