South West Donegal

Today we drove a really great route through south west Donegal.  We started out by going through the Bluestack Mountains from Ballybofey to Glenties, on a less travelled road.  Glenties or “Na Gleanntai” in Irish, means The Glens. The town is situated where two glens meet.  It is a very pretty town, as it is in an area with many trees and bushes, which is something we noticed immediately.  There are mountains on three sides of Glenties, and the west opens up to the sea.

We then drove on to Ardara and had a walk around this small town.  The people we walked with yesterday told us that Ardara is having a walking festival this coming weekend, but we will be off to Co. Mayo before then.

Glengesh Pass

Then we headed to Slieve League, which are promoted as the highest sea cliffs in Europe.  The Irish walkers said they ‘may’ be the highest in Europe.  They also told us to drive through the lower parking lot, open the gate and drive up to the parking lot at the top.  We were told that only the tourists park below, while the locals simply open the gate and drive up.  The gate is there to keep the sheep out, but the tourists misinterpret it as a barrier to driving on.  Well, we were glad the walkers told us this, as it is a long and insipid road walk to the upper parking lot and sure enough, the majority of tourists were walking the road, when there was plenty of room to park at the top.

We would rather walk up to the top of the cliffs, than waste our time on a boring road walk, so this local advice was fabulous.  The view of the cliffs plunging to the sea is rather spectacular.  When we got up to the top of the first set of cliffs, we watched a couple of mid-aged women standing near the edge taking a selfie pic.  I called them crazy kids and they exploded with laughter, they were two American women who have been friends for 38 years, and travelled to Ireland together.  We chatted to them for a long time about Ireland, the kind Irish people and of course, the subject of Donald Trump came up as well.

Slieve League

After walking up on the cliffs, we got back to the car and headed down the road.  We met the two American women walking and offered them a ride but they thought they didn’t have far to go, but they were wrong about that.

When I got out to open the gate, some people had just parked and were staring at us, so I yelled at them to drive up, as it is a long walk, and that is what the locals told us to do.

After we left Slieve League we headed to the very south west corner of Donegal to the Malin Beg, which is a stunning sandy beach in a sheltered location at the bottom of steep hills.  A long, steep, staircase is there to provide access.  There are caves in the cliffs on one side but the tide was too high for us to explore them.

Malin Beg

We drove back along the south coast of Donegal, where we stopped at Fintra Bay.  This is another huge sandy beach in a beautiful bay.

Fintra Bay

Killybegs is one of Ireland’s largest deep water harbours.  Therefore, Killybegs is home to a large international fishing fleet, and we were shocked at how huge most of the fishing boats are.

After a walk along the harbour, where we marvelled at the fishing fleet, we popped into a coffee house for cappuccino.  A lot of the coffee shops in the small Irish towns are really pleasant little  spaces, rather than the usual, ultramodern places one finds in urban areas.  There is always friendly and busy staff, who turn out home-baked goods and wonderful looking sandwiches, not that we eat any of it, but we do admire the look of it.  Coffee and cake in the afternoon is a thing here, and the locals partake.

Killybegs

We have never seen a building this vividly blue

There is so much amazing landscape and sea views, that before we know it, the day is over and we always end up getting back to the cottage much later than we intended.  Tomorrow we plan to head to the very north west of Donegal and Ireland, as Donegal extends further north, than Northern Ireland.