This is the former Muff Garda Síochána Station. It was built about 1880 as a constabulary barrack, semi-detached, five bays across the front and two storeys tall, with a two-storey return to the rear. It stands road-fronted in the centre of Muff. From about 1923 it served as a Garda Síochána station, and it kept that role until 2006, when a new Garda station replaced it in the village. Since then it has stood unoccupied. To the north side there is the scar of a demolished house, and a single-storey outbuilding sits detached to the rear. The roof is pitched, laid with natural slate and blue-black clay ridge tiles. Four yellow brick chimneystacks rise from it, two at the centre and one at either gable, each topped with a stepped concrete cap. The walls are smooth rendered over a projecting plinth. The windows are square-headed with painted concrete sills, holding six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows, now covered with metal security grids. The central door is timber panelled with frosted glass sidelights, sheltered under a rendered concrete canopy. A second door stands at the north end of the front. The building retains its early character and form, and it is one of the better surviving traditional buildings along the main street of Muff.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40821007 · source

Somewhere around here, the United States Navy ran a seaplane station on Lough Foyle, commissioned on July 1, 1918, with Commander Henry D. Cooke as commanding officer. It stood near Quigley's Point in County Donegal, north of Derry. The station did not last long. It was disestablished in early 1919.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), en.wikipedia.org: U.S. Naval Air Station Lough Foyle Ireland · source

This is an unclassified megalithic tomb in Carrowkeel, in Donegal. There are no visible remains at the site today. The feature was named Cromlech on the original Ordnance Survey 6-inch map from 1833 to 1834. An Ordnance Survey Name Book for Upper Moville parish from the same years described it as the druidical remains of an altar, and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs called it Druid's Altar, though no further details were given. In 1835, it was pointed out to Lieutenant T.A. Larcom, the officer in charge at the Ordnance Survey, and George Petrie, head of the historical and antiquarian department of the Survey, when they visited the area. Whatever the nature of this feature, it had apparently been removed by 1848, when the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map named it Site of Cromlech. This description was published in the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Volume 6, County Donegal.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG030-013---- · source

A castle site, White Castle. It was occupied in 1601 by Brian age McLaughlin, and in the mid-1650s it belonged to Major George Carey, tenant to Lord Chichester, who had been granted the whole of Inishowen at the time of the Plantation. It probably stood on or near the present Whitecastle, a late 18th century house. The site is marked on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map. Apart from some possible fragments in the yard, there is no visible trace of this castle.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG031-007001- · source

This is a burial ground at Drung, Redcastle, in Donegal. It stands on a plateau overlooking Lough Foyle, with a steep rise behind. The ground was once a ringfort, marked as a fort on the OS 6-inch maps. Use as a graveyard has obliterated the monument. Only a curving outline to north, east and south survives to suggest the ringfort.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG031-005001- · source

A graveyard laid out on a rectangular plan around 1700, Cooly Graveyard in Cooly, Donegal. The earliest inscribed stone dates from 1702, and the markers range from uninscribed late post-medieval stones to eighteenth and nineteenth century inscribed headstones and table tombs. The site is bounded by random rubble stone walls with flat stone coping, entered from the west through square plan rubble stone piers with rendered pyramidal coping and strap-iron double gates. Rubble steps form a stile over the wall to the south of the gateway. Outside the entrance stands a tall plain ringed high cross, Cooly Cross. Inside the graveyard are the remains of two churches and a single-chambered mortuary or skull house with a corbelled stone roof. One of the churches served as a medieval parish church. The other was built in 1622 and remained in use until its destruction in 1688. The variety of gravemarkers, from uninscribed stones to the dated inscribed headstones and table tombs, is an important social record of the region and gives a good sense of changing burial customs. This site has been a focus of worship for a considerable period and is an important element of the built heritage and archaeology of the local area.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40902121 · source

Coming up through Moville in Donegal, you are passing through what the book calls one of the two great open arteries of Ireland. The great liners bound from Liverpool to Canada and the United States made this their point of call. It served as the focus of emigration for the Protestant North, just as Queenstown did for the Catholic South and West. The writer saw these places as channels by which, in their words, "the strength and life of Ireland is continually passing away to be transfused into the veins of other lands."

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 136 · source

A holy well, St. Columkille's well, in Ballynally in Donegal. Ó Muirgheasa described it in 1936 as a St. Colmcille's well on the shore at Moville. It is now a modernised water spout.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG022-007---- · source

This is a burial ground in Bredagh Glen, County Donegal. A rough piece of overgrown ground, about 2 metres by 6 metres, is known as a burial ground. The record comes from M. R. Colhoun. Nothing more is known of it from this source.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG021-003---- · source

This is a burial ground in Moneydarragh, in Donegal. It measures about 10 metres across and sits on raised ground in a curve of the river, among cultivated land. The second edition Ordnance Survey map marked it as a Caldragh. Loose stones are scattered across the subcircular site.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG012-041---- · source

This is a burial ground in Dristernan, Donegal, known as Killycooley. Bones were uncovered when the road was widened. Nothing remains above ground now. The field is well cultivated, sloping south, overlooking the Gleneely River.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG012-032---- · source

This is a court tomb at Laraghirril, in Donegal, standing on Black Hill on the good agricultural land between Trawbreaga Bay and Tremone Bay at the north end of the Inishowen peninsula. It holds a prominent position, with views across the district and the sea visible about 3 kilometres to the north. The structure is a gallery about 8.5 metres long, divided into two chambers, set in a low grass-grown mound 12 metres long, 6 metres wide, and about 0.6 metres high. Doubled jambs at the east-south-east end mark the entrance, though no trace of a court remains. In 1867, a writer known as Maghtochair recorded that a circle of stones about 64 metres in circumference once enclosed the gallery. Nothing of that circle survives today. The segmenting jambs between the chambers are tall stones, the northern one 1.7 metres high and the southern 1.8 metres. Between them stand two septal-stones, one behind the other. A folk name recorded in 1897 called this place the bed of Diarmuid and Grainne, on the hill of Deen. Displaced blocks of stone lie around the site, including one that may have been a lintel above the entrance. The western chamber narrows toward its open end, suggesting it was the endchamber of this two-chambered gallery.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG012-003---- · source

This is a holy well known as Turas Boden, beside the Culdaff River. The well no longer survives. Three steps remain where it once stood, and a tank has been built there. The well was dedicated to St. Buadan and was once the site of a turas that no longer takes place. Ó Muirgheasa described it in 1936, noting that St. Buadan's feast day is locally remembered as 22 July. He is mentioned in the martyrologies under this date as Mo Biu, or Biteus. The glosses state that he was Abbot of Inis Cuscraigh, in Ferann Duin, as the Feilire of Aengus adds, and the son of Comgall.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG005-011---- · source

Muff in Donegal is the site of one of six altars used for the celebration of Mass. These altars do not appear on the 1834 map, but were first marked on the 1848 revision. The Ordnance Survey Name Book records them as six old Roman Catholic altars, for the celebration of mass.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG005-033---- · source

This is a portal tomb at Templemoyle, in Donegal. It stands on a boggy ridge broken by rock outcrops, about 3km west of Culdaff. The ground falls away to the south and west toward pasture, and Trawbreaga Bay is visible 4km to the west. The tomb is a small chamber facing south-east, though the front has collapsed. The chamber was at least 1.8 metres long and 1 metre wide at the rear. A backstone at the north-west and two sidestones are still in place, all leaning inward. The backstone is gabled in profile and 0.6 metres high, lower than the sidestones. The southern sidestone is 0.9 metres high, the northern one 1.05 metres in sloping height. A roofstone 2.3 metres long has slipped. Its front end rests on the ground, and its rear is supported on the southern sidestone and on a small stone on top of the northern sidestone. It narrows from 2 metres wide at the front to 1.3 metres near the back. A prostrate stone in front of the southern sidestone, measuring 2 metres by 0.65 metres by 0.2 metres thick, appears to be a displaced portal-stone. In 1848, the OS Revision Name Book recorded this stone as upright, about 1.2 metres high, and noted that it had leaned toward the south by some unknown cause, leaving one end of the covering stone resting on the ground. The Name Book also recorded that the east end of the chamber was then closed by a slab, now gone. A slightly raised grassy patch about 5 metres across alongside the southern sidestone may be the remains of an enclosing mound.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG004-035---- · source

This is a holy well at Templemoyle in Donegal. There were once two holy wells on the road between Culdaff and Malin, at the angle where the road between Aghaclay and Drumaville meets it. One well can still be seen. A natural spring sits encased in a drystone surround at the base of a whitethorn tree. It is no longer venerated. No votive offerings are visible. The second holy well could not be located.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG004-054---- · source

This is the Mass-rock at Templemoyle, in Donegal. It stands within an ecclesiastical complex: a modern rectangular graveyard contains a sub-rectangular area, 12 metres east to west, 10.4 metres north to south, enclosed by a stone wall 1 metre high. A small stone cross stands inside. Beside the cross is a roughly square-shaped boulder known locally as the Mass Rock. A holy well and a pillar stone dedicated to St. Adomnán stood nearby, but are now destroyed.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG004-052007- · source

Malin Hall's private graveyard is a rectangular enclosure in a wooded area east of Malin Hall and north-west of Malin in Donegal. It was built by the Harvey family of Malin Hall around 1857, with a sunken vault at the north end of the enclosure, covered by an earthen bank. The walls to the front elevation are rock-faced. The burials lie in a semi-subterranean vault or mausoleum, partially built into the side of a hillock on the north side of the graveyard. The earliest burial is dated 1820, though the graveyard does not appear on the Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map of 1837. This suggests it may have been laid out at a later date, with the earlier burial re-interred, probably from the nearby parish church in Malin. The last burial was Elizabeth Lyne, dated 1888. Private family graveyards were uncommon, found on some of the larger country estates throughout Ireland. The graveyard forms part of a group of structures associated with the former country estate of Malin Hall.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40801019 · source

Malin Signal Tower is a freestanding three-storey former signal tower, built about 1805 on a square plan, standing on elevated ground at the north end of Malin Head with the Atlantic Ocean to the north. It was part of a chain of upwards of eighty signal towers constructed along the Irish coastlines by British authorities between 1804 and 1806, in response to French invasion attempts in the 1790s, particularly the 1798 French landing at Killala in County Mayo. The towers used a signalling system of balls and flags, hoisted on a fifty-foot mast on the seaward side, so messages could pass from one tower to the next, raising the alarm if enemy vessels were sighted. This tower was largely built by 1804, and a signal lieutenant was appointed in February 1806. After Nelson's victory over the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the invasion threat diminished, and by 1809 the signal towers along the Irish coastline were abandoned. The tower later served as a weather station about 1870. About 1890 it became a semaphore station for Lloyds of London, passing information on shipping arriving across the Atlantic from the offshore island of Inishtrahull, and from ships at sea, onward to London. It was probably cement rendered about this time. In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi established a radio signal station adjacent to the tower, and in 1902 sent the first commercial radio message from Malin Head to the ship S.S. Lake Ontario. The station was involved in sea trials of the radio system on the RMS Titanic in April 1912. It later became a Post Office telegraph station about 1910. The tower is now derelict.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40900101 · source

In use between 1939 and 1945, the Malin Head Watchman's Hut stands on an elevated site close to the north side of the tip of Malin Head, a single-bay, single-cell, single-storey structure built of mass reinforced concrete with a flat concrete roof. The Irish Army and Navy built it to keep watch for shipping, submarine, and aircraft activity in and over Irish waters during the Second World War, and whatever was observed was reported back to central command. It was one of over 80 such structures built along the Irish coastline in the first years of the war, and it is one of a number that still survive in County Donegal. The design was simple but functional. The front elevation, facing north, is canted to give a view in three directions. Inside, a fireplace in one wall gave basic comfort to the watchman on duty. The hut was equipped with a telephone, semaphore, and Morse code machines. The window and doorway openings are square-headed, though the fittings are now gone, and the structure is out of use. At the request of the Allies, a large "EIRE" was marked on rocks beside these structures to warn their planes not to stray into neutral territory, and that sign is still visible. The hut stands next to the site of a former Napoleonic-era signal tower and a later semaphore or telegraph station, evidence of a long strategic interest in this location on the cliffs with panoramic views over the Atlantic Ocean to the north.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40900104 · source

Drumaville's holy well is a ritual site of three fresh-water springs, set in circles of stone on the muddy foreshore. In 1936 Ó Muirgheasa called them, in his words, 'Cathal Dubh's three boiling wells at Strabreagy,' three little bubbling springs on the Black Rock in Drumaville townland. At full tide the sea covers them. A turus used to be made there. Cathal Dubh was a hermit. His cell could still be seen at Goorey, about 2 miles from Malin on the road to Lagg.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG004-055001- · source

Coming up along Carndonagh now. This is the town where the Donagh bell surfaced, after being lost for generations. The bell was presented to the Royal Irish Academy by John Connellan Deane, who told the story in a letter read before the Academy. Deane had been working in Carndonagh under the temporary relief act. A pawnbroker living there offered him the bell for sale while he was engaged in official business in the town. The pawnbroker had controlled the bell for a great number of years. The bell was said to have been found in the townland of Cean-na-Clug, meaning the head of the bell, which takes its name from the bell itself. It had been hidden away under the soil there, and the finder was the Reverend Michael McColgan. From Father McColgan's time it stayed with the McColgan family of Priestown. The late Philip McColgan of Priestown was fourth in descent from a nephew of the finder. But how it found its way into the pawnbroker's hands at Carndonagh was never clearly discovered.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 156 · source

As the road comes through Carndonagh, you are passing near where John Colgan was born. His birthplace was at Priestown, on the left bank of the Donagh river, adjoining the site of Domnach-mor-muighe-Tochair, in Inis-Owen. The land all around is bold and open. From a hill crest nearby, the northern half of the promontory lies spread out like a map. Below sits Carndonagh, a white speck beyond a row of lakes, the Mintiagh Loughs, tiny mirrors set in the hill flank. On either side run the jagged lines of Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly, varied with peaked headlands and jutting points and shelving bays scooped out of the living rock. Away to the north, the bluffs of Malin Head loom through the mist, the extreme limit of Ireland. When the mists clear, the Atlantic opens up, dotted with fairy islets, marked with a line of white where it seethes and moans and lashes without ceasing against the foot of the beetling cliffs. Someone looking out over all this called it wild, desolate, and weirdly fair. That wildness and that fairness are the country Colgan grew up in, the country that is said to have shaped his later work. He went on to write on the topography and history of Donegal, and the peninsula's stark layout stretched before him here reads like the very thing a future historian of place would first learn to read. Doreen spoke truly, for Inis-Owen is weirdly fair.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 216 · source

As you pass through Carndonagh, a silver chalice once belonging to the Convent of Donegal was preserved in the convent here. About 1865 it was in the possession of the Reverend P. Magee of Strabane, having passed earlier through the hands of the Reverend Bernard McKenna of Leckpatrick and his brother the Reverend John McKenna of Maghera. Its inscription reads, "Pray for Edmd. Bourke, Parish Priest, of Killereran, County Galway, and family, who bought me for ye hour, of God, and use of ye Convt. of Dunegall."

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 64 · source

Recorded in 1848, this is an unclassified megalithic tomb at Churchland Quarters in Donegal. It has been called both a multiple-chambered cairn or dolmen and a prehistoric chambered tomb, though its true nature remains uncertain. The Ordnance Survey Revision Name Book of 1848 described it as an old bed, something like those commonly called Dermot and Grania's Bed. Local tradition held that Saint Patrick used it as a resting place when he came to build a church at Donagh. The place was known as Leaba Phádraig, even among people who did not speak Irish. The English name Patrick's Bed was not used. The stones that formed the bed had been removed by the time of the 1848 record, but the site was still pointed out. In the 17th century, John Colgan described it as the penitential bed of Saint Patrick surrounded by polished stones. It stood about 200 metres south-east of the early ecclesiastical complex at the edge of Carndonagh town. A patch of bare soil there is still respected as a source of cures.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG011-061---- · source

A children's burial ground, Carndoagh, in Donegal. A subcircular area about 5.5 metres across, enclosed by a single course of large stones, set on a natural mound. There may be a second wall further down the slope. The first Ordnance Survey map marked it as a fort, and later editions called it a children's burial ground. It could be a reused cashel, but it seems very small.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG011-007---- · source

This is a megalithic tomb in Rashenny, in Donegal, standing on a gentle slope facing north-west towards Trawbreaga Bay, which lies just over a kilometre away across low ground. The ground around it is pasture, broken where rock breaks through the surface.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG011-005001- · source

As you pass through Clonmany in Donegal, you are in a place remembered for a sudden storm that swept over Binion Bay. A small fishing boat that had set out in the morning with Clonmany's seamen was overwhelmed by the gale, and every man aboard sank beneath the waves. The poem that tells their fate says they had "no humble cross in hallowed spot" to mark their grave. Their shroud was the seaweed, their tomb the ocean sand, and their epitaph was the tale itself, carried on the land.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 169 · source

Up ahead is Clonmany, a town in Inishowen in Donegal. In this part of Ireland, the fairy was never seen as Christian. The people regarded him as a fallen angel, and no Church held out to him the hope of salvation. The story goes that a priest was walking between Clonmany and Ballyliffan when he was surrounded by the wee folk. They asked him anxiously whether they could be saved. He threw his book towards them and bade them catch it, and he would give them an answer. But at the sight of the breviary they scattered and fled. The Protestant Bible and hymn-book were equally dreaded by them, and used as a spell against their influence. In the north of Antrim it was told that a woman was nearly carried off by the fairies because her friends had omitted to leave these books beside her. Her husband, sleeping by the fire, awoke in time to save her. A pair of scissors, a darning-needle, or any piece of iron would have served as a charm. So would the husband's trousers, thrown across the bed.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ulster Folklore (1913), Elizabeth Andrews, Project Gutenberg #37187, Chapter 6 · source

You are coming through Clonmany in Donegal. In 1609, an inquisition found that this parish held six quarters of church land. One quarter, called Donally, was free to Donnogh O'Morreesen, who served as the abbot's corbe and as herenagh to the bishop of Derry for three of those quarters. The other three quarters had been given by the O'Dohertys and the O'Donnells to Columbkille, as a dedication towards his vestments when he went to war. Those three quarters, along with Donally, were given to the ancestors of Donagh O'Morreeson, who in those days were servants of Columbkille. By 1609, all of this land was in the possession of Sir Ralph Bingley, a knight. The herenagh paid the bishop of Derry ten shillings English each year out of the bishop's third of the tithes, and was anciently accustomed to collect all the bishop's duties across the whole barony of Inishowen. The parish had both a parson and a vicar. Tithes were paid in kind, a third to the parson, a third to the vicar, and a third to the herenagh. They were to repair and maintain the parish church equally between them. There were six gortes of glebe in the parish, three belonging to the vicar, and the rest to the keeper of the Missagh, the ornaments left by Columbkille.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 141 · source

Somewhere around here, a story was told that belongs to a family of legends found across England, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Norway. An elderly woman told the folklorist that at Kinnagoe, a small hamlet about three miles from Buncrana, there lived a man whose name she believed was Doherty. He dreamt one night that on London Bridge he should hear of a treasure. He set out at once for London. When he came there he walked up and down the bridge until he was wearied. At last a man accosted him and asked him why he loitered there. Doherty told his dream, upon which the other said, "Ah, man! Do you believe in drames? Why, I dreamt the other night that at a place called Kinnagoe a pot of gold is buried. Would I go to look for it? I might loss my time if I paid attention to drames." Doherty answered, "That's true," and hurried home. He found the pot of gold, bought houses and land, and became a wealthy man. The folklorist thought the mention of London Bridge pointed to the story being brought over by English settlers. Sir G. Laurence Gomme had collected several variants of the Pedlar of Swaffham tale. The earliest version came from the manuscripts of Sir Roger Twysden, who obtained it from Sir William Dugdale of Blyth Hall in Warwickshire, in a letter dated January 29, 1652. Sir William said it was the tradition of the inhabitants, as it was told him there.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ulster Folklore (1913), Elizabeth Andrews, Project Gutenberg #37187, Chapter 8 · source

As you pass through Cockhill, this is where Dr Maginn lies buried. He was consecrated in the Cathedral Waterside on 18 January 1846 and died on 17 January 1849, a short but eventful episcopal career. He was born on 16 December 1802, and his remains rest in the graveyard adjoining Cockhill church near Buncrana, among the mountains and people of Inis-Owen, both of which he loved so well. A wooden substitute for a tomb marks the spot, bearing his title as Bishop of Orthosia and Apostolic Administrator of Derry.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 112 · source

As you pass through Buncrana, in Donegal, you are passing through the place where a marriage banquet in 1608 set off O'Doherty's revolt. O'Doherty, chieftain of Inishowen, had received a blow from the hand of Paulet, the second governor of Derry. Under the irritating taunts of Paulet and the crafty promptings of Neale Garve, he burned to wash away the insult with the blood of his enemy. The marriage banquet here at Buncrana furnished the opportunity. Hart, the Governor of Culmore, was made prisoner. O'Doherty led his captive to the gate of the fortress. Hart's wife was forced to choose between the surrender of the place and the death of her husband. Her tears and entreaties prevailed on the pity or cowardice of the garrison, and Culmore supplied O'Doherty with arms and ammunition. Derry and its castle then submitted to his power, and Paulet and five others fell as the victims of revenge. The Council strained every nerve to suppress the insurrection before O'Doherty received aid. The two first attempts ended in the discomfiture of the royalists, who lost 300 or 400 men. On the approach of Wingfield, marshall of the camp, O'Doherty dismantled the two fortresses and retired. For two months he kept his enemies at bay, but one morning, exposing himself incautiously, he was slain by a random shot.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala · source

In 1601, Buncrana Castle at Tullyarvan was described as a small castle inhabited by Connor McGarrett O'Doherty. It is a ruined and much altered tower house, situated beside the Crana River in Donegal. Early in 1602 Hugh Boy O'Doherty repaired it. After Sir Cahir O'Doherty's revolt in 1608, English forces burnt the castle. It may have been repaired soon after. At the time of the Plantation it was granted to Chichester, who leased it to Henry Vaughan. In 1611 Vaughan was described as having "buylte at Buncrannagh viz. The castle stronglie rebuylded w'th a parapitt on the topp of it, after the English fashion" with lime burnt and other preparations made ready for a bawn about the castle. The Vaughan family resided there until the present house was built in 1718. The building is now a National Monument in state guardianship, number 435. The tower house is sub-rectangular in plan, 9.9 metres by 8.6 metres externally, and three storeys in height. The walls are built of large blocks and rubble laid in mortar, rising from battered lower courses. The original entrance was probably in the centre of the north wall at ground-floor level, later built up and fitted with a small central window flanked by two gun-loops. Within is a mural-lobby with a murder hole over it. The present entrance is at first-floor level, centrally set in the east wall. The two lower storeys follow the plan of a typical medieval tower-house, and the date of the building must not be earlier than the 15th century.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG029-025001- · source

As you pass through Buncrana, you are near the Cottage where Dr Maginn lived as parish priest of the united parishes of Upper and Lower Fahan. It became a gathering place for Catholic people of Inis-Owen and the North, compared in its time to Holland House in London for English Whig politicians. Irish workers came to consult Dr Maginn and left laden with facts and ideas for the country's benefit. William Smith O'Brien, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, and reputedly Charles Gavan Duffy were visitors. Among those locally associated with Dr Maginn were the Reverend Philip Devlin, Vicar-General of the diocese, and the Reverend William Hegarty.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 111 · source

Coming through Buncrana now, in Donegal. A story was told here about a little herd-boy who paid dearly for entering one of the fairies' dwellings. The teller had heard several similar stories, and had not found that any evil consequences were supposed to follow from partaking of food brought by the fairies. Men had been carried off by them, had heard their beautiful music, seen them dancing, witnessed a fairy battle, all without bringing any misfortune on themselves. But this herd-boy's case was different. He was climbing among the rocks, and he saw a cleft. Creeping through it, he came to where a fairy woman was spinning, with her weans, her children, around her. His sister missed him, and after searching for a time, she too came to the cleft. Looking down, she saw her brother, and called to him to come out. He came, but was never able to speak again. In another case, deafness followed intercourse with the fairies. An elderly man at Maghera, County Down, told the collector that his brother, when four or five years old, went out with his father. The child lay down on the grass. After a while the father heard a great noise, and looking up, saw little men about two feet in height dancing round his son. He called to them to be gone, and they ran towards a fort and disappeared. The child became deaf, and did not recover his hearing for ten years. He died at the age of seventeen.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ulster Folklore (1913), Elizabeth Andrews, Project Gutenberg #37187, Chapter 2 · source

You're passing through Buncrana now. In 1608, during O'Doherty's revolt, 12 or 13 raiders rode here and burned the town. The inhabitants fled, and seven or eight swordsmen were killed. The castle walls remained standing after the fire.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 220 · source

The town of Buncrana in Donegal holds the remains of two castles on what is likely the same site. All that survives of the ancient O'Doherty castle is about 10 feet of the base of what was originally a square tower or keep. Around 1607, O'Doherty was enlarging a building there, at the very time Paulet, Montgomery, and Chichester wanted his castles and his cantred of Inis-Owen for themselves. The Buncrana Castle you may see today was constructed by Sir John Vaughan in 1716, described in a photograph seen by Father Meehan as "a modern house." It doubtless occupies the site of that earlier building. During the time O'Doherty was in revolt, a raid through Inis-Owen tells of how Buncrana fared at the hands of a band of warriors, in an account given by Sir Thomas Kidgeway.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 220 · source

Somewhere around here, on the 9th of February 2012, a young man named Andrew Allen was shot dead by three masked gunmen at about 9:20 p.m. He was from Derry, one of over 30 people forced from their homes by a vigilante group called Republican Action Against Drugs, or RAAD, after his name appeared in a threat sent to a community centre in the Waterside area of Derry, and he had moved to Ludden outside Buncrana to live with his partner and her two children, having been told weeks earlier he was no longer under threat. RAAD claimed responsibility for his death on 22 February, calling him a drug dealer, which his family denied, though his partner said he had been involved in drugs previously but had stopped since at least 2010, and a car believed used in the murder was found burning near Fahan, three miles away. Friends and family believed the Real IRA was more likely responsible based on the method of the killing, and both groups later merged to form the New IRA in July 2012, while the Derry priest Fr Michael Canny said as many as 36 or 37 people had been exiled from the Waterside and Cityside areas, with Allen the first of those exiles to be killed. As of 2023, six people had been arrested and questioned, but the killer has not been found.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), en.wikipedia.org: Murder of Andrew Allen · source

You are coming through Fahan, in Donegal. In 1797 this place was the scene of a notorious double murder. Dr Hamilton was visiting at the rectory of Sharon, the home of Mr and Mrs Waller. He was sitting with the family when several shots were fired in upon them. The house was broken open. Mrs Waller tried to protect her helpless husband, covering him with her body, and was murdered. Hamilton, from the natural love of life, had taken refuge in the lower apartments. They forced him from there. As he tried to hold the door, they held fire under his hand until he quit his hold. They dragged him a few yards from the house and murdered him, in the words of the report, in the most inhuman and barbarous manner. The assassins retired unmolested and undiscovered. None were ever brought to justice, though popular tradition among both Catholics and Protestants says misfortune dogged their footsteps and each came to an untimely end. Hamilton's body remained exposed through the night, removed only the following morning, taken to Londonderry and buried in the Cathedral graveyard. His name is on the family tombstone there, and in 1890 his descendants erected a tablet to his memory in the chancel.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ulster Folklore (1913), Elizabeth Andrews, Project Gutenberg #37187, Chapter 11 · source

Up ahead the road passes through Fahan, in Donegal, where St. Mura founded a convent in the sixth century. It stood in a vale known as the Bosom of Fahan, in Inis-Owen, about eight miles north of Derry. The names of its abbots are recorded with fair regularity from 657 until 1098, which is remarkable given that the convent sat on a branch-arm of Lough Swilly and was within easy reach by sea for disturbance or pillage. The place was frequently mentioned in Irish history, associated with St. Mura or with his successors as abbots. Among those distinguished successors was one known as the Canonist.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 207 · source

Coming up through Fahan in Donegal. A list of abbots of Fahan-Mura, given by Dr. Reeves, records that in 818 Fothadh of Fothain died. This is thought to be the celebrated Fothadh na Canoine, the Canonist, mentioned by the Four Masters and the Annals of Ulster. The Four Masters tell the story. The clergy complained to King Aedh Oirnie that it was a grievance for them to go on any hosting or fighting expedition. The king said he would abide by the award of Fothadh na Canoine. On that occasion Fothadh of Fahan-Mura passed the decision exempting the clergy of Ireland for ever from expeditions and hostings, meaning from going in the retinue of any king, chief, or governor in fighting array, as had frequently been the case before. O'Donovan notes that Colgan's Acta Sanctorum gives further account of this writer.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 207 · source

Somewhere around here, in 1600 to 1601, the traitor Niel Garv O'Donnell took refuge at the smaller abbey of Magherabeg. His angry kinsmen had driven him forth from Donegal Abbey, where he had occupied it for a brief space. He fled a few miles away, and here he would almost certainly have been destroyed, had Red Hugh not been summoned to join the Spanish force at Kinsale. Reluctantly Red Hugh left the traitor behind, having first destroyed his castle in Donegal that it might not fall into the hands of his enemies and be a point of vantage to them. With his little army he made his way southward with a speed and good order truly astonishing, for where the leader is trustworthy the followers will go with him to death itself. Near Kinsale he found his father-in-law eagerly awaiting his presence. That prudent chief had scarcely been able to restrain the boastful Spanish commander from making a premature attack upon the English forces, which were strongly posted and ready to receive the onset. It may be, too, that he had been boasting to his ally of the valour and wise conduct of his son-in-law in terms not entirely flattering to that worthy or to his nation. At all events, the Spaniard goaded Red Hugh into action by his taunts, against the advice of O'Neil, while he himself proved of little use when the time came to fight.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Haunts of the eagle : man and wild nature in Donegal (1924), Fox, Arthur William, Internet Archive hauntsofeagleman00foxa, Chapter 115 · source

You're passing through Burt parish, where old O'Doherty castles once guarded the waters of Lough Swilly. At Buncrana and on Inch Island their castles still stand. But the one to remember is Birt Castle, on a bare hilltop overlooking the arm of the lough that runs toward Letterkenny. In 1608, after a man named Paulet struck Sir Cahir O'Doherty, he withdrew here in fury and plotted what became his final, fatal rising. That rising gave his fosterers, the McDevitts, a nickname they are said to keep to this day: the Bum-Derrys.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 116 · source

You're coming through the parish of Burt, in Donegal, along the shore of Lough Swilly. Sir Cahir O'Dogherty's castle still stands here, south of Inch Island, looking over the water. He was chief of Inishowen, a district Red Hugh O'Donnell claimed as his own. When Cahir's father died, Red Hugh seized the boy and tried to have Cahir's uncle Phelim proclaimed instead. But Cahir's fosterers, the McDevitts of Burt, appealed to Sir Henry Docwra, who held the forts of Culmore and Derry. Docwra established Cahir as chief and raised the young man under his own eye in all courtly and warlike exercises, shaping him as a supporter of the English. Cahir fought for his allies and was knighted. In 1607 he sat as foreman of the jury that declared the fleeing Earls traitors and their lands forfeit. Then Docwra was replaced by Sir Henry Paulet, who mistrusted Cahir, and after quarrels struck him. Cahir went back to his castle here, enraged, and plotted revenge with the McDevitts. In April 1608 he marched out, took Culmore Fort, sacked and burnt Derry, and Paulet paid with his life. He pressed on to Lifford but failed to take it and withdrew into Glen Yeagh.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 73 · source

Belonging to the O'Doherties in 1440, Culmacatraine Castle's site lies in Castleforward Demesne. It was dismantled in 1529 and subsequently occupied by O'Donnell. By 1600 it was apparently in poor condition. It was repaired the following year and garrisoned by an English force in 1610. It was probably demolished in the 17th century. The castle likely stood on or near the site of the 18th-century Castleforward House. Of the stones noted by Davies and Swan, only one was located, in the wall beside the house. The house has been razed to the ground.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG047-015---- · source

Castleforward Demesne in Donegal holds a motte, a modified natural mound roughly 27 metres by 22.5 metres and about 4 metres high. A fosse encloses most of the site, clearest on the west side where the mound was deliberately cut to give it its present shape. Slight traces of a bank run outside the fosse, and a curving field boundary marks the north side. The mound is tree-covered, and no structures are visible on it. The first edition Ordnance Survey map called it a single-ringed fort. The site, or one close by, is usually identified as the location of Culmacatreine, a small castle or tower house shown on a map of about 1600. There is now no trace of that castle. The mound stands on a slight rise overlooking low-lying reclaimed land that seems to have been marshy and possibly tidal up to the seventeenth century.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG047-017---- · source

Somewhere close to Moyle, Barach had his mansion on the shore. In the legend of the Sons of Usnach, King Conor wanted the exiles brought back from Alba, and he chose Fergus to fetch them. Conor told Fergus to bring them to this mansion and send them on to Eman as soon as they arrived. But Conor had a plan. He went to Barach and asked whether he had a feast ready. Barach said he did, but could not bring it to Eman. So Conor told him to offer it to Fergus instead, when he returned from Alba, because Fergus was under gesa never to refuse a feast. The trick was simple. Fergus had sworn never to turn down a feast, and Conor used that vow to delay him, leaving the sons of Usnach to travel on without Fergus's protection. Before all this, Conor had tested three men. He asked Conall Carnach what he would do if the sons of Usnach were slain after coming under his warranty. Conall said he would inflict death on every Ultonian who had part in it. Conor told him he was no friend of his. He asked Cuchullan the same. Cuchullan pledged he would slay every man of Ulster his hands could reach. Conor said he was no friend either. Then he drew Fergus apart, and Fergus said no man in Ulster should injure them but his life should pay for it, save only Conor himself. It was Fergus Conor sent.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 167 · source

The Royal Irish Constabulary barracks at Manorcunningham is a 2-storey house built about 1800, road-fronted to the south end of Main Street. It was probably built as a private house at the very start of the nineteenth century, perhaps earlier, and later converted for use as a barracks. The form of the building and the proportions of the openings suggest it was originally built as a house and later adapted. It served as a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks from about 1830 until about 1920. A Francis Sherridan was the constable in 1881, recorded in Slater's Directory. The building was extended to the north sometime between 1860 and about 1903. The extension appears on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map but not on the Griffiths Valuation map. The building retains its original form and character despite being no longer occupied. It has a pitched natural slate roof with projecting eaves and overhanging cast-iron rainwater goods, and 2 red brick chimneystacks, one to the north gable end and one offset to the south side of centre. The walls are roughcast rendered over a smooth rendered plinth course, with smooth rendered block quoins to the corners of the front elevation. Remains of lime render over rubble stone construction survive to the north gable end. The square-headed openings have painted stone sills, smooth rendered reveals, and 6-over-6 timber sliding sash windows, some now broken. The doorway, offset to the south side of centre, has smooth rendered reveals, stone plinth blocks, a replacement battened timber door, and a plain overlight. After the constabulary left, the building returned to use as a private house. It now stands out of use.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40827010 · source

A megalithic tomb, unclassified, at Errity in Donegal. It carried the name Giant's Grave on the OS six-inch map of the 1840s. Thomas Fagan, surveying in the same period, described it as the remains of a pagan sepulture commonly called the giant's grave. He said it stood on rolling pasture, occupying a space about 13 yards square, raised some feet above the adjoining ground. On top, lying east to west, was an enclosure 20 feet long and 7 to 9 feet wide, divided into different graves. The enclosure was much deranged even then, built of large blocks of stone, several still in place, though many other stones were missing or lay prostrate. Kinahan, visiting in the 1880s, remarked that this structure had been broken up and removed just before his visit. There is now no trace of it, unless a slab about 1 metre across, built into a fence adjacent to the site, was part of it. Fagan's account may describe a megalithic tomb, but without corroboration it cannot be accepted as a definite one. The description was published in the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, County Donegal volume.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG054-033---- · source

Somewhere around here, a story from 1277 connects this place to a trade running all the way to Galway and County Clare. The trade and commerce of Limerick had fallen rapidly, while Galway advanced just as quickly. On Pipe Roll number 17, the net produce of Limerick's customs amounted to only 1 shilling and 6 pence for a period when in Galway it reached 18 pounds, 4 shillings, and 5 pence for the same time. The historian of Galway, Mr. Hardiman, boasted of the flourishing condition of the city of the tribes. But Limerick was not destined to remain always in a secondary position. The citizens felt aggrieved over the salmon and eel fisheries of the Shannon, and sent a petition to the king, which was promptly responded to. Robert de Saint Edmond obtained a grant of the weirs, but after he had petitioned, his rent for them yearly was fixed at twenty marks. The grant of Thomond by Edward I to Thomas de Clare took place in 1275. It had its effect on Limerick, on Munster, and more so on Connaught. To this day traces of it are found in the county to which de Clare gave his own name. But it is 1277 that matters here. In that year, Dermod More O'Brien of Tromra, County Clare, received twelve tuns of wine yearly as tribute from the merchants of Galway, in the words of the source, "in consideration of protecting the harbour and trade from all pirates and privateers, by maintaining a suitable maritime force for the purpose."

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Limerick, its history and antiquities; ecclesiastical, civil, and military,from the earliest ages, with copious historical, archaeological, topographical, and genealogical notes (1884), Lenihan, Maurice, 1811-1895, Internet Archive limerickitshisto00leni, Chapter 36 · source

Letterkenny in Donegal is a town the road passes through, and in 1650 it was the scene of one of the worst disasters the Irish cause suffered. Emer M'Mahon led his troops into battle here against Sir Charles Coote, and the result was their complete overthrow. After the defeat, the northern army collapsed into little more than a guerilla rabble. M'Mahon's entire staff had urged him to refuse the unequal contest, but he listened to no one. A prophecy once uttered by a prime saint, predicting the ruin of the Gael near Letterkenny, was recalled and disregarded. A woman of uncommon stature, all in white, foretold the swift death awaiting him and his people if they persisted in crossing the river. He gave her no more heed than he gave his officers. He used such corrosive language toward his own staff that they indignantly withdrew their opposition, and paid with their lives for the churchman's recklessness. Some days after the battle, the Bishop, Henry O'Neill, was executed by Sir Charles Coote. Quarter had been granted, but Coote condemned his former deliverer to death. A short year before, young O'Neill had come to Coote's relief at Derry, and the two men had exchanged more than the courtesies usual between honourable antagonists. O'Neill did not submit without a protest. He recalled the invaluable help he had afforded Coote and the demonstrations of affection Coote had so lately been prodigal of. He reminded Sir Charles that at Derry he had been, in his own words, "his own sweet brother Harry."

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from The life of James, first duke of Ormonde, 1610-1688; (vol. 1) (1912), Burghclere, Winifred Anne Henrietta Christina Herbert Gardner, Baroness, 1864-1933, Internet Archive lifeofjamesfirst01burg, Chapter 58 · source

A detached union workhouse front block, built 1842 to 1844 and dated 1843, now Donegal County Museum. It stands set back from the line of the street on a slightly elevated site in Letterkenny. This is the front block of Letterkenny Union Workhouse, erected to designs by George Wilkinson, Architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland, appointed 1839. The Letterkenny Poor Law Union was formed on the 26th of June 1841, overseen by a Board of Guardians of twenty-one elected members and seven ex officio members who convened at noon each Friday. The workhouse occupied a site of six acres and was designed to accommodate 500 inmates. It was completed at a cost of £6,450, with an additional £1,475 spent on fixtures and furnishings. The stone is a creamy-coloured Mountcharles sandstone, said to have come from the quarries of Francis Nathaniel Conyngham. The composition follows a H-shaped plan, five bays across and two storeys, with gabled advanced end bays. Its symmetrical front is centred on a Tudor-headed doorcase below an inscribed plaque reading "1843". The openings are near uniform in proportion, with cut-sandstone surrounds and hood mouldings framing timber casement windows. A high pitched roof carries miniature gablets. Letterkenny Union Workhouse was declared fit for the admission of paupers on the 16th of December 1844 and received its first inmates on the 14th of March 1845. It recalls contemporary front blocks at Ballyshannon Union Workhouse and Donegal Union Workhouse, both built 1841 to 1842.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40502222 · source

A seventeenth-century graveyard, Conwal Parish Church Graveyard, stands in Letterkenny, to the north-west of the town centre and to the south of the church. It was originally laid out about 1636, and contains gravemarkers from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The earliest legible grave is dated 1650. The latest is dated 1939, or perhaps 1959. The ground is elevated, reached by a flight of cut stone steps from the southern gateway. That gateway has ashlar gate piers, wrought-iron gates, and a segmental-headed wrought-iron overarch linking the piers. The site is bounded by rubble limestone walls. A simpler pedestrian gateway to the west has rubble stone gate piers with a wrought-iron gate. The earlier gravemarkers are generally recumbent, many carved with symbols of mortality, including skull and crossbone motifs. One of the earliest graveslabs commemorates Isabel Smith, wife of John Boyd of Letterkenny, dated around 1671. The later gravemarkers are generally upstanding, some showing classical influences such as tapered pedestal and obelisk-type markers. Some graves sit inside metal railed or chained enclosures. Several individuals of local historic interest are interred. The Boyd family of nearby Ballymacool, and later of Gortlee. Count Redmond O'Hanlon, a celebrated seventeenth-century highwayman, lived from 1640 to 1681. The Reverend Doctor John Kinnear was a Presbyterian minister in Letterkenny, M.P. for County Donegal, and carried the banner for Tenants Rights in the 1880s. Other gravemarkers belong to Protestant families dating from the mid-seventeenth century.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40501199 · source

Drumnahough, in Donegal, is a ritual site beside a sharp bend in the River Swilly. A church stands inside a graveyard that is still in use. Outside the east wall of the graveyard, beside a stream, there is a boulder measuring 0.75 metres by 0.5 metres by 0.35 metres, with a basin 0.2 metres across and 0.13 metres deep. A thorn tree next to the boulder was decorated with rags when the site was visited. No trace of the holy well marked on the OS 6-inch maps near the boulder could be found.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG053-033002- · source

This is the Thorn, the ground where O'Donnell stood in 1567 when Shane O'Neill invaded Tyrconnell in great force. O'Donnell had assembled his hosting at Ardingary, just near the town of Letterkenny. On May 8th Shane made a rapid advance upon them, crossing the estuary of the Swilly about two miles below Letterkenny. O'Donnell was posted on the heights overlooking the level ground which is now called the Thorn. The whole battle passed in the space enclosed between the Swilly and the Ramelton road, bounded east by Oak Park and west by Letterkenny. There was a cavalry skirmish down by the foreshore which delayed O'Neill's advance at a critical moment, for the O'Donnell host was only assembling.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 79 · source

Up ahead is Rathmelton, in Donegal. In 1689, Kirke could not reach Derry by way of Lough Foyle, so he sailed up Lough Swilly and placed 800 men near this town, a few miles west of Derry. He chose the spot to draw the besiegers' attention and pull their forces away from the Foyle. De Rosen saw the move but would not weaken his own river blockade. Instead he ordered Berwick from Enniskillen to dislodge Kirke, and Berwick arrived at Rathmelton with 1,200 horse about the 22nd of July. Kirke's position was naturally strong, set among the inlets of the lough that indented the country in all directions, nearly to Derry itself. He was entrenched on one of the peninsulas, under the guns of his frigates. Berwick spent a whole day trying to drive him out and failed. He retired to a nearby height and settled for watching Kirke and keeping him confined to his trenches.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from The Battle-fields of Ireland, from 1688 to 1691 (1867), John Boyle, Project Gutenberg #54518, Chapter 7 · source

As you come through Rathmelton in Donegal, there's a story that captures the flavour of the place. A gentleman once planned to enlighten the town with a lecture on Irish Antiquities, and it was duly advertised about the streets. An old woman who kept a stall on fair days came up to him and said, "So, your Reverence, you're going to give us a lecture on Irish iniquities. Faith, and there's plenty of them any way." She had mixed up antiquities with iniquities, but she wasn't wrong about there being plenty to talk about. The story comes from a time when local traditions still lived close to the surface here, and the author notes that this part of Tyrconnell was never over-civilised, not in Red Hugh's day and not now. The old roads and fords of the Swilly near Letterkenny and the routes through Barnesmore Gap to Donegal were the same ways people travelled when bridges did not yet exist in the country. What you pass through now carries that long, unbroken thread of local memory.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 20 · source

By 1619, Sir William Stewart had built a castle and bawn at Ramelton, and erected a village and church. The castle stood at the head of an inlet where the Leannan river joins Lough Swilly, now inside the town of Ramelton. In 1622 it was described as 3 and a half storeys high "with 3 round flankers on the top of the castle, and round turret or staircase, 42 feet high, with a battlement and platform." Adjoining the castle was a house of 1 and a half storeys, slated, with a guard house for soldiers, and a bawn of lime and stone, 80 feet square, having 3 square flankers. This castle was burned during the wars that followed the 1641 rebellion. Two walls survived into the early 19th century, and a sketch of these with a plan of the castle site and a short description are preserved among the Ordnance Survey Memoirs. Parts of the castle are said to be incorporated under plaster in a modern building.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG046-005001- · source

Recorded by Ó Muirgheasa in 1936, this was one of two holy wells in Craig or Cregg townland, two miles from Rathmullen on the road to Rathmelton. It was called Tobar Breallagh, probably from St. Baothallach, whose feast fell on the 5th of October. The well never appeared on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps. Local information placed it along the shoreline of Lough Swilly, where it was washed away. By 2020 there was no visible trace.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG037-014001- · source

Recorded by Ó Muirgheasa, this holy well stands in the townland of Craig or Cregg, about two miles from Rathmullen on the road to Rathmelton, on low-lying ground near the shoreline of Lough Swilly. Ó Muirgheasa noted that there are two holy wells in the townland, one on each side of the road. This well is called Tobar Breallagh, the name probably taken from St. Baothallach, whose day is the 5th of October. It consists of a basin-stone that holds water. The stone is a flattish slab about 0.85 metres across, with a depression about 0.3 metres across and about 0.15 metres deep. A few stones have been built up to form a roof over the basin-stone, and some pieces of white quartz are laid on the bullaun. According to tradition, water from the well is used as an eye cure. The well is marked as a holy well on Ordnance Survey maps.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG037-014---- · source

Somewhere around here, on 14 September 1607, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, departed from Rathmullan for Catholic Europe. They were the patriarchs of the two most powerful clans in Ulster, and about 100 people sailed with them, including their extended families and fellow nobility. Both earls had fought against the Crown in the Nine Years' War from 1593 to 1603, ending in their surrender. James VI and I granted generous peace terms, but hostility from officials grew over time. English law brought financial difficulties and a land dispute between Tyrone and his vassal Donnell Ballagh O'Cahan, which officials like Arthur Chichester and John Davies weaponised. The earls may have been conspiring, and the flight could have been an attempt to evade arrest. Their departure is considered to symbolise the end of Gaelic Irish society. The exact motivation is debated. They were bound for A Coruña in Spain, their ally during the war, but storms drove them to Quillebeuf-sur-Seine in France. Philip III forbade them from entering Spain, fearing violation of the 1604 Anglo-Spanish peace treaty. They spent time in Leuven in the Spanish Netherlands, leaving their children at the Irish College of St Anthony. They arrived in Rome on 29 April 1608 and received small pensions from Pope Paul V. Tyrconnell died of a fever three months later. Tyrone repeatedly spoke of returning to retake his lands, but he fell ill and died in 1616. Most of the passengers never returned to Ireland. King James declared the flight treasonous, which led to the seizure and plantation of their lands by Protestants from Great Britain as part of the Plantation of Ulster. It is considered a watershed moment in Irish history.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), en.wikipedia.org: Flight of the Earls · source

As you come through Rathmullan in Donegal, this is where one of the most famous kidnappings in Irish history happened in 1587. In May of that year, Perrott wrote to Elizabeth proposing to take O'Donnell, his wife, or his son Hugh Roe, known as Red Hugh, by sending them a boat with wines. Elizabeth chose the kidnapping. In September 1587, a merchant ship sailed up Lough Swilly and anchored opposite Rathmullan. Her master was George Dudall, but the man who appeared as her owner and announced a cargo of choice wines was Captain Birmingham of her Majesty's forces. He had heard that Owen Oge of the Battle-axes planned a visit to MacSwiney of Fanad, where the head of the MacSwineys came to cosher, meaning to demand free quarters as was his right. Birmingham traded freely and generously for some days. Then Owen Oge arrived at the head of a great retinue. Harpers rode with their instruments slung behind their backs or borne by attendants. Story-tellers came to beguile the intervals of feasting with fragments of ancient epic. There rode Owen Oge's bard, who composed poems in his praise, and the professional rhapsodists who recited them, for the bard composed but did not sing. Captain Birmingham lured Red Hugh O'Donnell, then fifteen, aboard with the MacSwiney chiefs and Sir Owen O'Gallagher. He bolted the cabin door and seized them.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 118 · source

Coming up along Rathmullan in Donegal. In early 1595, Hugh Roe O'Donnell raided Connaught twice and drove off great preys of cattle, and the Binghams in Sligo took it as a deep insult. To avenge it, George Bingham fitted out two ships in Sligo harbour and sailed them along the coast of Carbury, round Teelin Head, and into Lough Swilly. He came ashore here and fell on the Carmelite monastery, carrying away the sacred vessels, the ornaments of the altar, the vestments of the priests, and every other article of value he could find. From here he sailed on to Tory Island and rifled the chief church there, dedicated to Saint Columba, patron saint of the O'Donnells. So he outraged at once Hugh Roe's religion and his territory, then sailed back to Sligo well pleased. His triumph did not last. Lieutenant Ulick Burke, second in command at Sligo, hated the Binghams for their treatment of him and for the wholesale massacre of his relations. He gathered enough of the garrison to his design, and they fell on Bingham in the castle and butchered him, putting to the sword or driving out all who took his part. Whether O'Donnell was privy to the plot is not shown, but he certainly gained the most from it, for Burke had no sooner become master of the place than the advantage shifted to the O'Donnells.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from The history of Sligo : town and county (1900), O'Rorke, Terence, Internet Archive historyofsligoto00oror, Chapter 153 · source

Rathmullan is the town where one of the most notorious kidnappings in Irish history took place. In 1587, Red Hugh O'Donnell was seized here by Sir John Perrot, who had him carried off in what the source calls a "black-hatched, deceptive" bark, a ship disguised to lure its victim aboard. Red Hugh was taken to Dublin Castle, where he was cruelly treated by the English. The story comes down to us through the poets of the MacAnBhaird family, whose very name means Son of the Bard. A century before, in 1510, Owen Roe McAnBhaird, chief poet of Tirconnell, had died. In 1583, Fearghal Og, another celebrated poet of the name, died as well. It was in 1587 that Maolmuri, son of Connla MacAnBhaird, flourished, and he was the author of a poetic address to Red Hugh O'Donnell about the kidnapping at Rathmullan. The MacAnBhaird poets also left behind an elegy on the princes of Tyrone and Tirconnell, who died at Rome, best known through Clarence Mangan's translation beginning, "Oh! Woman of the Piercing Wail." The Ward family carried this inheritance of poetry and Celtic learning across generations, the name Ward being another form of the word for poet. Father Hugh Ward, born into that tradition, later joined the Franciscans at Salamanca and studied theology at Paris and Louvain.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Inis-Owen and Tirconnell. Being some account of antiquities and writers of the county of Donegal: (1895), Doherty, William James, Internet Archive inisowentirconne00doheiala, Chapter 32 · source

This is the burial ground on Killygarvan Island, a tidal island at the northern end of Kinnegar Strand in Donegal, about 50 metres across and 2 metres high. In April 1988, Roy Spence of Belfast reported the discovery of human remains on the island to the National Museum. The southern flank was being actively eroded, and along that side two lintel graves had been uncovered. In September 1988, Spence reported a second grave nearby. R. O Floinn of the National Museum excavated. The first grave lay between 0.3 and 0.4 metres below the sod and was built with three covering slabs, five principal sidestones on each side, all inclined outwards, and tall pillar-like stones filling the corners. The floor was paved with carefully laid slabs. The skeleton lay directly on that floor, fully extended on its back, head in the south-west, facing south. The lower arm bones, vertebrae, ribs and pelvic bones were almost entirely missing, lost to the collapse of the covering slabs. The remains were identified as an adult female, and the grave was oriented south-west to north-east. The second grave, 2.1 metres to the south-east, held no surviving bone. Its covering stones were arranged neatly over an oval area. As excavation began, a large tapering pillar-like stone was found lying horizontally across the covering stones, undecorated and centrally placed. It had originally stood vertically at the southern end of the grave and is interpreted as a grave-marker. A headstone and pillow stone showed that the head had been placed to the south. The size of the grave indicated the remains of a child. There is no structure on the island and no tradition of burial associated with it. R. O Floinn, who published these findings in the Donegal Annual for 1992, suggested that the lintel graves may represent part of an early cemetery, later replaced by the burial ground surrounding Killygarvan Church to the north.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG028-033---- · source

Somewhere around here is Macamish Fort, one of several Napoleonic batteries built along the shores of Lough Swilly to defend the north west of Ireland. It was part of a scheme to fortify Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle against French invasion during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was completed between 1812 and 1813. Built on a rock outcrop overlooking the lough, it comprises a Martello Tower mounting a single gun and a battery mounting three guns. The fort was originally entered by a drawbridge. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the defences were neglected and not updated, and by the 1860s the fort was obsolete and disarmed. It remains substantially intact today and is now in use as a private residence.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), en.wikipedia.org: Macamish Fort · source

This is a portal tomb in the townland of Bin, in Donegal. It stands on the south-east side of a rocky ridge, about 150 metres east of the Drumhallagh River, which flows into Lough Swilly about 500 metres north of the site. The tomb opens downhill to the south-east, looking out over Lough Swilly. What remains is a small roofless chamber. It would originally have been 2 metres or a little more in length and is 1.4 metres wide. Entry is between two portal-stones set lengthwise. Only the butt of the eastern one survives. It was intact in 1929 but had been reduced to its present state by 1975. The western portal-stone still stands 1.55 metres high. The surviving part of the eastern one is 0.35 metres high. When intact it would have been around the same height as its fellow. Two slabs form the sides of the chamber, both leaning inward against an inset backstone, the top of which is very slightly gabled. The eastern sidestone overlaps the adjacent portal-stone and would stand 1.35 metres high if upright. From around mid-length its base slants upward from ground level so that its inner end is clear of the present floor. The western sidestone, if upright, would stand 1.5 metres high. It and the adjacent portal-stone stand more or less in line and half a metre apart. The backstone leans inward slightly and is 1.3 metres high. The tomb was never marked on any edition of the OS 6-inch map. It was recorded by Somerville in 1929 and later by de Valera and Ó Nualláin. The description was published in the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland, Volume VI, County Donegal.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG028-019---- · source

The road here takes you through Knockalla in Donegal. An old guide describes a very enjoyable excursion from Portsalon up to the top of the Knockalla Mountains and the Black Loughs, which nestle within a hundred feet of the summits. The chief heights are Callaghpatrick at 1,203 feet and Binnadreex at 1,032 feet, and the walk to the top is by no means fatiguing. A car-road leads to the very base of the range, and from the top you get a fine view over the whole of Fanad, Inishowen, and Lough Swilly. Another enjoyable climb in the area goes to Lough Doira and Lough Goragh, which lie amidst most picturesque surroundings, and again a car-road runs to a point of vantage from which the ascent is easy. Other climbs lead to the top of Dargan Hill at 570 feet and Murren Hill at 754 feet, both giving grand views of Fanad and Mulroy Bay. The guide also points cliff-climbers toward the stretch between the Seven Arches and Fanad Head Lighthouse, described as the second most northerly light in Ireland. The Seven Arches themselves are within easy walking distance of the hotel and are remarkable examples of marine erosion, approached by rude steps carved from the rock. At low tide they can be explored with little risk, though care is needed to watch the inrush of water should the sea be rough.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 13 · source

A burial ground at Bun na Toinne in Donegal, marked on the third edition of the OS 6-inch map as a burial ground for strangers found drowned. The exact position was not indicated on the map. A search of the general area found no trace of it. The ground is extensive rock outcrop at the base of the Knockalla mountain range. The recorded location marks where the name was printed on the OS 25-inch plan, surveyed in 1900.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG018-019---- · source

Somewhere close to this place stands Knockalla Fort, one of several Napoleonic batteries built along the shores of Lough Swilly in Donegal. It was part of a scheme to fortify Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle against French invasion during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was completed between 1812 and 1813. On the other side of the Lough is Fort Dunree. The fort was built on the site of a temporary fortification first built in 1798. It is triangular in shape with a tower on the landward side. From the tower, two walls of the fort, protected by a dry moat partly cut into the rock, lead down to the edge of steep rocky cliffs, where there are batteries on two levels. The lower battery had seven gun emplacements, originally mounting French 42 Pounder smooth bore guns on traversing platforms. The upper level contains barrack accommodation, a magazine, casemates, an entrance gateway, and an upper battery for two 24 Pounder smooth bore guns. The tower was armed with a 24 Pounder gun and a 5.5-inch howitzer. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the defences were neglected and not updated. By the 1860s the fort was armed with an 18 Pounder gun and a 5.5-inch howitzer in the tower, and a 24 Pounder gun in the upper battery. By this time it was obsolete, and was disarmed and abandoned by the military in the 1870s. The fort remains substantially intact and is now in use as a private residence.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), en.wikipedia.org: Knockalla Fort · source

Killavee burial ground in Donegal sits on a natural mound of rock, in fair pasture on the edge of the sand hills behind Stocker Strand. In 1940, Davies recorded a few headstones in a small enclosure there. The ground is now heavily overgrown.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG018-004---- · source

Coming up now, the road takes you past Portsalon in Donegal. Colonel Barton built a hotel here, and it may be the best known of all the Donegal hotels. That fame owes something to a golf links at his door, one of the three best in Ireland, but the hotel was started before golf came to give a push to tourist traffic. Barton was a pioneer. The history is roughly this. The Government built a pier in Ballymastocker Bay, and Colonel Barton saw he could work with the steamer that would bring excursionists down from Derry. He applied for a spirit license as hotel-keeper. That brought violent opposition from the neighbouring publican. The Licensing Bench overruled the opposition, and Colonel Barton got his license. The defeated rival, a Catholic and a Nationalist, went away cursing by all his gods against the bloody Orange majority. He said to a knot of his sympathisers, let him alone, boys, wait till he gets to hell. He'll find no Orange majority there. The delightful part is that the joke was preserved and published by the publican's own attorney, who overheard it and could not let a good joke perish even when it told against his own side.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 113 · source

As you travel through Portsalon on the Fanad peninsula, north of the Knockalla Mountains, you pass the old Portsalon Hotel. Colonel B. J. Barton opened it in 1889, originally his private residence, with castellated walls that became a landmark on the shore of Lough Swilly. It was a touring hotel offering country-seat seclusion and first-class luxuries for over 100 guests.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 10 · source

As you pass through Portsalon, you are near one of the finest and most sporting golf links in the United Kingdom. The eighteen holes skirt Ballymastocker Bay in a circuit of three and a half miles, with the first tee within two hundred yards of the hotel doors. The hazards are sand bunkers, burns and bents, and the greens are for the most part natural, with excellent turf throughout.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 11 · source

Up ahead is Portsalon in Donegal, where the golf links here had a fearsome fourteenth hole they called The Matterhorn. It was 241 yards and needed careful golf. A large sand bunker sat in front of the tee, with boulders on both sides, and a misdirected drive spelled disaster. Past those, a mashie shot over a high mound reached a tricky green that often cost three or even four puts.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 12 · source

This is St. Columbkille's well at Carryblagh in Donegal, a holy well situated to the east of the base of a steep cliff. The well stands in Doughcrabin townland, near Doaghbeg School in Fanad. It is surrounded by a cairn of stones left by pilgrims. Ó Muirgheasa described it in 1936 and recorded the stations still made on Colmcille's Day, the 9th of June. Pilgrims said five paters and aves at the front of the well, then seven to the left. Having gone around behind the well sunwise, they said seven more to the right. This was repeated three times. Then they walked three times around the well, throwing a pebble on the mound each time, and finished with prayer in front of the well. They brought away a bottle of water. In 2011 the well was found covered by two flat slabs resting on two rectangular piers, a structure erected in 2010. Votive offerings on the slabs include statues, rosary beads, crosses, flowers, stones, pictures and coins.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG009-006002- · source

The burial ground at An Baile úr in Donegal is a subrectangular enclosure, measuring 26 metres east to west and 22 metres north to south. A grassed-over bank, barely traceable, runs along three sides, with a modern field wall closing the west. Three stones known as O'Donnell's stones stand along the bank. One near the north-west corner rises 1.1 metres. A second at the north-east corner is squarish and stands 0.85 metres high. A third at the south-east corner reaches 1.45 metres. A fourth stone, now built into the west field wall, may be a companion to these three, though that is uncertain. Inside the enclosure stands a plain cross of relatively modern date. The site sits on level ground in light soil, with the sea visible to the north. The description was published in the Archaeological Survey of County Donegal.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG008-001---- · source

At the northern end of the silver strand of Trabane stands the Doon Fort, and in a creek close by is a fine monolith. The road that reaches them comes from Malin More, bearing south through wild coast scenery, with mountains piled up inland and the Atlantic ceaselessly breaking on beautiful strands or dashing against rocky promontories. The journey passes Malin Beg and Rossarell Point before arriving at the silver strand of Trabane.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 58 · source

Somewhere about Fanad Head, the cliffs run about six miles from Portsalon and reach their highest point at the Bin of Fanad, a square-cut precipice with a fall of about 300 feet. Just off the Bin lies the Swilly Rock, the one obstacle to navigation in Lough Swilly. Early in the century, the Saldanha frigate was lost there with all hands, and the only thing that came alive ashore was a grey parrot. Captain Pakenham commanded that unlucky vessel. He was serving in the Peninsula when orders reached him to join his ship and sail with sealed instructions. He confided to Napier that for the first time he felt uneasy about his safety. He said it was borne in upon him that he would lose his life on this voyage, and that the place would be Lough Swilly in the north of Ireland. The forewarning, as the memoirs put it,

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 114 · source

A white strand, Trabane, on the shore of Lough Derg in Donegal. In 1880, sand from this strand was carried across the lake to build the Hospice. Four thousand tons of sand were boated across from this shore, the name Trabane meaning the white strand. The building drew its materials from all around. Ten thousand tons of stone were collected from the lake shore and the islands, each boat carrying four tons per load. Two thousand barrels of lime came from Pettigo. One hundred tons of cut stone were brought by train over forty miles from the Brookeborough quarries. Protestant farmers of Templecarne parish helped their Catholic neighbours cart materials from the railway station at Pettigo. The prior had not gone far in his preparations before trouble came. In laying the foundations, he protruded at one corner onto the bed of the lake. The landlord, who claimed ownership not only of the lough but even of the island, resented this. It would be in vain to point out that in dry seasons, or when "the carrymouth," as the outlet of the river Derg is called, is free from obstruction, the ledge of rock around the Hospice is dry land. Nor would it help to explain that the site was so limited, hemmed in on one side by the lough and on the other by the penal cells or circles, that this encroachment was unavoidable.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from St. Patrick's Purgatory, Lough Derg : its history, traditions, legends, antiquities, topography and scenic surroundings with some account of its more notable pilgrims and a detailed description of the authorised devotions performed at its venerable shrine (1895), O'Connor, Daniel, 1843-1919, Internet Archive stpatrickspurgat00ocon, Chapter 146 · source

A children's burial ground at An Baile úr, in Donegal. The maps mark it as a calluragh, a small semi-circular enclosure bounded by a stone wall, on level ground where rock breaks through the surface, with good grazing around it.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG008-002---- · source

Described by Ó Muirgheasa in 1936, this is St. Patrick's holy well in Ballylar, in Fanad. It is a small artificial opening in the steep face of a hillslope, partly overlain by a flat slab. Ó Muirgheasa recorded that stations were still made on 17 March.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG008-003---- · source

As you travel through Carrowkeel on the Fanad peninsula, you are on the road between Rosapenna and Portsalon, and at Kerrykeel along this route stands a cromlech. The book notes it simply as an antiquity you pass on the way, a single marker of old Ireland on a road that otherwise runs along the shore of Mulroy for some miles. No more is said of it than that it is there.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 113 · source

As you travel along Mulroy Bay in Donegal, there is a village the author passed through that was made up entirely of Protestants, all of one family and one name. They had settled here in a quiet, secluded spot on the borders of the bay, with some good land skirting the shore and a large tract of mountain pasture for their cattle to range on. The author went into their houses and was received with much simple kindness, refreshed with the best food they could afford: oaten bread, butter, and potatoes. They were a fine race of men, a fair family of women, decently clad and sufficiently fed. The author wrote that the ignorance of anything better than their own state formed their bliss, and asked, would it not be cruel to attempt to make them more knowing? On the other side of the waters of Mulroy is the peninsula of Fannat, bounded on the east by Lough Swilly and on the west by Mulroy Lough. It is a wild mountain district, subject in many places to the blowing of the sand, but containing a great and increasing population. The Protestants of that district were blessed with the residence and pastoral labour of a truly pious minister, whose exertions, preaching, and example had a most beneficial effect on those who attended his instructions.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Sketches in Ireland: Descriptive of Interesting Portions of the Counties of Donegal, Cork, and Kerry (1839), Caesar Otway, Internet Archive sketchesinirela00otwagoog, Chapter 34 · source

Somewhere around here, at Rossgarrow in 1847, starving crowds gathered each day outside the Hewitson family's cottage, pressing their faces against the windows until the glass broke. The woman of the house had been in her meal-room at four in the morning, weighing out meal for the poor. The Society of Friends in Dublin had furnished her with grants, and this was her daily practice. The author of the Annals of the Famine in Ireland witnessed it. Through the day the poor made the habitation what she called a nucleus not of the most pleasant kind. The lower window-frame in the kitchen was of board instead of glass, all having been broken by the pressure of faces continually there. The author asked who could eat, who could work, who could read, who could play in such circumstances. The sunshine seemed changed, the rain gave a stranger pattering, the wind moan dolefully. The dogs ceased their barking, scarcely any cocks were heard crowing in the morning, and the gladsome mirth of children everywhere ceased. The author wrote that for leagues you might travel, in house or cabin, by the wayside, on the hill-top, or upon the meadow, and not see a smile, not see the sprightly foot running after the rolling hoop, leaping the ditch or tossing the ball.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Annals of the Famine in Ireland (1851), Asenath Nicholson, Project Gutenberg #annalsfamineini00nichgoog, Chapter 4 · source

As you come through Millford, the road runs near Mulroy Lough. Lord Leitrim was killed on this stretch. Two men lay hidden in the woodland and fired on his car. They shot the driver through the heart and hit the clerk with a slug above the ear. Lord Leitrim had no fatal shot wound. Gun butts had done the work. He was found lying in a pool of water, beaten to death. Those who came upon the scene first met the clerk running towards them, saying he was shot. The horse shied at the driver's body in the road. The clerk died in their hands, more from the violent shock than the wound. Looking out over the lough, they saw two men in a boat rowing away, lost in a minute behind one of Mulroy's innumerable islets.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 111 · source

You are coming up on Millford, a town in Donegal. In 1734, a violent episode unfolded here. Bishop Gallagher had been staying at a priest's house, but he could not sleep that night. He rose before day, saddled his horse himself, and set out for Rathmullen, long before anyone else was stirring. He had barely gone when soldiers rushed down the hill and surrounded the house. A magistrate from Millford named Buchanan led them. He had heard the Bishop was inside and had come to seize him. Father O'Hegarty answered their clamorous summons, checked the room where the Bishop had slept, and told them the Bishop was not there. They searched and found their prey had truly escaped. Enraged at the failure, they decided they would not leave without a prisoner. They seized the priest, tied his hands behind his back, and marched him toward Millford gaol. Word spread among his people that their pastor was in enemy hands. They gathered in large numbers, determined to rescue him. They pursued the soldiers, harassing them with stones, their only weapons, and the women kept the people supplied. Buchanan, fearing his prisoner would escape, levelled his horse-pistol at the priest's head and shot him dead. The people, horrified, gathered around the shattered remains of their pastor with loud outcries of grief. Under cover of that diversion, Buchanan and his men made good their escape. Dr. Gallagher, thus providentially saved, found a safe retreat on one of the islands of Loch Erne, where he stayed concealed for a year. There he composed his Volume of Sermons, written in Irish, of which many editions have since appeared.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Collections relating to the dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin (1883), Comerford, M. (Michael), 1830 or 1831-1895, author, Internet Archive collectionsrelat01come, Chapter 76 · source

A former union workhouse graveyard, in use from about 1842 to 1922, standing in the rural countryside to the south-east of Milford. It holds the unmarked graves of victims of the Great Famine, and a modern memorial plaque at the gateway reads: this cemetery contains the remains of many unidentified people who died between 1845 and 1922. Three roughly cut upright stones stand to the south of a tree at the centre of the enclosure. The graveyard was restored in 2006, and the plaque was erected the same year by FAS. The graveyard belonged to Milford Union Workhouse, which stood to the west and south-west. The workhouse was built in 1842 to designs by George Wilkinson, at a cost of £6,250 for the building and £1,150 for the fittings. It was designed to accommodate 400 people, though many more were there during the Famine. First admissions were received on the 6th of April 1842, although the buildings were not completed until 1846. The workhouse remained in operation until 1922 and was demolished about 1980. A cattle mart now stands on its site. The graveyard survives, bounded by older walls to the north and west and by modern rubble stone walls to the east and south, a place of reflection kept by local effort.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40818036 · source

The Glashagh River flows past the precinct of the abbey at Temple Douglas, a stretch of water the road passes near in Donegal. This little abbey is where Columbkille was baptized, and it remains an object of veneration to many pilgrims at certain seasons of the year. The writer paced its mouldering church and tried in vain to summon up the day on which his father and his mother brought him to the rude christening font, and the reverend abbot bade them to "name this child." It would have been a very humble ceremony compared with the gorgeous gathering at a royal baptism in our own time. The church would not hold a tithe of the throng which musters in Westminster Abbey on such occasions. Yet Columbkille was a child destined to grow into a man who would achieve far more for the uplifting of his fellow-men than most royal personages taken all together have been able to achieve. The old monks would have been accustomed to catch their meals for fast-days from these waters. But the Glashagh has long flowed, ever-changing, into the sea, and the memory of tradition is no less unstable than they.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Haunts of the eagle : man and wild nature in Donegal (1924), Fox, Arthur William, Internet Archive hauntsofeagleman00foxa, Chapter 87 · source

Up ahead is Lough Fern, a lake the road runs near. It is fed and drained by the Lennan river, which comes into the lake and out again within a matter of 300 yards. The book calls it probably as good a piece of free fishing as exists. From April to October there is a good chance of salmon, though nothing startling has ever been done in it. Five salmon to two rods is the best recorded. But this year, before June, several rods had got two fish in a day. On any sort of fishing day you can get a dozen trout, and three or four dozen to two rods is very ordinary fishing. Boats are kept on the lake by Margaret Boyle, at five shillings a day. She also puts up anglers in a cottage on the shore, so clean and comfortable that the book says it is a much needed example to the country side. If you stay with Margaret you can fish the lake, or the lower river, or the upper. The scenery goes all round you. To the south is Moyle Hill and Moyagh, Mr Swiney's house, which is generally to let in summer. To the east the view is blocked by the Fanad Hills above Mulroy. To the north is Lough Salt immediately above. To the west you look up the river valley to Kilmacrenan, and away back to the Glen Veagh mountains and the sharp crest of Errigal.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 195 · source

You're passing near Lough Fern here in Donegal, a fine sheet of water over a mile and a half long that offers exceptional free salmon and trout fishing. The Lennon river flows in and out of it at the southern end, and that's where the best chance of a salmon occurs, though the fish distribute themselves fairly well over the whole lough. Good drifts for salmon lie close to the shore on the eastern and western sides, extending halfway up toward the northern end. For brown trout, the best drifts are around the islands at the northern end. Boats and boatmen could be had for four shillings a day, and the best time for salmon was from May until July. Upstream from the lough, the Lennon runs a somewhat sluggish course from its junction with the Lurgy, though there are likely pools worth trying above Ballydoan Bridge and at the Thorn Pool.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 16 · source

You're coming up on Lough Fern here in Donegal, not far from Portsalon. It's a good spot for anglers, as the old guide puts it, where some salmon and plenty of trout-fishing can be had absolutely free. Portsalon itself sits nearby as a handy base, with golf links at the hotel doors and easy reach to Mulroy Bay and Lough Swilly. Kindrum Lough is also within easy driving distance, full of what the guide calls lusty brown-trout, and plenty of them. The whole district around here is well supplied with little loughs offering fishing of one kind or another.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 11 · source

You're coming through the Glashagh River now, a tributary of the Lennon that joins it just before Ramelton. The waters here are boulder-strewn and broken, ending in strong streams where the tails generally hold a fish. It's a sinuous river and somewhat difficult to approach, but the most likely spots are comparatively easy to get at. The book recommends an off day on this stream for brown-trout, and says it will not be wasted. Just don't confuse it with another river of the same name near Churchill.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 17 · source

You are passing Lough Fern in Donegal. This lake holds good wildfowling, but only early in the season, before the punt gun has been at work. Once that gun goes out on the water, the birds are driven off or scattered, and the sport falls off for the rest of the year.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 18 · source

Coming up now is the town of Milford in Donegal. The Leitrim name has a very different repute in the county nowadays. After the old Lord Leitrim was murdered, his nephew and successor inherited the estate. He was a navy officer at the time. He came down at once to the scene of the murder and made himself conspicuous by his attempts to bring the criminals to justice, riding about the country unattended. The tenants soon found that there was to be a new order. All the victims of arbitrary ejectment, so far as was possible, were reinstated. A heavy outlay was made on works of drainage and reclamation. But a still greater boon to the countryside was the establishment of a line of steamers to bring the produce of the farms to Glasgow, and to bring articles in demand to Milford, saving a transport of in many cases 15 miles, and enabling the local shopkeepers to take nearly 1 pound per ton off their charges. The result of these and other measures has been a great improvement in the condition of the people. Milford, from being a miserable village, has become one of the most thriving petty towns in the county. Along the beautiful road by Cratlagh wood, under the oak and hazel which shadow it, you will get a glimpse across the water of a trim-looking pier and store. The building is a mill for grinding Indian corn, which has kept life in the people in times of hardship.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 112 · source

The road takes you past Milford, in Donegal. Around Milford, a strong contingent of Presbyterians was noted in this part of the county. The observation comes from a description of a town in the west of Donegal, a place of one long straggling street opening out into the Diamond, or market-place. That town has three churches. The finest is the Presbyterian. The largest is the Catholic Chapel. The third belongs to the Church of Ireland. The older village nearby is a group of more or less tidy-looking cabins on the way to the Golf Links, overlooking the harbour. The harbour is crossed by many shoals and a considerable sand-bar, so that it is almost impassable except for smaller boats, though it is a pleasant sail across to Rosapenna with a flood tide and a fair wind. There is a bountiful supply of inns, notwithstanding the fact that illicit whiskey is still known to be manufactured in the heart of the neighbouring mountains. Among the shops there is one of those stores of a miscellaneous order, so common in Ireland, where almost any less useful article can be bought, and a few of the necessities of life. It had such a dusty appearance that a visitor took a keen interest in it. The boxes of matches were coated with dust. The packets of Murray's Mixture were no less embedded in dust, as was the big coil of Limerick Roll. One morning a pair of laces was bought there, also thickened with dust. The very change took a long time in finding and was covered with dust. Little purchasing went on, yet the shop was often crowded with those who had come to hear the news and contribute their own share of information. The Gaelic was much in evidence, its sonorous vowels emphasized by a liberal supply of gutturals. The frequent shouts of laughter told of the excellence of the conversation.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Haunts of the eagle : man and wild nature in Donegal (1924), Fox, Arthur William, Internet Archive hauntsofeagleman00foxa, Chapter 26 · source

As you pass through Milford in Donegal, there is a hotel worth knowing about. McDevitt's, run by Manus McCreadie, was described as one of the most comfortable and admirably conducted establishments in the North of Ireland. The place was scrupulously clean, the food and cooking excellent, and the proprietor had installed the latest sanitary arrangements with excellent hot and cold baths. It was a small hotel, though, and rooms had to be booked in advance. Milford served as a capital centre for fishing, and it was also convenient for visiting Bunlin Glen, Bunlin Waterfall, the Golden Loup Waterfall, and for exploring Mulroy Bay. All of these were described in the same guide under the heading of Mulroy Bay.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 14 · source

A children's burial ground at Millford, known as Ard Kelly. It was marked on a later Ordnance Survey map as a burial ground for children, sited on a flat-topped rise in cultivated land. Today there is no surface indication of it.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG036-005---- · source

Somewhere around here, close to Cratlagh, you are near the scene of a bloody episode. In 1878 the third Earl of Leitrim was murdered near Cratlagh wood along the shore of Mulroy Bay. He had served in the army, rising to colonel, before he succeeded his father in the title. The book says he was a man by no means wholly bad, and possessed qualities that might under happier circumstances have made him famous. He had, in the book's words, "absolute courage and a perfectly indomitable will." But he was a tyrannical landlord. He had abolished rundale tenure on his estates and evicted tenants who asserted any rights of their own against his. The road past here goes over the hill past Lady Leitrim's house until it reaches the side of Mulroy Bay. Then it winds along a long heathery slope with steep hills on one side and the lough and its islands on the other. Cratlagh wood runs between the road and the lake for about three miles from Bunlinn. Mulroy Bay is an extraordinary piece of water. It enters by a narrow inlet, spreads out like a fan, sends a great backwater up towards Fanad through another narrow gut, and sprinkles its whole surface with rocks and islands. To know and navigate its tides and channels was a proof of exceptional seamanship.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 109 · source

Near Mulroy Bay, on a mountain ridge about two miles from the shore, there is a place called the Giant's Grave. A traveller and his friend walked up to it through a wet and mossy mountain. On the summit of the ridge, in the middle of the moor, surrounded by a peat-bog, they found two long caves, or rather troughs, composed of immense stones joined in the shape of coffins and covered over with large flagstones. One of these coffins was about thirty-four feet long, and the other about twenty feet long, and from four to six feet broad. The inhabitants, who were Protestants, could give no account of the origin or use of these strange formations. They said they knew nothing about them, but that they were giants' graves. The traveller wrote that he never in any mountain district of Ireland saw anything similar, and that ever since he had been puzzling his brain how to account for them. The place stood by solitary waters where cormorants, curlews, and sandpipers stood on the rocks, and seemed to wonder what brought two beings in the garb of gentlemen to molest their loneliness.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Sketches in Ireland: Descriptive of Interesting Portions of the Counties of Donegal, Cork, and Kerry (1839), Caesar Otway, Internet Archive sketchesinirela00otwagoog, Chapter 33 · source

Up ahead is Glen Lough in Donegal, where the Lackagh River runs out through a stretch called the Throat. Below the lake comes about a mile of continuous fall, too shallow to fish except in a flood, and then a hole called the Grass Garden, about 50 yards long. Below that is a pool of 200 yards or so, and at its head a stream is made by an old eel-weir, described as probably the best salmon throw in the county. The Lackagh was free to guests at the Rosapenna Hotel up to the end of July, an early river worth fishing in March and April. After July it was reserved by Lady Leitrim. At all seasons the Leitrim fishing was only one side, but two rods could fish the pool facing each other. Glen Lough itself was also a capital chance for salmon, and white trout fishing in both river and lough could be excellent in August and September. Brown trout were plentiful too, of what the writer calls the herring size, and the same flies served for both kinds. He notes that a wise man would let the salmon alone most days and fish for trout instead, but the temptation of the stronger excitement was hard to resist, and he laments the blank days he spent.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; (1903), Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950, Internet Archive highwaysbywaysin00gwyn_0, Chapter 191 · source

This is a children's burial ground in Drumdutton. An oval enclosure, about 8 metres north to south and 4 metres east to west, surrounded by a collapsed and overgrown drystone wall. It sits on the south side of a large mound of rock outcrop in grazing land. It was marked as a children's burial ground on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG026-026---- · source

Coming through the Doe Castle area, this was the stronghold of the Mac-Swyne-na-Doe, built on a rocky point with sea on three sides and defended by drawbridge and portcullis. For centuries it was a bone of contention, the scene of bloodshed and siege, before passing to the Hartes of Culmore. General Harte, a hero of Seringapatam, lived there in Oriental splendour until he died in a fall down the main staircase. The castle was purchased in 1866 by Stewart of the adjoining Ards estate.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 25 · source

You're coming through Creeslough here in Donegal. A traveller once stopped at Harkin's Hotel in this town and met the proprietor, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, who was richly knowledgeable in local history and folklore. He had been factor to the murdered Earl of Leitrim, and was the only person — man, woman or child, the record says — whom the Earl trusted fully. He was also a keen sportsman with a naturalist's knowledge of the wild creatures of his native county. From his conversation the author gathered many legends and much valuable information, especially about the birds nesting on Horn Head. The proprietor recalled a time when the rare pine marten still haunted the woods around Mr. Olphert's mansion near Gortahork, and could still show a badger's earth in the wooded banks of Ards. The author had no time to seek out that badger, and wrote that he could not have found it in his heart to disturb so peaceful an inhabitant of the pleasant countryside.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Haunts of the eagle : man and wild nature in Donegal (1924), Fox, Arthur William, Internet Archive hauntsofeagleman00foxa, Chapter 24 · source

You're coming through Creeslough now. Balfour is building a narrow-gauge railroad here, to give employment to the poor of the district. The road goes on toward Dunfanaghy, and the driver called the long day's run "a great day's work."

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from On an Irish jaunting-car through Donegal and Connemara (1902), Bayne, Samuel G. (Samuel Gamble), 1844-1924, Internet Archive onirishjauntingc00bayn, Chapter 1 · source

Around Creeslough, the trout streams are the Duntally, the Favmore, the Carnamorna, the Gortnalock, the Shanowen, and the Owenwee. All of them can be fished from the bank. Sea-trout run into the Duntally and the Favmore. The same flies serve here as are recommended for the Lennon River tributaries and Mulroy Bay sea-trout. Nearby Lough More holds big brown trout. Fish of 4 to 5 lbs have been recorded from it, and there are plenty of two-pounders and three-pounders. Those big fish will not rise to an artificial fly. Their capture has to be negotiated by means of some such lure as a gold-coloured minnow.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Picturesque Donegal: its mountains, rivers, and lakes. Being the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Company's illustrated guide to the sporting and touring grounds of the north of Ireland (1908), Shrubsole, Edgar S, Internet Archive picturesquedoneg00shru, Chapter 26 · source

Marked on the 1905 map as Turras Columbkille, this is Colmcille's Holy Well at Masiness in Donegal. Its location is derived from the 1983 Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. In 1936, Ó Muirgheasa described it: "There is a Turus Colmcille at Colmcille's Holy Well about a mile from Massinass School. Stations are still made there."

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG026-046---- · source

This is an unclassified megalithic tomb at Masiness in Donegal. There is no trace of it now. The feature was first shown on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map in the 1840s. At that time, two stones marked the site, one upright and one prostrate, and they were thought to be the last remains of a sepulchral monument known locally as Dermot and Grania's Bed. The upright stone was about 4 feet high, 3 and a half feet broad, and 6 inches thick. The prostrate stone was 7 feet long, 3 feet broad, and 7 inches thick. Fagan recorded that the upright stone marked the west end of a grave that had measured about 7 and a half feet long and 4 to 5 feet wide, and it was locally believed that the prostrate stone had once stood upright at the east end. All trace of the site had been removed by 1902. It may have been a megalithic tomb, but cannot be relied on as such on the basis of the available evidence.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG026-028---- · source

A D-shaped burial ground at Clonmore, in Donegal. It measures 24.3 metres east to west and 16 metres north to south, a low, level platform rising up to .6 metres above the surrounding ground. A stone wall about 1.5 metres wide once enclosed it.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG026-017---- · source

Faugher House is a detached house set back from the road near the summit of Mullaghdoney Hill, close to Dunfanaghy in Donegal. The house was built about 1670 to 1700, but it may incorporate the remains of an earlier fortified house from about 1611. That earlier house was built by Tirlagh Roe O'Boyle, who was granted lands totaling 2,000 in the Barony of Kilmacrennan, including the Faugher area, in 1611. By 1619, O'Boyle was described as having "built a good bawn and a house of lime and stone in which he with his family dweleth." The surviving bawn, with its rounded battlements and gun loops, is almost certainly his. In 1622, the house was described as "of clay and stone rough cast with lime, 48 ft long, 25 ft broad and 13 ft high," with three stone houses and a timber house nearby, all thatched. By then, O'Boyle had mortgaged the lands to John Stanton, and Stanton's wife was living at Faugher. O'Boyle forfeited the house and lands after a failed rebellion in July 1642. A thirty-gun Spanish frigate, the St. Francis, carrying Eoghan Roe O'Neill and a hundred Irish veterans from the Spanish armies, had anchored off nearby Doe Castle, the stronghold of the MacSweeneys. Tirlagh Og was one of the local chiefs who supported O'Neill. The lands were later granted to Sir John Stephens, and sold by his agent Hugh Hamill to the Wrays in 1700. The Wrays probably rebuilt the house between 1670 and 1700. They abandoned it after building a new mansion at Ards, possibly just after 1708. By the time the Taylor and Skinner map was drawn around 1777, it was already in ruins.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40901601 · source

This is the site of an unclassified castle at Woodhill in Donegal, marked on the 3rd edition of the OS 6-inch map as McSwyne's Castle. The precise location has never been identified. The placename extends over a large area of rock outcrop in grazing land, and the castle, if there was one, may have stood somewhere within that vicinity. No trace of it now exists. There is a local tradition that the castle stood on an elevated platform of rock, a commanding position. In 1943, the ITA Survey recorded a tradition that a castle of the Mac Swynes stood on a large rock at the back of Stewart's house in Woodhill. The Donegal Survey recorded that a local woman, Miss Stewart, described an elevated platform of rock as the site of what she called Castle Suibhe. According to Miss Stewart, there was no trace of the castle during her grandfather's lifetime. A proposed development at Sandhill, Dunfanaghy, consisting of a house, garden and car parking area, led to archaeological testing because of the site's close proximity to McSwyne's Castle. Testing was carried out by Eoin Corcoran of Archaeological Development Services Ltd, under licence as per the planning condition. No archaeological features, deposits or artefacts were identified. The site appears to have been quarried out in the past, and all deposits noted during testing consisted of dumped material over bedrock. Any potential archaeological material that may have existed was removed during the quarrying process. Documentary sources indicate that the classification of the site as a castle was based on local tradition rather than extant remains. Cartographic evidence also does not indicate the presence of a castle at the site.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG016-020---- · source

Dunfanaghy means the fort of the fair warrior, though the fort and the warrior have never been traced. There is a stone cashel near Claggan on the Horn Head promontory, and a cromlech on a neighbouring hill, but they seem too far away to account for the name. The town lies at the head of the western arm of Sheep Haven, where at high tide the water comes almost under the windows of the outer rooms. The country from here towards Creeslough, and in the other direction towards Falcarragh, is almost entirely brown bogland, with an occasional lough and deep ditch to break the surface. That it was once covered with a forest of fir trees is evident from the remains of their roots and branches all across the bog. It is said with probable truth that the Elizabethan and later Lords Deputy had the trees cut down because the forests gave shelter to the Irish, who were fighting for their own country and were regarded as rebels by the British of the time. Thirty years ago, when the author first visited Donegal, a long car ran to Dunfanaghy from Letterkenny, always carrying far more passengers than it could conveniently hold. The well lay between the two rows of back-to-back occupants, piled high with luggage and provisions shed along the route at their proper destinations. A rail was supposed to keep the baggage from the passengers' backs, but they did not escape occasional bonnetings from insecurely tied packages. The rails on either side caused their own minor inconvenience.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Haunts of the eagle : man and wild nature in Donegal (1924), Fox, Arthur William, Internet Archive hauntsofeagleman00foxa, Chapter 23 · source

Built about 1841 to 1845, the Dunfanaghy Workhouse gatehouses are the last remaining structures of what was once a full workhouse complex, set in its own grounds to the south-west of Dunfanaghy in County Donegal. The pair of gable-fronted, single-storey blocks with attic level were built to designs by George Wilkinson, architect to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland. Wilkinson was responsible for the design and erection of all 130 workhouses built in Ireland. The paired gatehouses may have served as separate admissions blocks for male and female paupers, a layout slightly unusual for Irish workhouses, though parallels exist at Ballycastle and Castlederg. Dunfanaghy Union Workhouse was originally planned in 1841 to accommodate 300 paupers. Estimated costs were £4,350 for the buildings and £855 for fittings and fixtures. The site was purchased in 1842 from Alexander Stewart of Ards House, the proprietor of the town and surrounding areas. Some accounts state the workhouse was completed on the 15th of March 1841, while others suggest building works started in 1844 and first admissions were accepted on the 24th of June 1845. A separate fever hospital was constructed to the south of the site. It was one of seven workhouses built in County Donegal, alongside those at Donegal Town, Ballyshannon, Glenties, Inishowen, Letterkenny, and Milford. The workhouse closed in 1922 and the site became abandoned. The workhouse buildings themselves were demolished about 2000, and modern housing now occupies the ground, partially built using reclaimed stone from the complex. The gatehouses were modified in 1995 with a linking block and reopened as a heritage centre. The buildings carry what the record calls a "subdued Tudoresque architectural character" typical of workhouses in Ireland, with chamfered stone surrounds, mullions, transoms, and hoodmouldings to the windows. The design, described as almost picturesque, belies the grim institutional use and the fate suffered by many occupants during the Great Famine.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40807008 · source