Wild Atlantic Way 2/8 Donegal west: Dunfanaghy → Bundoran

0m 00s · 52 s National Inventory of Architectural Heritage · site · salience 72 · 566 m ahead at the start

The Dunfanaghy Workhouse and Famine Museum

What it said · 131 of 131 words

Right here is the site of the Dunfanaghy Union Workhouse, now a famine museum. What stands is a pair of gatehouses built around 1841 to 1845, designed by George Wilkinson, the architect appointed to the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland in 1838. Wilkinson was responsible for all 130 workhouses built across Ireland, and another 30 during and after the Famine years. The workhouse was planned in 1841 to hold 300 people. The buildings were estimated at 4,350 pounds, with fittings and fixtures at 855 pounds. The land was bought in 1842 from Alexander Stewart of Ards House, who owned the town and the surrounding country. Some accounts say the workhouse was finished on the 15th of March 1841, but others say building began in 1844 and the first admissions came on the 24th of June 1845. The pair of gatehouses may have served as separate admissions blocks for men and women. A fever hospital stood to the south of the site. This was one of seven workhouses in Donegal, the others at Donegal Town, Ballyshannon, Glenties, Inishowen, Letterkenny and Milford. The workhouse closed in 1922 and the site was left abandoned. The main building was demolished around 2000. Modern houses went up on the ground behind, partly built from salvaged stone. The gatehouses were joined by a linking block in 1995 and reopened as a heritage centre.

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

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Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Rinclevan

What it said · 148 of 205 words

Right here at Rinclevan there was once a megalithic tomb the maps called Labba, though there is no trace of it now. It was destroyed in 1842. Before that, the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1834 described it as a small collection of eight stones, said to have been a temporary residence for a husband and wife, a reference to the legend of Diarmuid and Gráinne. Thomas Fagan visited the area in 1845 and gathered local memory of what had stood here. He concluded it was a chambered burial site, known to people as Dermot and Grania's Bed. It had occupied a space 40 feet by 20 feet inside a parapet of earth and stone, with several vaults or graves built of large stone slabs standing 2 to 5 feet high. A central vault measured 10 feet by 6 feet and was covered by a single great flag. When the monument was pulled apart, human bones of large size were reportedly found, along with over three cartloads of sea shells and two brass spears about 18 inches long. Many smaller finds were lost by local children. The grave floors were said to have been paved with large and small stones. Its exact nature remains uncertain.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG015-018---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Greenhill (Dunfanaghy Ed)

What it said · 146 of 146 words

Right here at Greenhill, near Dunfanaghy in Donegal, is a megalithic tomb that cannot be classified in its present state. The ordnance survey map called it Calluragh Burial Ground, but on the field map it was named Labby Dermot and Grania, and locally it is known as Grania's Bed. It appears now as a grass-grown D-shaped mound up to 1 metre high, with several large standing stones protruding from it. Thomas Fagan recorded that stones were taken from the site for use in buildings and that decayed bones were unearthed here. The name Calluragh indicates it was used as a burial place for infants, a practice noted at other megalithic tombs in Ireland. The southern end of the mound was removed many years ago, so it was originally larger. It has been interpreted as a wedge tomb, though the north-to-south orientation leaves some doubt about that.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG025-011---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Murroe

What it said · 158 of 158 words

Right here in Murroe is an unclassified megalithic tomb, standing on boggy pasture and now poorly preserved, hidden under bushes. Five orthostats remain, two of them opposed and aligned east to west, with flat inner faces and sloping outer faces. A stony grass-grown mound surrounds the structure but its edges are lost in the overgrowth. About 10 metres to the north and west, intermittent stones protruding from the bog form a curved line that appears to be an ancient fence. By the time Fagan saw the site in 1845 he found it considerably ruined. He noted one grave, about 2.1 metres long and 1.2 metres wide, enclosed by two slabs over 1.7 metres long placed edgeways and inclining inward until they nearly closed over the top. He also claimed that many graves had been destroyed here. The remains cannot be classified, but the two opposed orthostats resemble corbel-bearing stones found in court tombs and may represent a chamber.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG025-009---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Oirear Dhumhaí Beag

What it said · 115 of 115 words

Right here at Oirear Dhumhaí Beag is a court tomb that lacks a court. It's an unroofed gallery about 5 metres long, entered through an antechamber at the south-east end of a low heather-grown mound. The name "Dermot and Grania's Bed" was meant to identify this tomb on the OS map but was mistakenly applied to a spot about 100 metres to the west. OS documents from the mid-19th century show the tomb was in much the same condition then as now. Fagan, writing around 1845, claimed there were a number of "disfigured" smaller graves in the mound and "the ruins of other graves" nearby, but there is now no trace of any of these.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG025-005---- · source

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Penal Mass station, Baile Na Bó

What it said · 42 of 42 words

Right here at Baile na Bó in Donegal is a stone structure first called a "dolmen" by Borlase in 1897 and later described as a chamber tomb. Locally, people believe it was an altar where Mass was celebrated during the Penal laws.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG025-047---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Ráith

What it said · 164 of 164 words

Right here at Ráith in Donegal is a court tomb on low farmland near the top of a slight ridge, with the sea visible to the north and Muckish and Errigal mountains on the southern skyline. What survives is the end chamber of a gallery, facing east-south-east. Three standing stones remain: a tall gabled backstone at the west-north-west end that rises 1.3 metres above the mound, a sidestone on the southern side about 0.7 metres lower, and a jamb set across roughly 0.9 metres further east. A prostrate slab nearby may be a fallen jamb. The chamber sits in a mound about 7 metres by 6 metres and up to 1 metre high, much of it dumped field stones. In the middle of the 19th century two upright stones still stood at this end, and a prostrate stone on the northern side may have been a fallen sidestone. It stands 600 metres east of the Ray River and almost 2.5 kilometres from the coast.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG025-035---- · source

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Cloc-a-Neely — legendary bloody head stone at Ballyconnell House

What it said · 121 of 121 words

Close to Ballyconnell, somewhere around here, is Ballyconnell House, the residence of Sir John Olphert, and in its grounds sits the famous Cloc-a-Neely, the stone of the bloody head. It is a huge piece of white rock with a single red vein running through it. Legend says that vein is the crystallised blood of a mainland chieftain called Mackineely, who was beheaded on this very stone by one Balor, of the mighty blows, a former ruler of Tory Island. Balor afterwards met his own death at Bloody Foreland, a place then called Knockfola, meaning hill of blood. There is little doubt this stone is an old relic of the feuds that kept this district in a continual ferment in bygone days. Ballyconnell House also holds a capital museum, containing many objects and coins dug from the sand hills hereabouts. In the old churchyard of Myrath nearby is a gigantic cross, overthrown and broken, said to have been hewn from a single piece of stone from the side of Muckish Mountain by Saint Colum Cille. Close by is the dripping well of St. Finian, held in great veneration by the peasantry, who frequently make pilgrimages to the spot. And out on the island of Innisdooey there are some most interesting caves. The whole district is well watered by several rivers of more than passing importance. The fishing on them, and on the lakes from which they flow, is in the right of Sir John Olphert, who is pleased to grant permission to visiting anglers. For the most part they flow through wild mountainous country.

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 36 · source

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Tory fishermen strand the Falcarragh doctor

What it said · 145 of 145 words

You are coming through Falcarragh now, in Donegal. In the late 1800s, this was where the nearest doctor lived when someone fell gravely ill on Tory Island, out in the Atlantic. When sickness came to Tory, people tried charms and old remedies first. Sometimes those were not enough, and they had to send for the mainland doctor. This happened within the last fifty years before the book was written. The doctor at Falcarragh later claimed the story as his own, though other doctors claimed it too. The writer notes the old adage, "Where doctors disagree, who then shall decide?" One morning, five or six fishermen from Tory arrived at his door, begging him to come treat a patient who seemed on the point of death. He knew the crossing would be rough and he doubted he would be paid. He tried to put them off. When that failed, he thought mentioning his fee would discourage them. He told them he could not go unless they first paid him a guinea. The fishermen stepped aside to talk among themselves. He thought he was rid of them. In less than five minutes they came back, laid the money in his hand, and told him to come. He had no grounds left to refuse. He pocketed his fee and his reluctance, boarded their boat, and they reached the island. They took him to the cabin where the sick man lay in a parlous condition. He prescribed for his patient, sat up the night with him, and left him in a fair way to recover. But when his work was done, the fishermen refused to take him back to the mainland. They demanded three guineas for the return passage. He was stranded on Tory for days until he paid.

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 74 · source

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Battering-ram for Gweedore evictions stalled near Falcarragh

What it said · 171 of 171 words

As you pass through Falcarragh in Donegal, there used to be an open shed near the town with something remarkable in it. A battering-ram, manufactured but never used for the Gweedore evictions, stood there for any traveller to see. A mail-car driver named Larry, who worked for the government despite his sympathies, showed it to a passenger once. It was an imposing-looking instrument, fashioned in a strictly classical style, well calculated to do great execution against the primitive cabins of the district. It seemed to be made of oak, or some equally hard wood, and had suffered little from the weather. Larry's long face lit up with a sudden blaze of anger when he saw it. He exclaimed, "Bad cess to ye for an ill-mannered baste that ye are. May the divvle rot ye entirely." He called it a monstrous monument of British respect for the rights of property. Just before they reached it, the mail-car came to such a sudden stop that the passenger was nearly thrown into the middle of the road. A tall woman was clinging to a long rope tied to the right hind-leg of a huge pig, and the two of them stretched their tether right across the road, blocking any advance. The woman was screeching Gaelic oaths, and the pig was answering in its own tongue. She would not let go, the pig could not, and the pair stayed locked in equilibrium. Larry, now thoroughly roused, fired off a torrent of evil-sounding Gaelic. The woman cursed, the pig squealed, and the three of them performed a deafening but highly amusing trio. At last the pig shook itself free.

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 43 · source

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Rural slums of Cloughaneely and the congested west

What it said · 135 of 135 words

As you travel through Cloghaneely in Donegal, what strikes first is the awful congestion of it. Farms and fields are tiny, houses packed almost as close as in a Garden Suburb. A French author described the congested districts of Connacht and Donegal as 'rural slums,' a terrible and suggestive phrase. Grass-roofed hovels climb the barren mountain at the foot of Errigal, sheltering large families. Children of the tenderest age herd cattle along the roads, if roads these ill-hewn passes may be named. The congested districts along the coast hold roughly half a million people, corresponding with the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking areas. Munster's Irish-speaking territories are more prosperous, and that prosperity may explain Munster's lead in the language cause. A certain modicum of prosperity is needed before a people can interest itself in an intellectual movement.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from From a Gaelic outpost (1921), De Bl©cam, Aodh, 1891-1951, Internet Archive fromgaelicoutpos00debl, Chapter 1 · source

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Clough-Kineely stone at Gortahork

What it said · 149 of 207 words

As you pass through Gortahork, you are near the place where the old story says Balor cut off Kineely's head on a large stone. The stone is the Clough-Kineely, Kineely's Stone, a huge block of quartzite with a deep-red vein, mounted on a column in the grounds of one of the former generations of the Olphert family. His clotted blood can still be seen on it, or so the story goes. Kineely had wooed and won Balor's daughter, and she bore twin sons. When Balor heard the news, he fell upon Kineely and killed him on that stone, then sent a henchman to drown the infants in the sea. The henchman pinned them up in a blanket and cast them into the waves, but the pin gave way at a corner and one child fell out into the grass by the wayside. A herdsman found him and reared him. The other child was drowned, and the inlet where it happened is called Port a Delg, Bay of the Pin, to this day. The rescued twin grew up under the name MacKineely, Kineely's son. His foster-father told him of his royal birth and the fate of his father and brother, and the young man burned to be revenged.

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 3 · source

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Gap of Maum shepherds' house

What it said · 48 of 48 words

Somewhere about Maum, the author spent a night in a house up in the Gap, yarning with two shepherd brothers who lived there by themselves. It was a lonely place. They urged him to stay by the fire rather than go out and leave it to the fairies.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Mearing stones : leaves from my note-book on tramp in Donegal (1911), Campbell, Joseph, 1879-1944, Internet Archive mearingstoneslea00camprich, Chapter 4 · source

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Burial, Caoldroim íochtarach

What it said · 169 of 169 words

Right beside the road here at Caoldroim íochtarach in Donegal is a burial site that people once called Dermot and Grania's Bed. Thomas Fagan recorded that name in the 1840s, when he found two slabs here. One stood upright, about 4 and a half feet high, 3 and a half feet long, and 8 inches thick. The other, smaller, leaned against it. A few more stones lay flat on the ground, and others stood on edge, all apparently within a round enclosure about 25 yards across. The site was excavated in 1976. The excavator found a rubble-cored wall faced inside and out, forming a round enclosure 23 metres in diameter. At the south, a chamber filled with midden material lay within the wall's thickness. At the north-east was a gap in the wall, and 3 metres south of it stood the two stones Fagan had noted. The excavator suggested these were opposed sidestones of a small megalithic chamber, with sockets behind each and a third forming a back to the chamber at the west. East of the chamber he identified a small forecourt marked by sockets. Two periods of activity were found. The earlier was represented by Western Neolithic pottery sherds, a plano-convex flint knife, and possibly coarse pottery sherds. The later period yielded stone spindle whorls, a bone needle, a bracelet and ring of chlorite, and a corroded iron object. Animal bones and shell piles came from different parts of the enclosure, along with a small amount of cremated human bone. By 1994 furze bushes had largely obscured the site, making it look like a ruined cashel, with the two stones Fagan described forming an entrance-like feature at the south, one leaning against the other. The nature of the supposed megalithic chamber remains uncertain, and the context of the Neolithic activity here is unclear.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG024-015001- · source

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Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Caoldroim íochtarach

What it said · 345 of 345 words

This feature is named 'Dermot and Grania's Bed' on the OS 6-inch map of 1847-52. It is 1.4km south-west of Gortahork on level ground above the valleys of the Owentilly River to the west and the Glenna River to the E, both of which reach the sea at the inner end of Ballyness Bay, 1.3km to the N. Thomas Fagan (1845-8) described it as 'the ruins of an ancient sepulture called Dermot and Grania's Bed which at present consist in one grave 8 feet [about 2 metres] long enclosed at either side by a slab of nearly equal length placed edgeways in the ground and standing 11/2 feet [about 0.45 metres] above the latter and supporting as cover to the grave a large flag 6 feet [about 1.8 metres] long, 41/2 feet [about 1.4 metres] broad and 9 inches [about 0.2 metres] thick and a portion of its upper side partially studded with holes 1 to 2 inches [about 25-50mm] diameter and 1/2 inch [about 12mm] deep. Here stood other graves the enclosing stones of which have been long since removed to modern erections.' Two opposed stones, aligned north to south and standing 0.7 metres apart, mark the site. They are at right angles to a field wall that has been built over them and largely obscures them. The eastern stone is 1 metres long, 0.1 metres thick and 0.7 metres high. The western is 0.9 metres long, 0.15 metres thick and also 0.7 metres high. Just 0.4 metres west of this is a partly buried, prostrate slab measuring at least 1.3 metres in maximum dimension. According to local information, there was further structure here until recent decades, but its extent and relationship to the two set stones are unclear. The remains cannot now be reconciled with Fagan's account, and the nature of the site remains to be satisfactorily determined. Fagan 1845-8, book 4, 23; Ó Nualláin 1983a, 45, no. 131; SMR 1987, 24:14; RMP 1995, 24:14. The above description was published in the 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI, County Donegal.'

Read from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG024-014---- · source

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Paddy M'Kye's 1837 Memorial on Gweedore Poverty

What it said · 116 of 116 words

You are passing through Gweedore in Donegal. In 1837, Patrick M'Kye, the national school teacher here, sent a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant describing the desperate state of the parishioners of Tullaghobegly. He wrote that they were "in the most needy, hungry, and naked condition of any people that ever came within the precincts of my knowledge." M'Kye had travelled through parts of nine counties in Ireland, England, Scotland, British America, and 2253 miles through the United States, and said he had never witnessed even a tenth part of such hunger, hardships, and nakedness. He told the Lord Lieutenant that only the extraordinary importance of the matter would make him presume to lay it before him.

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 85 · source

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Lord George Hill's estate at Gweedore during famine

What it said · 98 of 98 words

You are coming through the locality of Gweedore in Donegal. In the famine winter of 1847, a traveller passed through here and saw two estates side by side, and the contrast between them was, in his words, a most striking illustration of the working of two opposite systems. One was Lord George Hill's estate. The other was the adjoining estate belonging to the Marquis of Conyngham. The poor tenants of Gweedore were suffering. They had lost the crop on which they chiefly depended, like their neighbours. But they still had some property, some cows and a little corn. And they had a store, well provided with all suitable articles of food and clothing, where everything they produced could be disposed of at a fair price. Lord George Hill had written a little book called Facts from Gweedore, which the traveller said deserved to be more widely known. The passage says that what was done here by landowners acting on common humanity, common justice, and common sense might have been done by others with similar success. It required no hidden or mysterious agency. It was not a discovery. It was the application of well-known principles, and it showed the practicability of raising the character of the most degraded portions of the Irish people, and improving, through their agency, the value of the soil. The traveller visited both estates in the midst of the sufferings of that winter and never, perhaps, could the contrast between them be seen to greater advantage.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from A Visit to Connaught in the Autumn of 1847: A Letter Addressed to the ... (1848), James Hack Tuke , Society of Friends Dublin Monthly Meeting . Central Relief Committee, Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends (Dublin, Ireland), Internet Archive avisittoconnaug00irelgoog, Chapter 1 · source

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River Clady and Gweedore hotel fishing waters

What it said · 129 of 129 words

The Clady River runs through here in Donegal, flowing about 5 miles from Lough Nacung Lower down to Gweedore Bay at Bunbeg. It is salmon and sea-trout water, and the hotel puts boats on the loughs while the river itself can be fished from the banks, with no need for wading. The hotel's fishing waters spread well beyond the Clady itself. Lough Nacung Upper has two good brown-trout feeders, the Sruhannameel from Lough Atirrive and the Glentornan from Glentornan Lough, and both rivers and loughs may be fished free by visitors at the hotel. Above Nacung Upper lies Dunlewy Lough with the Owenwee, Cronaniv and Devlin streams, but those are strictly preserved by Mrs. Monk. One rule to mind: the use of a gaff is prohibited on the Clady.

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 41 · source

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watch tower, An Bun Beag [Bunbeg]

What it said · 89 of 89 words

Right beside the road here at Bunbeg in Donegal, there's a small freestanding watch tower, built about 1835 on a square plan with chamfered corners. It's roofless now, with crenellated parapets and granite walls, a fireplace in the southwest corner, looking out over Gweedore Bay. It was possibly put up by Lord George Hill, an improving but controversial landlord, probably to combat smuggling and to serve as a maritime watch. There was a coastguard station nearby. It shows up on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, but isn't named.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40903201 · source

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Parish priest of Annagary visits the Anglers' Inn

What it said · 113 of 113 words

As you pass through Annagary in Donegal, this is a place where the parish priest once walked into the Anglers' Inn while two guests sat by a peat fire deep in reminiscence. He had one of the kindest faces the narrator had ever seen, even in Ireland, with bright blue eyes and golden hair, a thoroughly well-built man with strong arms and sturdy legs. Mr. Gallaher brought in the materials for toddy, and the three settled into what the narrator called a three-handed crack that belied the old proverb, two's company, three's trumpery. His Reverence told them he was not a political priest, and both guests thought the better of him for that.

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 55 · source

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Ritual site - holy well, Sliabh Mhullach Dearg

What it said · 62 of 62 words

There is a holy well right here, cut as a roughly circular hollow into a rock outcrop. A tradition says there is an inscription on the flagstone at the bottom, but it could not be verified. Ó Muirgheasa noted the same story in 1936, describing it as a holy well in Cruck townland, a quarter of a mile south of Mullaghduff school.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG041-005---- · source

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Mullaghderg Signal Tower

What it said · 102 of 102 words

Right beside the road here is the site of a signal tower built in 1806, now a roofless ruin standing on this exposed headland above Inishfree Bay. The British built it during the Napoleonic War, part of a network of towers along the south, west and north coasts of Ireland in case the French invaded. You can still see the rubble stone walls, the squared quoins, and the red sandstone arches over the first-floor openings. It is one of the reminders of early nineteenth-century military architecture in north Donegal, built by a colonial authority that never stopped expecting attack from the sea.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40904104 · source

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47m 30s · 16 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 25 · 233 m ahead at the start

Penal Mass station, Cionn Caslach

What it said · 40 of 40 words

Right here at Cionn Caslach in Donegal is the site of a penal Mass altar. It appears on the current six-inch Ordnance Survey map marked as altar site, though it was not noted on the first edition of that map.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG041-012---- · source

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52m 26s · 16 s public-domain book · electoral division · salience 38 · 231 m ahead at the start

Rutland town built for herring fishery, later neglected

What it said · 39 of 39 words

As you pass through Rutland in Donegal, this was a town built during Lord Westmorland's administration to carry on the herring fishery. But the herrings never visited that coast again after its foundation, and the town was left neglected.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland, from the arrival of the English : also, a particular detail of that which broke out the XXIIId of May, MDCCXCVIII : with the history of the conspiracy which preceded it (vol. 2) (1802), Musgrave, Richard, 1745 or 1746-1818, Internet Archive memoirsofdiffere02musg, Chapter 182 · source

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53m 04s · 29 s public-domain book · town · salience 25 · 1045 m ahead at the start

Burton Port: great fishing station for northern Donegal

What it said · 72 of 72 words

Up ahead is Burtonport, where the Loughswilly light railway comes to an end after bypassing most of the towns it was meant to serve. The line runs four miles from Dunfanaghy and about three from Falcarragh, and one stretch crosses a viaduct through Barnes Beg Gap with foundations so shaky that trains crawl at no more than four miles an hour. It was described as a great fishing station for northern Donegal.

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 25 · source

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59m 36s · 59 s public-domain book · town · salience 88 · 1371 m ahead at the start

Famine at Dunglow: no meal and starving mountaineers

What it said · 148 of 218 words

You're coming through Dunglow now, a town on the Marquis of Conyngham's estate. In the winter of 1847, there was literally no meal here the day before a visitor arrived, and even the Protestant clergyman's family did not know if they would have bread the next day. Half-naked men, women, and children came down from mountain hovels through the snow to find out whether they would be kept alive. A cart was sent 25 miles to Lord G. Hill's store at Gweedore, 20 of those miles through the Marquis's own estate, to see if meal could be had. It was uncertain whether the cart could cross the snow-covered mountains, or whether the store would spare anything for people who had made no provision. The supply did arrive, but it could not meet half the wants of the starving people. No sudden effort of charity could have met them. Multitudes perished from starvation that winter, not because the land could not have supplied their needs, nor because the people would not work it, but because it was subjected to a system opposed to common humanity, common justice, and common sense. The Marquis's estate was not a singular instance of neglect, only an example on a large scale of the condition of a great portion of the property of Ireland.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from A Visit to Connaught in the Autumn of 1847: A Letter Addressed to the ... (1848), James Hack Tuke , Society of Friends Dublin Monthly Meeting . Central Relief Committee, Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends (Dublin, Ireland), Internet Archive avisittoconnaug00irelgoog, Chapter 1 · source

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1h 00m · 48 s + 26 s filling the road public-domain book · town · salience 68 · 497 m ahead at the start

Father Finlay opens co-operative factory, praises Dungloe's democratic industry

What it said · 182 of 182 words

As you come through Dunglow in Donegal, you are passing through a town that Father T. Finlay, the Jesuit economist, once held up as an example not only to these islands but to the world. The occasion was the opening of the big new Co-operative Machine-Knitting Factory premises. Father Finlay told the people of Dungloe that they had done something governments, political parties, reformers, and revolutionaries had all failed to do. They had created a democratic industry that was successful. In England and other big industrial countries, he said, workers were trying to seize capital, and those countries were filled with turmoil. But Dungloe had shown there was another road, and that industry could be built up without exploitation or unrest. The factory stood at the centre of a group of associated activities that strengthened one another. The gas-engine that drove the dynamo for the electric lighting of the factory also lit the great distributive stores up the road, where the workers could spend their money to the best advantage, and it drove the sawmill in the yard, where box-making and other work was in busy progress. It was, in the words of the book, something traditional modernised, existing in the healthiest and happiest of environments and not divorced from agriculture. The associated activities gave work to some 500 people, practically all of them Irish speakers, in what people often regarded as a backward place, the Gaeltacht. The turnover of the Society that owned this industry had reached nearly 100,000 pounds per annum.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from From a Gaelic outpost (1921), De Bl©cam, Aodh, 1891-1951, Internet Archive fromgaelicoutpos00debl, Chapter 4 · source

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1h 01m · 38 s public-domain book · town · salience 58 · about where the car was

Dungloe's Ulster University summer college occupied by military

What it said · 96 of 96 words

As the road brings you through Dungloe, this is a town where a new Irish college raised its banner in 1920. The Iol-Scoil Uladh, the Ulster University, had a hall arranged for it here. Military occupation of the town turned it out of that hall. But the college went on, undaunted, under Father O'Toal, Fionn M'Cuail and Seumas O Grianna. The writer who recorded this hoped the college would return for a second year. His words were, "where Dungloe leads, Tirconaill will follow." He called this the most progressive and wide-awake town in North-West Ireland, but said it was sadly anglicised. This was a typical case in the Gaeltacht counties. Colleges were started in remote mountainy places and did some little good locally, but the progressive centres were left to anglicise themselves with never an effort to save them. He compared the effort to Eoghan Rua O'Neill, who landed in Sheephaven Bay by Doe Castle and, before anything else, opened four schools of Gaelic learning. He noted that no modern warrior on a warlike errand would give his first thought to reviving culture.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from From a Gaelic outpost (1921), De Bl©cam, Aodh, 1891-1951, Internet Archive fromgaelicoutpos00debl, Chapter 3 · source

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1h 02m · 23 s public-domain book · locality approx · salience 71 · 404 m ahead at the start

The Wise Woman of the Rosses and the Buried Black Cock

What it said · 58 of 58 words

Passing through the Rosses, you're in country where a blacksmith once went up into the mountains seeking a wise woman. His son Tommy had convulsions, and he wouldn't call the priest. For a golden guinea she gave him a black cock that never crowed, to bury alive with the child's hair and nail parings in a would-be grave.

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 39 · source

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1h 02m · 35 s public-domain book · locality approx · salience 15 · about where the car was

Ancient crystalline rocks at The Rosses

What it said · 88 of 88 words

The Rosses, the low, undulating headland you're passing through between Sligo and Drumcliff Bays, holds a small exposure of ancient crystalline rocks. This tract stretches eastward for nearly 3 miles, and the rocks show considerable variety in their composition. They are the same kind found among the Ox Mountains, where metamorphic action produced beds of granitoid gneiss, mica schist, quartzite, and crystalline limestone. These were once, in all probability, nothing more than sandstone, shale, grit, or ordinary limestone, transformed deep in the earth over vast stretches of time.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from History of Sligo, county and town, from the close of the Revolution of 1688 to the present time (1892), Wood-Martin, W. G. (William Gregory), 1847-1917, Internet Archive historyofsligoco00wood, Chapter 131 · source

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1h 03m · 41 s public-domain book · lake or lakes · salience 28 · 740 m ahead at the start

Lough Craghy — picturesque Tully Lough

What it said · 103 of 103 words

You're coming along the Dungloe chain, where the connecting stream runs from Meenlecknalore past three small loughs before reaching this water. Lough Craghy, known locally as Tully Lough, is the most picturesque lough on the chain, and it ranks second only to Dungloe Lough itself as a sporting water. Boats are provided free on the principal loughs, with a boatman's fee of 3 shillings a day and his lunch. As a rule two anglers fish from one boat. Close by is Dungloe Lough, the favourite with most anglers, though the guide calls it coy and says its fish need much and careful wooing.

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 47 · source

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1h 11m · 58 s + 14 s filling the road public-domain book · river · salience 45 · 1031 m ahead at the start

Gweebarra River salmon fishing and sporting rights

What it said · 180 of 198 words

You're coming up along the Gweebarra River now, one of Donegal's most important salmon rivers. It rises in Lough Barra and flows south for some distance before taking a more westerly course. The sporting rights along its banks are divided. On one bank, a number of small farmers hold the rights, and they have placed their interests in the hands of Mr. O'Donnell of Doocharry. On the other bank, the rights belong to the Marquis of Conyngham, let through his lordship's agent at Glenties. Anyone coming to the district for angling was advised to communicate with both beforehand. Within a mile and a half of Doocharry the river receives a tributary, the Cloghernagore River, which has its source from several brooks flowing from small loughs, the chief of them Lough Nacroge, Lough Fadda, Lough Leck, and Lough Fad, all good for brown trout. The Cloghernagore itself receives a tributary, the Glenleaneen River, rising from streams in Lough Namurlege and Lough Nabracks and flowing through Lough Errig, also good for brown trout. A third tributary comes from Lough Drumaneagy, described as a capital fishing lough. At Doocharry the Gweebarra is joined by the Owenwee River, which flows down by the road already traversed by car on the way to Slieve Snaght. From Doocharry the Gweebarra is much increased in volume and size, and it ultimately empties into Gweebarra Bay below Doocharry Bridge. The guide remarks that it is passing strange that such attractive countryside, with a railway station at Fintown convenient, should be without a touring hotel, the nearest places to stop being Glenties or Dungloe.

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 49 · source

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1h 12m · 44 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 15 · 638 m ahead at the start

Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Tuaim (Tc Leitir Mhic An Bhaird)

What it said · 109 of 109 words

Right beside the road here at Toome in Donegal is a portal tomb, one of two megalithic chambers set along a long narrow mound. The western chamber is well preserved, with two tall portal stones, a doorstone, sidestones, a backstone, and a roofstone still in place. The eastern chamber is largely collapsed, but a gabled stone, a possible roofstone, and a fallen slab have led scholars to suggest it too was a portal tomb. The whole mound is choked with bracken and briars, and a field wall cuts across its east end. The bare rocky face of Trusklieve Hill looks down on the site from about 100 metres north.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG065-005---- · source

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1h 15m · 17 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 15 · 294 m ahead at the start

Ritual site - holy well, Mulnamin Beg

What it said · 43 of 43 words

There is a holy well right here at the base of Mulnamin Hill. It is a natural crevice in the rock, built up with rough stone walls and a slab roof. The maps call it Tobernameeloge, and people still come to visit it.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG065-016---- · source

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1h 16m · 50 s + 25 s filling the road public-domain book · townland · salience 30 · 886 m ahead at the start

A Ghostly Village Like Maas Seen on Gweebarra Bay

What it said · 188 of 188 words

Somewhere around here, on the shore of Gweebarra Bay, people once saw an island that shouldn't have been there. They call it the Enchanted Island, and it has appeared all along the west coast, from Cork to Antrim, drifting in and out like a light in a bog. When it showed itself here, the people looking out over the water made out a village along its shore that looked like Maas, the very place they lived in. The Inishboffin islanders in Donegal had much the same experience, saying it looked like their own island, that two twins couldn't be liker. No one agrees on what the island is. Some say it is a real island, its comings and goings down to jommethry or some other enchantment. Others hold that it is not earth and stones at all, but only a deluding show made by evil spirits or the devil himself to deceive poor dissolute creatures. A Kerry fisherman put the matter plainly, saying it is against nature for a real island to come and go like that, and when you do see it, you can see through it.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Irish Wonders (1888), D. R. McAnally, Jr., Project Gutenberg #19486, Chapter 5 · source

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1h 18m · 38 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 25 · 610 m ahead at the start

Burial ground, Cashelgolan

What it said · 95 of 95 words

Right here is a burial ground, a subcircular mound 17 metres across and up to 2 metres high. It is an uneven mound, with a number of featureless grave-markers on it. One slab on the west side has a small oval perforation, and in a ditch to the south-east there is a cross-slab with a simple cross in relief at the centre of a broad cross-shaped groove. The record calls it Kilmacanny Graveyard, and it sits in a low-lying field, with woods to the south, pasture to the east, and the sea to the north.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG065-011001- · source

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1h 19m · 46 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 45 · 758 m ahead at the start

Children's burial ground, Loughfad (Maas Ed)

What it said · 115 of 115 words

Here is a children's burial ground at Loughfad, in Donegal. In 1937 workmen levelling a mound uncovered a double cist burial. The mound was oval, roughly 19 feet east to west and 16 and a half north to south, standing about 3 and a half feet high, made of dry sandy soil held by a kerb of large boulders. A cist covered by two capstones lay 3 feet below the surface, near the western edge, roughly level with the ground outside. It had two compartments, each about 32 inches east to west, 11 inches wide and 14 inches deep, built of thin limestone slabs packed with stones. Each compartment held one disarticulated burial, head to the west. More skeletal material turned up in the mound, including two tiny skulls. These probably point to the site's later use as a Cillin, a burial ground for unbaptized children, up to around 1850. The site sits east of Lough Fad, in good pasture with patches of rougher ground.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG064-013003- · source

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1h 22m · 54 s public-domain book · townland · salience 15 · 677 m ahead at the start

A beetle's journey toward Naran

What it said · 134 of 134 words

Close to Naran, somewhere around here, a walker on the road one evening came upon a black beetle heading in this direction, three miles away and half an hour before dark. He stooped to watch it crawling laboriously through the dust, climbing stones he called miniature Errigals twenty times its own height, falling into ruts headlong and rising again none the worse, keeping on with what he called "a mind fixed and a heart unconquered." After five minutes he felt a strange kinship with the creature, a wayfarer like himself, "a poor earth-born companion and fellow-mortal," and stood watching hat in hand until it disappeared. The last he saw of it was silhouetted against the sunset on top of a stone on rising ground, before it dropped over and he resumed his journey, thinking.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Mearing stones : leaves from my note-book on tramp in Donegal (1911), Campbell, Joseph, 1879-1944, Internet Archive mearingstoneslea00camprich, Chapter 15 · source

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1h 24m · 18 s public-domain book · population centre approx · salience 18 · 820 m ahead at the start

Portnoo emerging seaside resort

What it said · 46 of 46 words

As you come through Portnoo in Donegal, you're passing a place rapidly growing into a popular seaside resort. It has two strands, bathing, boating, sea-fishing, trout-fishing in nearby loughs, and shore-shooting. A pier was recently erected and a commodious hotel completed by Mr. Cannon of Glenties.

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 52 · source

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1h 29m · 45 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 42 · 711 m ahead at the start

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Kilclooney More

What it said · 112 of 112 words

There's a court tomb right here at Kilclooney More. Before it was mapped in the 1840s, surveyors named it Dermot and Grania's Bed on their field map, though that name never made it onto the published sheet. It sits on a slight rise in boggy pasture broken by rock outcrops, commanding a wide outlook in every direction. One of the two portal tombs in the same townland, 500 metres to the east, is visible from here. The gallery runs about 6 metres long and 2 to 2.5 metres wide, with entry at the east between two tall, well-matched jambs set just under a metre apart. Two courtstones stand outside the northern jamb. Three orthostats line each side of the gallery, and a tall backstone, now broken across its northern half, closes the far end. Corbels still overlie the inner half of the south side, and others have slipped from a second tier. A watercolour dated 1799, based on an earlier drawing, shows a lintel in place above the front of the gallery, largely hiding what looks like a second lintel behind it. When Thomas Fagan visited in 1847, the tomb was already in much the state you see now. A Name Book from the same years mentions foundations of cabins on or near the site, though nothing of them remains.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG073-003---- · source

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1h 30m · 52 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 26 · 540 m ahead at the start

Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Kilclooney More

What it said · 131 of 131 words

Right here in Kilclooney More is a portal tomb, standing on rough level pasture broken by outcropping rock. On the 1847 map it was just a small enclosure with no name, but on the pre-publication field map it was called Dermot and Grama's Bed. It is a small roofed chamber facing south-south-east, sitting near the centre of a grass-grown mound about 11 metres east to west. Patches of peat on parts of the cairn suggest the tomb was once substantially enveloped in bog. Only the western portal-stone survives, and it is exceptionally slight for a portal tomb, completely overlapped by the sidestone, which is an unusual feature. Thomas Fagan visited the site in 1847, and from his account the monument was already in the same condition then as it is now.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG073-006---- · source

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1h 35m · 55 s public-domain book · town · salience 58 · 1486 m ahead at the start

St Connell's Bell Kept at Woodhill, Ardara by Major Nesbitt

What it said · 137 of 137 words

As you pass through Ardara in Donegal, you are near Woodhill, where Major Nesbitt kept the bell of St Connell in 1835. The scholar O'Donovan wrote to Nesbitt and visited him there, hoping to inspect the bell and hear a prayer repeated by O'Breslan. Nesbitt refused to open the shrine case, fearing a report might spread that he had found treasure inside, as Sir William Betham was said to have done with the Cathach, the sacred standard of the O'Donnells. The bell itself is made of plate-iron, held together by flat-headed rivets, standing about 7 inches high and measuring roughly 3 and three-quarter inches by 3 inches at the mouth, tapering to about 2 inches at the top. It is much worn by age. O'Donovan never recorded whether he obtained the words of the prayer he sought.

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 158 · source

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1h 36m · 55 s public-domain book · town · salience 55 · 500 m ahead at the start

Monthly cloth fair at Ardara

What it said · 138 of 206 words

Up ahead is Ardara in Donegal. On the first day of every month, this town held a cloth fair that drew people from across the region. The morning began with rolls of homespun cloth handed back to their owners after inspection at the Congested Districts Board depot. If a roll had not been stamped, the faults and their remedies were pointed out from the Inspection-book, and patterns of new saleable designs were distributed to anyone who wanted them. Then the fair itself began. The rolls were laid down along the footway on both sides of the road, buyers arrived from Donegal, Killybegs, and Glenties, and several more were based in Ardara itself. The town thronged with mountain-folk and became, for a time, a Gaelic-speaking town. In two or three hours everything was disposed of, generally at good prices. The fabric was stained with soft, unfading colours produced from common plants and mosses, and was in great demand. The native dyes were chiefly crotal, the grey lichen that grows on granite in boggy districts, boiled down with the wool to yield colours from pale buff to dark red-brown. Heather gave a bright yellow, peat soot a brownish yellow, and the roots of the blackberry a rich brown.

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 53 · source

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1h 37m · 30 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 15 · 251 m ahead at the start

Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Ardara

What it said · 75 of 75 words

Right here in Ardara is a rock outcrop with loose stones around its base, recorded as a possible megalithic tomb. Surveyors in 1847 and again in 1904 described it as a natural feature with no sign of any artificial structure. P.J. McGill wrote in 1970 that a dolmen in this part of Ardara, known as Kilgole, was removed about fifty years earlier during land reclamation, though nothing is known about what that dolmen looked like.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG073-041---- · source

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1h 41m · 20 s public-domain book · townland · salience 28 · 314 m ahead at the start

Woman walker on Glengesh mountain

What it said · 49 of 49 words

Somewhere around here on Glengesh, the author met an elderly woman walking up the mountain. Despite her age she outpaced him on the climb. She pointed to a turf-stack and said only salt and iron never go grey, noting her own hair had once been black like the turf.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Mearing stones : leaves from my note-book on tramp in Donegal (1911), Campbell, Joseph, 1879-1944, Internet Archive mearingstoneslea00camprich, Chapter 11 · source

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1h 57m · 33 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 18 · 519 m ahead at the start

Ritual site - holy well, Leathchoill

What it said · 83 of 83 words

Right here at Leathchoill in Donegal is a holy well, a circular one partly filled in and enclosed by a drystone surround. There's no evidence of votive offerings left at it. Ó Muirgheasa wrote that beside the road from Cashel to Meenacroise are two holy wells about 40 yards from each other in the townland of Kilgloey. He said the wells are nameless but that burial grounds are near them, and they are reputed holy, with cures said to have happened at them.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG081-012001- · source

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1h 58m · 37 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 38 · 557 m ahead at the start

Children's burial ground, Cionn Na Coilleadh

What it said · 92 of 92 words

Right here at Cionn Na Coilleadh in Donegal, atop a low hillock in mountain valley upland, there's a slight sunken circular area marked by two quartz slabs and one upright stone with packing at its base. Local tradition says this group of stones marks a children's burial ground. It's not certain whether this is truly an archaeological monument or whether the sunken ground is just the result of quarrying. The upright stone and its packing may suggest something was deliberately set here. The information comes from local knowledge passed on in 2010.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG081-013---- · source

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Squatter settlement on the Drum mountain common

What it said · 59 of 59 words

Somewhere around here, on the mountain common, strangers, beggars and outcasts from other places built huts and cultivated small plots of ground, making the land their own. Parcels of it had been added to adjacent property, but these people took what no individual proprietor claimed. Tradition held that Queen Anne reserved this land for the relief of Ireland's poor.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from The History, Topography and Antiquities of the County and City of Waterford (1824), Richard Hopkins Ryland, Internet Archive historytopograph00ryla, Chapter 138 · source

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1h 59m · 22 s National Monuments Service · site · salience 20 · 189 m ahead at the start

Ritual site - holy well, An Clochán

What it said · 56 of 56 words

Right here along the road is St. Connell's Well, a drystone-lined holy well on the north slope of Glencolumbkille valley. Its dedication is unclear. In 1936, Ó Muirgheasa noted, "There is another Tobar Fanaid on the north side of the Glen in Clochan townland: it is reputed a Holy Well, and was included in Turus Fanaid."

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG080-009---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Fearann Mhic Giolla Bhríde

What it said · 131 of 131 words

Right here is a court tomb in Fearann Mhic Giolla Bhríde in Donegal. It stands on poor pasture reclaimed from bog, with open ground to the south and a steep rocky hillside close at the north. The tomb is a long oval court with galleries at both ends and three or four smaller chambers set around the court inside a cairn 60.5 metres long and 19.5 metres wide. A sunken trackway crosses the site, and the western half of the cairn survives to about 1.5 metres high while the eastern half has been largely removed. The north-east gallery still has jambs, displaced roofstones and a fallen lintel nearly 3 metres long. The record gives only the stonework and dimensions, with no account of who built it or what was found inside.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG080-006---- · source

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Finn MacCumhal's stag hunt to the Murlin River

What it said · 131 of 197 words

As the road passes through Glencolumbkille, you are in the country where Finn MacCumhal once hunted. Manus O'Donnell preserved the story in the fifteenth century. Finn, the great warrior and sportsman, was hunting in southern Donegal when an unusually fine stag appeared before him. His famous dog Bran was on it at once, and Finn set off in pursuit with Bran leading the way. The stag kept well ahead with perfect ease, running until it reached the River Murlin. It crossed the stream without apparent effort and stood perfectly still on the farther bank. Then came the astonishment. Bran, who had never been known to fail, who had never let a hart escape however swift, refused to cross. He stood rooted to the spot on the same bank as Finn. Finn knew some dark mystery lay behind the dog's conduct. He consulted his divining tooth, and it gave him a clear answer. The words were these: a child Columba will be born in due time of the stock of Cormac MacArt, who will be a great light in Ireland and found many churches and monasteries. The region to which the stag has fled will be sacred to him, and a place of refuge to all succeeding generations. Manus adds that in his own lifetime, in the fifteenth century, the way the stag had fled was still known as the path of the stag. The author of this book heard one old man use those words in ordinary conversation but could not get him to explain them. Either the man knew little of the legend or he refused to tell all he knew. That often happens with the Irish country-folk, who dread ridicule being poured upon traditions in which they themselves believe with all their heart.

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 91 · source

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Commander of the Wasp buried at Glencolumbkille

What it said · 122 of 122 words

You are coming through Glencolumbkille in Donegal. This parish has a strange link to a disaster at sea. Out on Tory Island there is a Holy Stone, pagan in its origin, though probably blessed by St. Columba or one of his successors. For many centuries, when any invader was to be seen, the stone was pointed in the direction of his approaching fleet. A great storm would break over him, and he and his force were sure to be lost in the ocean. In September of 1884 the landlord thought it was time to collect his rents and arrears. He obtained from the government the gun-boat Wasp to aid him in that difficult and usually dangerous process. The keeper of the Holy Stone saw the Wasp approaching. He disliked her appearance and set the stone in the direction of her course. A violent storm at sea arose. The gun-boat was wrecked and all hands lost but six. This disaster happened on the 22nd of September, 1884. The body of the luckless commander, after drifting for many days, came ashore in the stormy bay of Glencolumbkille, and lies buried in the Protestant graveyard there. The belief of the islanders in the virtue of the Holy Stone was established by that tragedy upon a foundation which cannot be shaken.

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 73 · source

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Demons driven from Croagh Patrick to Glencolumbkille

What it said · 129 of 129 words

As you come through Glencolumbkille in Donegal, you are passing the glen Saint Columbkille came to rid of demons. His biographer says an angel warned him in a dream that his presence was needed in the Sean Glan, because a company of demons had fled there from Croagh Patrick under the force of Saint Patrick's heavy maledictions. Columbkille was not disobedient to the divine vision. He gathered a band of his disciples, including Cearc, and set out for the lonely glen. When he arrived he found it covered in a darkling mist that hid it from his sight. The early Irish monks always esteemed such regions of mist as favourable to meditation, and many of their single cells and churches still crumble away in places far from everyday traffic.

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 91 · source

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Lough Unna brown-trout and sea-trout water

What it said · 56 of 56 words

Lough Unna lies here in Donegal, fed by streams that flow down toward Teelin Bay by the base of Slieve League. The scenery through its course is extremely wild and at places grand. It is an exceptionally good brown-trout water, and sea-trout also mount into it. You can fish it from the banks in all parts.

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 59 · source

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Artists at Carrick beneath Slieve Liag

What it said · 125 of 199 words

As you come through Carrick, beneath the great cliff of Slieve Liag, there once stood a comfortable hotel where travellers and government officials lodged. That hotel is closed now, but it drew remarkable visitors in its time. Lord Leighton came here while he was painting his picture of Andromeda. He wished to see cliffs in their most majestic form, and he was not disappointed. The memory of his genial and graceful presence was long remembered in the neighbouring villages, and the older men loved to tell of his stately courtesy and his unfeigned kindness of heart. To the same spot came Sir Noel Paton for a similar purpose, though he was engaged in painting his picture of The Temptation. He had less reason for his visit than his fellow artist, unless indeed he wished to see what a real wilderness was like. That he could find within a stone's throw from the hotel, in all of the land which stretches from Carrick to Malinmore on the one side and Glencolumbkille on the other. Here there was, and is indeed, a wilderness sparingly dotted over with farms and cottages, and memorable for several cromlechs of the largest size and two prehistoric forts. So two of the most celebrated painters of their day came to this small place under the mountain, drawn by the height of the cliffs and the wildness of the ground, and the people here remembered them not for their fame but for their kindness.

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 10 · source

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Carrick district cliffs among finest in British Isles

What it said · 109 of 109 words

You are coming through Carrick, in Donegal. The whole district around this town teems with coast, mountain, and river scenery of exceptional beauty. Here are some of the finest cliffs in the British Isles. The cliffs are seen to best advantage from the sea, and it would be difficult to point to such another gorgeous panorama of cliff scenery as that obtained by sailing from Teelin Bay round the coast to Slievetooey. Sailing boats and competent boatmen can be hired at Teelin, close by Carrick. On closer acquaintance, the exploration of these magnificent cliffs entails a lot of hard walking and somewhat risky climbing. With a local guide, which the tourist is well-advised to arrange for, and the exercise of some care, no serious danger need be encountered. For those who are not practised mountaineers or cliff-climbers, several points of vantage from which magnificent views can be obtained are quite easily reached. The more venturesome certainly see more of the majesty of the cliffs and mountain passes, but a good idea of the extreme grandeur of the place is obtained with absolutely no risk and, comparatively speaking, but little fatigue.

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 56 · source

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Slieve League cliffs and their cave

What it said · 192 of 192 words

Coming up along Carrick in Donegal, this was once recommended as the place to stay a full week for scenery and fishing, with brown trout free to guests on two rivers and three lakes, all within easy reach. Salmon and sea-trout fishing was free too, provided you took out your licence at the hotel, and that licence would hold at any other river in the county. The book said you could spend a week sight-seeing here and never cover the same ground twice. But the essential sights were Slieve League and Glen Columbkille. Malin-beg and the caves at Muckross were counted as minor attractions. To see Slieve League you could use a boat, a pony, or your legs, but not a bicycle. The recommendation was a boat for the cliff scenery, time and weather permitting, as there was said to be a cave of extraordinary dimensions in the Slieve League cliff. Teelin Harbour, where the Glen River meets the sea, was the chief centre of fishing industries developed by the Congested Districts Board, and Carrick was one of two markets for the homespuns whose production had been energetically developed in recent years.

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 41 · source

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Mass-rock, Cill Chathasaigh

What it said · 89 of 89 words

Right here at Cill Chathasaigh in Donegal there is a mass rock, a flat slab resting on support stones, forming an altar about 0.25 metres high above the ground. It sits at the base of a low south-facing hillock on the floodplains of the Ballaghdoo River. Faint incised lines on the surface appear to form a crude St. Brigid's Cross, though that identification is not certain. In the same field, 70 metres to the north-west, stand the remains of an 18th century church known locally as the Spanish Church.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG096-036---- · source

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The Spaniard's Church on the road from Carrick to Kilcar

What it said · 131 of 131 words

As you come through Kilcar in Donegal, there's a ruined church by the old road from Carrick that people still call the Spaniard's Church. The story goes that Father Carr absolved a dying Spanish sailor after a shipwreck, and used gold from the man's girdle to build the church. The writer admits he wonders whether the church might actually be older than the tale, but calls it a beautiful story that may well be true in essence. He warns that no sceptical traveller should dare to hint a doubt among the people of the neighbourhood, lest he be scouted as a heretic and unbeliever, if indeed he fare no worse. The Irish are tenacious of their traditions, handing them down from parent to child and keeping them firmly fixed in memory.

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 14 · source

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Kilcar townland still held in rundal farming

What it said · 21 of 21 words

Coming up along the road here, you are nearing Kilcar, three miles from Carrick. In this town there is a whole townland where the farms have never been squared, and the land is still held in rundal, the old communal system of farming. The author of this passage passed through the glen learning about that system, picking it up from one or two plots along the way, and for a full explanation of the term he sends you to his chapter on Gweedore. Nearby lies Cashel, a village in the valley, cut off from the rest of the glen by a river and a marsh crossed by a causeway. In winter, and sometimes even in summer, the tide covers that causeway, so the folk of Beevna, who have no boats, have no way of reaching the rest of society except by a long journey over the top of Sturrell or Craig Beevna and round by the head of the glen. The author said he had learnt much from his day, though dense mist prevented any sight-seeing. He had very good tea at the little public house here, then took his machine and wheeled it laboriously up a mile or so of hill, found a level stretch of a mile at the top, and after that a generous descent of about four miles.

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 50 · source

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Kilcar village and its wild flowers

What it said · 138 of 138 words

As the road comes down the long hill and over the bridge, Kilcar lies in a valley with its church and Roman Catholic chapel, and the marshy hillsides around the village are carpeted with wildflowers. Bluebells flood the open meadows, growing not in shelter of trees or hedges, for there are none on these wild moors, but covering the ground to "the colour of an Italian sky." Bog-cotton stands everywhere through the heather, marsh marigolds shine like the sun in rushy places, and by the ditches there is pale pink cuckoo-flower. Somewhere on the hill a fine patch of white bogbean grows in a swamp. The most beautiful sight of all is the young fronds of the King fern, shooting up straight and strong, glowing with golden olive and brown, not yet at their full height and dignity.

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 40 · source

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Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Shalwy

What it said · 156 of 156 words

Right here at Shalwy in Donegal is a court tomb, one of three excavated in this rocky coastal valley. It sits on a low knoll of rock between the other two. A plan was made in 1952, but the monument was already in much the same condition when a man called Fagan visited in 1847. It was excavated over four seasons from 1966 to 1969, which revealed a coffin-shaped cairn with a crescent-shaped facade and a full pear-shaped court. The cairn is 37 metres long and reaches about 2 metres at its highest. The finds tell two chapters. From the gallery floor came Neolithic flint tools, hollow scrapers, an arrowhead, and tiny fragments of Neolithic pottery. From later layers above those came Iron Age pottery, metalwork, a glass bead, and a bone comb. Animal bones were found throughout, and a razor-clam shell lay beneath the backstone. The published accounts make no mention of any human remains.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG097-018---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Bavan

What it said · 137 of 241 words

This court tomb is right here in Bavan, standing at the head of a rocky, bog-grown valley. Thomas Fagan visited in 1847 and counted ten standing stones, with others already fallen. By the mid-20th century only six uprights remained visible, and it took two seasons of excavation, in 1964 and 1965, to recover the full ground plan. What the diggers found was an oval court at the south-east leading into a gallery divided by jambs into two chambers, the whole standing in a cairn of local quartzite rubble held by dry-stone walling some 19 metres long. The cairn had been levelled, apparently on purpose, but its base survived, built in places with care, with large key-stones set to anchor it, and elsewhere simply dumped. A low stone inside the court was thought to be a ritual feature. No bone survived anywhere on the site, but the excavators recovered a considerable array of flint tools and pottery. Leaf-shaped arrowheads, plano-convex knives, end scrapers, a polished mudstone axe, and a clear quartz crystal all came out of the cairn and the ground around it. Inside the front chamber lay the sherds of a large decorated bowl, three schist beads, and more arrowheads. A slender rod of stone was found in the corner of the court. The tomb overlooks two other excavated court tombs, Shalwy 400 metres to the south-west and Croaghbeg another 200 metres beyond, near a small sandy beach on Donegal Bay.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG097-020---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - court tomb, An Chruach Bheag

What it said · 150 of 1526 words

This monument, like the two (Dg. 12 and Dg. 113) nearby in the same coastal valley, has been excavated. It is sited on a low but steep-sided rocky ridge and faces upslope to the head of the valley. Before excavation it was so obscured by collapsed cairn stones that its precise design was unclear (de Valera 1960). The excavation was carried out over five seasons (1969-73), and preliminary accounts have been published. It consists of a long cairn at the northern end of which is a court leading to a two-chambered gallery. A lintel surmounts the gallery entrance, and there is another above the jambs separating the two chambers. Tiers of corbelling survive along the sides and back of the gallery. A subsidiary chamber opens into the outer end of the west side of the court. Considerable stretches of a dry-wall revetment were revealed along the sides of the cairn. The W arm of the court and the cairn outside it were found to have been removed. Excavation showed that the surviving E arm of the court had been built on several layers of random rubble spread, apparently to secure a level surface. The finished implements among the finds recovered from the chambers were two heat-shattered flint plano-convex knives, a classic flint hollow scraper and a concave scraper. The 1971 season, devoted to the excavation of the court and the determination of the shape and extent of the cairn, resulted in the recovery of a large number of flint flakelets and a small number of finished implements of flint, namely, two end scrapers, one hollow scraper and two knives. The plan and sections published here were made in 1990. The cairn, as it now survives, is 36.5 metres long and narrows from 13.5 metres wide at the northern end to 10.5 metres at the southern. The northern end consists of a low bank of earth and stones that lacks any identifiable formal edge. Five stones at the outer face of this bank are shown on the plan. These are somewhat loose and of uncertain status. The largest measures 0.75 metres by 0.6 metres by 0.2 metres high. There is no trace of the expected entrance through the front of the cairn to the court, but a brief reference to such a feature suggests that it was apparent during the excavation. The remainder of the cairn is composed of a mass of stones rising from both ends to reach a maximum height of 2.3 metres at the back of the gallery. The rear of the cairn as portrayed on the plan represents the present limit of the cairn mass, but it is doubtful that this accords with the original outline, which, though badly eroded, 'was satisfactorily established' during the excavation. The dry-wall revetment exposed along the sides of the cairn survives to two layers in places, but for the most part only a single course remains. The stones of the lowest visible layer, some now somewhat displaced, are shown on the plan. These range from 0.15 metres to 1.5 metres long and from 0.15 metres to 1.1 metres high. Immediately south of the gap in the west side of the cairn are some large slabs at the cairn edge, but it is not clear whether these formed part of the revetment, and they are not shown on the plan. A stone just beyond the rear of the cairn mass may be displaced. It measures 0.8 metres by 0.75 metres by 0.3 metres. Because of destruction in the court area the excavator encountered some difficulty in 'the determination of its inner facade'. The preliminary accounts of the excavation do not contain any elaboration on this matter other than a description of the court as being of the full variety. The precise relationship of the court to the subsidiary chamber is also unclear, but if, like at two other Donegal court tombs (Dg. 56 and Dg. 95), the front of the subsidiary chamber lay on the court perimeter, a court length of about 10 metres would seem likely. The E arm of the court is represented by ten stones. The edge of the cairn mass beside the gallery entrance seems to follow the line of the missing western arm. An original court width of at least 8 metres appears to be indicated. The outermost courtstone at the E, slightly inside the line of the others, is split vertically. It measures 0.7 metres by 0.1 metres by 0.4 metres high. The heights of the next seven are 0.75 metres, 0.65 metres, 0.75 metres, 1 metres, 0.6 metres, 0.8 metres and 1.05 metres. The next, the second from the gallery entrance, rises 0.45 metres above the top of the first. The base of this stone is exposed and is clearly seen to stand on the rubble fill, already mentioned, that was noted on this side of the ridge during the excavation. There is dry-wall filling in the slight gaps between it and the courtstones at either side, and a corbel, 0.5 metres by 0.9 metres and 0.5 metres in maximum thickness, rests on its sloping top. The innermost courtstone is 0.6 metres high, but two superimposed blocks, so placed that all three present a vertical face, act to increase its effective height to about 0.5 metres more than the last-described courtstone and the entrance jamb at its other side. The lower of the two superimposed blocks measures 0.7 metres by 0.4 metres by 0.45 metres high, and the upper 0.8 metres by 0.45 metres by 0.5 metres high. A large slab, 1.2 metres by 0.45 metres by 0.5 metres thick, lying in an almost horizontal position on the last and on the cairn behind it may be a corbel. Just 1 metres beyond the outer end of the E arm of the court is a displaced slab, 1.25 metres by 1.2 metres by 0.45 metres thick. The gallery is about 5.5 metres long. Entry to it is between two well-matched, transversely set jambs of similar height set 0.8 metres apart at ground level. The eastern one is 1.2 metres high, and the western is 1.4 metres. Wedged between them is a sillstone now no longer set in the ground. This is 0.75 metres long, 0.08 metres thick and 0.45 metres high. The lintel above the entrance rests on the flat-topped jambs. This is a rectangular block of stone and measures 2.2 metres by 1.25 metres by 0.9 metres thick. There is a pad-stone (not on plan), 0.05 metres by 0.04 metres, between it and the inner end of the top of the western jamb. The segmenting jambs, transversely set, are well-matched, flat-topped stones. They stand inside the gallery walls and are 0.65 metres apart. The eastern one is 1.3 metres high, and the western is 1.25 metres high. A sillstone between them is 0.65 metres long, 0.08 metres thick and 0.4 metres high. The lintel resting above the jambs, a rectangular block, measures 2.1 metres by 0.9 metres by 0.8 metres thick. There is a pad-stone between the top of the western jamb and the lintel. Beside the east end of the lintel and at the same height is a block of stone, 0.65 metres by 0.3 metres by 0.55 metres high, wedged between it and the gallery side. This rests on the middle orthostat on this side of the gallery and on a pad-stone, 0.15 metres by 0.08 metres by 0.08 metres thick, set on top of the segmenting jamb. Also helping to wedge this block in place is a stone, 0.25 metres by 0.2 metres by 0.1 metres thick, jammed between it and the top of the inner end of the first orthostat of the gallery. The front chamber, measured from sill to sill, is 2.6 metres long and 2.7 metres wide; the rear chamber is 2.7 metres long and about 3 metres wide near the front, narrowing to 2.3 metres at the back. Three orthostats form each side of the gallery, the middle ones overlapping the adjacent jambs and serving as sidestones to both chambers, the same arrangement as at Shalwy (Dg. 113). The outermost orthostat at the W overlaps the inner end of the adjacent entrance jamb. It is 1.6 metres high. The middle orthostat on this side is 1.6 metres high. Immediately outside this and rising about 0.3 metres above its highest point is a slab, 1.2 metres long, 0.25 metres thick and 0.6 metres high. This flat-topped slab is positioned so as to raise the height of the gallery here and seems to be supported by the cairn mass alongside the gallery. The third orthostat on this side is 2 metres in maximum height. The outermost orthostat at the east side of the gallery rises from 1 metres high at the front to 1.75 metres at mid-length. The next one is 1.3 metres high. Mirroring the arrangement on the west side of the gallery, a slab immediately outside this orthostat rises 0.5 metres above it. This slab, its base hidden, leans inward slightly and is 1.4 metres long and 0.15 metres thick. The innermost orthostat on this side of the gallery is 1.7 metres high.

Read from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG097-017001- · source

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Burial ground, Shalwy

What it said · 111 of 111 words

Right beside the road here is a burial ground marked as Kilkieran on old Ordnance Survey maps. It is a circular enclosure about 28 metres across, walled in stone, with uninscribed grave markers inside, two altars in the south-west part, and four small penitential cairns to the north. A holy well called Toberkieran stands just east of the graveyard, with a cross-inscribed slab beside it bearing a Latin cross whose arms have fish-tail terminals. Nearby there is a natural slab known as St Kieran's Bed, and a boulder 11.5 metres north of the burial ground with a carved rock-basin in it. The ground around is rough grazing with much rock outcrop.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG097-019001- · source

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Burial ground, Kill (Largymore Ed)

What it said · 74 of 74 words

Right here beside the road is the site of Kill old graveyard. By 1847 it was already destroyed, according to Fagan. Human bones and stone coffins were dug out of the ground, and the site was apparently enclosed by "Great standing stones." No definite trace survives now, though a short line of boulders may have been part of the original enclosure. In a field to the west, a rock-basin is carved into a boulder.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG097-013002- · source

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Ritual site - holy well, Kill (Largymore Ed)

What it said · 133 of 133 words

Right here on the slope of the rugged hill north of the road was a holy well, now almost closed up. In 1936 Ó Muirgheasa wrote that some 20 or 30 yards lower down was an old graveyard, the site no doubt of the cill or church that gave this townland its name. When the plot was cultivated many years before, bones were dug up on the spot. No saint's name is remembered in connection with the well or the church, and the oldest people around did not remember stations ever being performed there. But Ó Muirgheasa said the townland name itself, the tradition of the holy well, and the closeness of the well to the old graveyard made what he called a chain of circumstantial evidence sufficient to satisfy all reasonable requirements.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG097-013003- · source

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Spanish Armada wrecks on the Donegal coast

What it said · 123 of 123 words

Killybegs sits along this stretch of Donegal coast, and in 1588 these waters saw disaster after disaster as the great Armada staggered homewards. Medina had ordered his fleet to run well north and far west of the dangerous Irish coast, but heavy weather met them. Ship after ship failed to weather the jutting shore of Connaught, dropped anchor, and found their cables too weak to hold against such a sea. They went ashore here. The unhappy crews who managed to land were stripped or slain by the natives, and such of them as the Irish spared were hanged by the English. This was under Sir John Perrott, who had brought the country into something more approaching a willing loyalty to the British crown.

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 34 · source

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Spanish crews shelter at Killybegs under MacSwiney

What it said · 126 of 206 words

Coming through Killybegs in Donegal, you are on a coast where ships of the Spanish Armada once sheltered and wrecked. In 1588, three vessels put in here after escaping northwards from earlier disasters on the Sligo coast. The Rata, under Don Alonzo de Leyva, had broken loose from her anchors and run ashore, but her crew were sheltered by O'Rourke of Brefny until they embarked on the San Martin, which had held out in the offing. They met the Girona and the Duquesa Sta. Anna and made their way north, the wind still westerly. The three ships again foundered here. But the crews, 2,000 in number, got ashore with their arms. They obtained fresh stores and a welcome from MacSwiney of Banaght, lord of this country. Having patched up two of the vessels, they put to sea again, abandoning the San Martin. The Duquesa Sta. Anna had no better fortune. She ran upon the rocks in Glennagaveny Bay, west of Inishowen Head. De Leyva escaped and made his way to the Girona, which lay at anchor in Mulroy or Sheephaven. After a week's labour to make her seaworthy, he and the remnant of three crews stood out to make the coast of Scotland, where there was some chance of friendship. But hugging the Antrim coast near the Giant's Causeway, she ran on a rock and perished. Sorley Boy Macdonell, Lord of Dunluce, came to the rescue, but recovered only five of the crew, certain butts of wine, and three pieces of cannon, which he mounted on his castle and refused to give up.

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 35 · source

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Castle - unclassified, Killybegs

What it said · 99 of 99 words

Right here at Castle Point in Killybegs stood a castle of the McSwyne family. By 1622 it was already ruinous, described as "an old ruinous bawn of lime and stone, 60 ft. square and 8 ft. high," with a ruinous castle on one side, 30 ft. long and 20 ft. broad, with no floors or covering. In the early 1700s the East India Company planted a battery here to guard the harbour. By 1848 only foundation courses could be seen among the fallen rubble. Tradition says the castle's stones went to build the Catholic Church put up around 1763.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG097-015006- · source

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Spanish ambassadors received at Killybegs, 1598

What it said · 202 of 202 words

Killybegs has always had some touch with the outside world, thanks to its harbour, the best on the west of Ireland. In 1598 a vessel put in here carrying ambassadors from Spain, and Red Hugh O'Donnell and Tyrone travelled to the port to interview them. Ten years earlier, Spanish vessels had put into Killybegs in very different circumstances. When the great Armada was staggering homewards, this shore was the scene of many disasters. Medina's instructions to his fleet were to run well northwards and far to the west of the dangerous Irish coast, but heavy weather met them. Ship after ship failed to weather the jutting shore of Connaught and was driven to cast anchor. In nearly every case the tackle proved too weak, the cables parted, and they went ashore. The unhappy crews, if they succeeded in landing, were stripped or slain by the natives, and such as the Irish spared were hanged by the English. This was in the days when Sir John Perrott had brought the country into something more approaching willing loyalty to the British crown. Ten years later, in the days of Red Hugh, any Spaniard who landed on this coast would have found a warmer welcome.

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 34 · source

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Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Gilbertstown

What it said · 105 of 105 words

Right here at Gilbertstown in Donegal is a portal tomb, partly collapsed, standing on wet, rush-grown ground near the Oily River. The chamber was at least 2 metres long and faces south-east toward rising ground. Three stones still stand in place: a sidestone, a portal-stone, and what seems to be a sillstone set across the inner end. A great roof stone, 3.7 metres long, overlies much of the structure, resting on the surviving sidestone and sloping down to two displaced slabs. The chamber area looks to have been dug at some point. Rising ground close by limits the outlook except north along the river valley.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG092-006---- · source

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Children's burial ground, Aighan

What it said · 143 of 143 words

Here, right beside the road, is a children's burial ground in Aighan, in Donegal. It was used in the last century as a burial ground for unbaptised children. The site is known as the Relig, and also as Bruckless. It is an oblong area, about 32 metres one way and 21 metres the other, enclosed by a wall roughly 1.65 metres wide. A laneway runs along one side, and along the other side the ground drops away along the top of a small rock cliff. Inside, at one end, there are seven small cairns. One of them is subcircular, about four and a half metres across and just over a metre high. On top of it are two slabs, each with a U-shaped notch cut into the top. Patterson recorded that a dumbbell-shaped healing stone was left in one of these notches when not in use. Also on the cairn is a cross-inscribed slab, decorated on both faces. One face has a Greek bar cross with a thin line forming a second cross inside the first, a circle at the centre, and a small cross design in each quarter. The other face has a thin line Greek cross with a circle at the centre, resting on a raised area. Along the rock cliff face, a D-shaped dressed piece of rock juts out, forming a seat-like feature known as St. Conall's bed. Patterson also records that a bullaun, or primitive font, was taken from the site in the last century. Nearby is St. Conall's holy well, surrounded by a penitential cairn. In that cairn is a roughly triangular stone with a U-notch on one side. The whole site sits on undulating pasture land with rock outcrop.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG098-001008- · source

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The Oily River free fishing between Killybegs and Dunkineely

What it said · 185 of 185 words

Close to Bruckless, the Oily River runs down from the hills and empties into McSwyne's Bay, offering about four miles of free salmon, sea-trout and brown-trout fishing of very decent quality. It starts up in Lough Tamur at the south-western base of Binbane Mountain, 1,493 feet, where it is called the Corker River. After it receives the Tallinteane River it becomes known as the Oily, and almost every pool down to the sea is worthy the angler's attention. The principal pools, working upwards from the estuary, are Bullrush, Draft, Carry, Jackeys, Pwllbradden, which is the salmon leap, Ash Bush and Mullendarragh. The upper reaches are sinuous and slow-running and can be fished from the banks, but you need to wade the lower water, where boulder-strewn flats alternate with pools and the river passes through a succession of rocky gorges as it nears the sea. The salmon range from 6 to 15 pounds, averaging 7 or 8, and the best months for them are August and September. The sea-trout run up to 3 pounds and average about a pound, with July and August the best months.

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 60 · source

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Bog Side of Derry, formerly impassable morass

What it said · 81 of 81 words

Close to Bogside, this ground was once water and bog. Derry stands on a sharply rising knoll on the left bank of the Foyle, where the river is tidal and over 300 yards wide. In old days the knoll was practically an island, because the north of the town, still called the Bog Side, was an impassable morass. The cathedral sits atop this acropolis, and from whatever point you see the town you will discern it, stretching up to the sky.

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 137 · source

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McSwyne's Castle at Dunkineely

What it said · 133 of 133 words

As you pass through Dunkineely, there's not much to catch the eye, though McSwyne's Castle stands as the one piece of antiquity here. The average tourist might be excused for mistaking it for a heap of rubble. What the town lacks in looks it makes up for in sport. Hill's Hotel caters comfortably to sportsmen, and the proprietor, Mr. G. B. Hill, has mixed shooting on offer including grouse, partridge, pheasants, and hares, with rabbits plentiful. There is good woodcock shooting, and at St. John's Point sits one of the finest snipe bogs in the north of Ireland. He also has mixed shooting at Gilbertstown, and the shore shooting is very good, with plenty of wild fowl in season. The sea-fishing along this coast is excellent quality, all the way right into Donegal.

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 60 · source

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Drowning tragedy at Port near Tormore

What it said · 101 of 101 words

Close to Port, a boat was overwhelmed by a mighty Atlantic breaker near Tormore, and a woman drowned. Her body was found later by fishermen miles away. The surviving men climbed the cliff naked to seek help from people in the houses. When the author visited, the tragedy was still fresh in the minds of neighbours for miles around. A captain called Johnnie told the tale point by point, with what the author calls a quiet pathos matchless in its direct simplicity. He ended with a solemn remark, spoken in a hushed tone, as if he had seen it all himself.

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 20 · source

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Ritual site - holy well, Fanaghans

What it said · 87 of 87 words

Right here beside the road is St. Naul's Well, a holy well at Fanaghans in Donegal. It sits on a south-south-east slope above the sea, near Inver. The well has been linked to a miracle of St. Naal, the drawing of water from the rock. In 1936, Ó Muirgheasa recorded that the well was once the centre of a great annual pilgrimage. He wrote that in recent times the presence of votive offerings and discarded sticks attested cures, but that the station had declined to negligible dimensions. The account was abridged by Dr. Maguire. In February 2001, archaeological testing was carried out in the vicinity. A developer proposed building three detached dwelling-houses with an access road on a south-west-facing hillside to the west of Inver village, overlooking Inver Bay. The well sits at the foot of that hill. Eighteen test-trenches were dug across the locations of the houses, the access road, and the percolation areas. Topsoil and sod overlay compact yellow brown sand and bedrock. Nothing of archaeological significance was found during the monitoring. The excavation was carried out by Declan Moore of Moore Archaeological and Environmental Services in Galway.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG098-004---- · source

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Inver Church of Ireland Church

What it said · 203 of 239 words

Right here, on this elevated ground at the bend where the Eany Water meets Inver Bay, are the ruins of a Church of Ireland church built around 1610. It may well contain fabric from an earlier church on the site, possibly one dating to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. In 1622 it was described as in "reasonably good repair" and having a thatched roof. The roof was slated sometime in the mid-eighteenth century, around the same time a chamfered cut stone eaves cornice was added, about 1750. The church stayed in use until 1807, when a new Church of Ireland church was built a short distance to the north-east to replace it. There is a cut stone memorial built into the north-west wall, dated 1751, commemorating Thomas Hume. It bears the Hume family coat of arms and the inscription "True to the End." The surrounding graveyard holds a collection of recumbent, upstanding, and table-type memorials, mostly from the nineteenth century, with the earliest legible one dated 1751. The boundary walls curve with the hillside, and a pair of wrought-iron gates stands between squared rubble stone piers at the top of a flight of cut stone steps leading up from the causeway. The walls are largely covered in ivy now, and the old doorway at the west end of the north wall is blocked, though you can still see the carved stone head and the hoodmoulding above it.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40909826 · source

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Eany Water salmon and trout river

What it said · 77 of 77 words

You're coming along near the Eany Water, a river that empties into Inver Bay close by Inver Station, draining the countryside south-west of the Blue Stack Mountains. It's an important salmon, sea-trout and brown-trout river, and the fishing is strictly preserved, let from time to time to a suitable tenant. One of its tributaries, the Eany Beg Water, rises in a glen called Dysert Dell, where the remains of an ancient chapel and well can be found.

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 61 · source

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Seumas MacManus and Donegal fairy stories

What it said · 134 of 134 words

As you pass through Mountcharles in County Donegal, you are in the home place of Seumas MacManus, who collected a great number of fairy stories from the seannachies, the oral storytellers of his native county. He retold them with what one writer called a vigour and a humour worthy of Samuel Lover himself. The author of that passage accepts MacManus's claim that he heard most of them from oral tradition, and notes he had the advantage of speaking Gaelic. The same writer recalls that within his own memory the banshee ceased to be heard wailing for the approaching death of a member of some noble family, and that he could himself remember the cruelty with which a hapless old woman, believed to be a witch, was burned in the presence of a large crowd.

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 83 · source

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Mountcharles village and marble quarries

What it said · 102 of 102 words

Up ahead is Mountcharles, a village built on the side of a steep hill. From the top you get a fine view of the bay below, with the mountains piled up all around inland. At the foot of the town, on the shore of the bay, the Marquis of Conyngham has a handsome residence. In the neighbourhood are some important quarries yielding marble of excellent quality for building and other purposes. Beyond the village the road leads through a smiling countryside of well cultivated gardens and fields, with clean comfortable cottages forming a pleasing contrast to the wild surroundings recently left behind.

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 61 · source

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Burial, Hall Demesne

What it said · 157 of 157 words

Right here in the sand dunes at Hall Demesne in Donegal Bay, human bones were found eroding from the dune face in August 2017. An Garda Síochána was called, and they established the burial was ancient. The bones were sent to the National Museum, where examination showed they belonged to a young man, just 16 to 20 years old when he died, about 172 centimetres tall. His bones and teeth told a hard story. He had suffered nutritional deficiency and acute infection as a young child. His spine showed stress from heavy lifting and manual labour. He already had periodontal disease and heavy plaque on his teeth, pointing to a diet built mostly on carbohydrates. No grave structure was found, no artefacts, and the date of the burial remains unknown. Nearby, a possible midden shows in the dune section, and a hut site and cluster of cairns sit about 90 metres west in the same dune system.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG099-022---- · source

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Village of Glen beneath Binbane Mountain

What it said · 159 of 159 words

Close to Glen, the village sits beneath Binbane Mountain, whose slopes run down to the water of Glen Lough. The lough stretches over 2 miles long and about half a mile wide, with mountains sheltering it on every side — Crockmore and Lough Salt Mountain to the south, Cashel Mournan and Croagh Mountain to the west. It ranks among the very best sea-trout loughs in Donegal, holds decent salmon, and some fine brown trout. Guests at Rosapenna, about 5 miles away, were permitted to fish it free, with boats provided free as well. Boatmen cost about 3 shillings a day plus the man's refreshment. The Lackagh River, which carries the lough's water to the sea, sits halfway down the lough, so salmon bound for the Owencarrow River and Lough Veagh tended to gather in the upper end. Sea-trout preferred spawning in the several feeders, including the Glen River, which skirts Binbane Mountain and flows in just below the village.

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 33 · source

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Destruction of the Convent of Donegal by fire, 1601

What it said · 139 of 171 words

You're coming through Donegal now. In August 1601, the Franciscan friars here had warning of the enemy's approach, and most of the brethren fled by sea, carrying what relics they could save. Nial Garve and English auxiliaries seized the convent and turned it into a garrison packed with soldiers. Then fire, which some thought came from heaven, reached the gunpowder stored inside, and the blast destroyed the convent and the church, killing about 1,000 people. The friars scattered to the mountain districts, at least twelve of them, and some were sent to other convents. The next year, Oliver Lambert, governor of Connaught, took the sacred vessels within his reach, had the chalices turned into ordinary cups, and the vestments torn apart or burnt. Father Mooney was one of the last to leave the convent, and it was his account that recorded the whole loss.

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 65 · source

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Four Masters compile the Annals of Ireland at Donegal Abbey

What it said · 116 of 116 words

As the road brings you through Donegal, this town holds the remains of an abbey where one of the great works of Irish history was made. In the early days of 1632, the Four Masters came here bearing a rare collection of Irish manuscripts of many kinds and various dates. Ancient chronicles penned by the monks of the earlier centuries of the Christian Church, heroic poems and traditions of the legends of their race, written records of many a hero and many a saint, and perhaps examples of bardic poetry, had been brought together at the cost of great labour and much money, chiefly by Michael O'Clery himself, the leader and inspirer of the rest. Amid the roofless walls of the abbey, the faithful company reared a homely cottage differing little from those of the peasants around them. Summer and winter alike, amid storm and calm, they worked at their self-imposed task, pausing only to pray, sleep, eat and drink. By the middle of 1636, they had compiled perhaps the most valuable historical work of its kind in Europe. It was entitled "The Annals of Ireland," and is now generally known as "The Annals of the Four Masters." The compilation they made, in a manuscript of two parts, is one of the most prized possessions of the Royal Irish Academy, where it rests with many other memorials of the learning and piety of Ireland in the far past.

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 106 · source

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A story withheld pending rights review

From The Donegal wonder book (1926), a book whose rights review is not finished.

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Siege of Donegal

What it said · 112 of 112 words

Somewhere around here, Donegal was besieged from August to September 1601, during the Nine Years' War. Hugh Roe O'Donnell led a Gaelic Irish army against the town, whose garrison was a mix of English troops and allied Gaelic fighters under Niall Garve O'Donnell. A month of heavy fighting saw Donegal Abbey destroyed by an accidental gunpowder explosion. Hugh Roe suffered several repulses, then abandoned the siege and marched south to Munster, where a Spanish force had arrived to support the Irish, leading to the Battle of Kinsale. With him gone, Crown forces used Donegal as a base to capture Ballyshannon. Conn O'Donnell was killed during the siege, while fighting for the Crown.

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

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Donegal Friary

What it said · 149 of 149 words

Somewhere around here stand the ruins of Donegal Friary, a Franciscan priory built in 1474 by the Gaelic lord Hugh Roe O'Donnell, the First, and his wife Finola O'Brien. The O'Donnell dynasty, rulers of Tyrconnell, founded it as a center of Classical Christian education, and it kept that role even after it was destroyed. During the Nine Years' War, the friary hosted a meeting between the rebel leadership and envoys sent by King Philip II of Spain. Then in 1601, during the Siege of Donegal, Red Hugh O'Donnell tried to take the town from Crown forces led by Niall Garve O'Donnell, a rival of his own clan. Fighting swept through the abbey itself, and Niall Garve's younger brother Conn O'Donnell was killed in the fray. The friary is also the burial place of Hugh McManus O'Donnell, who died in 1600 after living among the Franciscans there for many years.

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

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Bishop's Cove and Bishop's Cave - a drowning and a fatal pit

What it said · 58 of 58 words

Somewhere around here in Coxtown you have Bishop's Cove, a modern name probably taken from some man called Bishop who drowned here. Close by is Bishop's Cave, a deep pit of the puffing-hole class, about forty perches inland from the cliff's edge. More than one life was lost there before a wall was built to fence it off.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Journal of the Waterford & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society (January-March, 1906) (vol. January-March, 1906) (1906), Waterford & South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society, Internet Archive journalofwaterf1906wate_1, Chapter 14 · source

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Hamilton Mausoleum

What it said · 124 of 124 words

Right here, beside the road, is the Hamilton Mausoleum at Mullanacross in Donegal. It is a freestanding family vault, erected about 1870, standing within the grounds of Drumhome Old Church graveyard and partially built into the side of a hill. A ruinous church stands adjacent to the east. This is one of a pair of family vaults in the graveyard. The other, to the south-east, belongs to the Thompson family. The Hamilton family was important in south Donegal during the 18th and 19th centuries. They had seats at St. Ernan's, Coxtown, and Brownhall during the 19th century. The Hamilton and Thompson families were related through marriage in 1830. The style and detailing of both vaults suggests they were erected at the same time and to designs by the same person or firm. The structure has coursed squared limestone walls with a chamfered cut stone stringcourse. The vaulted roof and sides are covered in vegetation. There is a raised squared and coursed stone parapet to the front with cut stone coping. The front elevation is well built using high quality stone masonry. The central door opening has a pointed arch head, giving the mausoleum what the record calls a muted Gothic Revival character, typical of mid 19th century religious architecture. The metal door has pierced floral motifs and raised lettering reading Hamilton. The record notes the doorway adds decorative interest to what it calls an appealing but understated structure.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (CC-BY 4.0), NIAH 40910327 · source

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French abandon cannon near Ballintra during hard pursuit

What it said · 42 of 42 words

Coming up to Ballintra in Donegal now. In 1798, General Lake crossed the river here, where the bridge had been repaired, pursuing the French so hard that they abandoned two pieces of cannon on the road about a mile from that point.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland, from the arrival of the English : also, a particular detail of that which broke out the XXIIId of May, MDCCXCVIII : with the history of the conspiracy which preceded it (vol. 2) (1802), Musgrave, Richard, 1745 or 1746-1818, Internet Archive memoirsofdiffere02musg, Chapter 105 · source

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Exquisite strand near Ballintra

What it said · 141 of 176 words

Coming up near Ballintra, there is a mile of strand that trends toward Donegal. At low tide you can get down on the sand and go along the water's edge, with nothing but blue sea between you and America. The strand has an end, a projecting point, and on the near side of that point a road runs up from the shore. To reach it you pass through sandhills full of pink cranesbill and blue and yellow pansies, and the other things that grow on sandhills. After about a mile that road settles into the ordinary run of roads, and from there it is three miles easy going to Ballintra itself. Beyond Ballintra you strike the main road, excellent and well-telegraphed, running through well-wooded country with lush grass and well-kept hedges, as prosperous-looking a district as you would see in Ireland. The writer notes that no part in the English Pale looks richer or trimmer, yet you are in purely Celtic Ireland, and reckons the O'Donnells knew what they were doing when they settled at Donegal.

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 29 · source

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Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Ballymagrorty Scotch

What it said · 167 of 167 words

Right here is a wedge tomb at Ballymagrorty Scotch, standing on level pasture among low drumlin hills. It is considerably ruined. No gallery structure is visible, though it may lie hidden under grass-grown fill. A row of six stones along the south side seems to be a line of outer walling, nearly 7 metres long, and three stones survive on the north side. Between the outer walls at the west end, two opposed jamb-like stones stand half a metre apart. The gallery, running west-north-west to east-south-east, appears to have been about 4 metres long. A low grass-grown mound, no more than half a metre high, survives beyond the north side and the east end. When Thomas Fagan visited in 1847, he recorded that barley-malting operations had been carried out at the site for a considerable period, and the eastern end had been dug out to a depth of 0.8 metres. 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), DG103-014---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Lurgan

What it said · 127 of 127 words

Right here at Lurgan in Donegal is a court tomb, standing on a slight knoll in pasture with a view of the sea to the west. What survives is the inner end of a court leading to a chamber that's now open at the back, all sitting on a grass-grown mound about 15 metres by 16 metres. A few stones are still in place: entrance jambs a metre high, two courtstones, and sidestones lining a chamber roughly 3 and a half metres long. There's a prostrate slab inside that seems to be a displaced lintel. The chamber narrows at its western end, which may mark where a larger gallery once continued. The tomb was recorded in the Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland for County Donegal.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG103-022---- · source

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Burial ground, Killinangel More

What it said · 41 of 41 words

Right here in Killinangel More, there was once a circular burial ground, marked on the second edition Ordnance Survey map. It no longer survives. It stood in cultivable land and appears to have been destroyed when the railway line was built.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG103-016---- · source

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Cucogry O'Clery's residence at Kilbarron Castle

What it said · 99 of 99 words

Somewhere around here stood Kilbarron Castle, where Cucogry O'Clery lived. He was one of three kinsmen Michael O'Clery took to his lonely hut to help compile a vast narrative, the work that became known as the Annals. Cucogry was a great scholar who took no part in politics. He lived quietly here, near Ballyshannon, pursuing his historical researches. But an English document described him as, in its words, a mere Irishman. His estate was forfeited to King James, and he was turned out to shift as best he could. He dragged out the last years of his life in great poverty till 1666. The passage notes the irony: James had promised to care for his Irish subjects, and was proud of tracing his ancestry to their ancient kings. Yet this was his method of fulfilling that promise. The author calls James the learned but slatternly first of the Stewarts, who sowed broadcast the seeds of a storm his ill-fated son would later reap. Under Michael O'Clery's guiding care, Cucogry and his fellow assistants worked for nearly four years and brought their efforts to an end in 1636.

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 107 · source

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Ritual site - holy well, Kilbarron

What it said · 48 of 48 words

Right here is the site of St. Barron's Holy Well, a former rag well that has since dried up and fallen out of use. In 1936 it was recorded as lying near the railway, a short distance from the old chapel and the ruins of St. Barron's Monastery.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG103-052---- · source

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Megalithic tomb - wedge tomb, Kilbarron

What it said · 102 of 102 words

Here at Kilbarron in Donegal is a wedge tomb, a Stone Age gallery built of large slabs. It has a portico and a main chamber divided by a septal-stone, with outer walling running along both sides. A few roofstones still cover part of the chamber, though one has slipped. Thomas Fagan visited the site in 1847 and noted that the displaced roofstone was then still in place, so it has shifted since his day. Beyond that, the tomb seems to have changed little. Someone once suggested there is megalithic art on one of the outer wall stones, but that cannot be confirmed.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG107-002---- · source

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Burial ground, Kildoney Glebe

What it said · 38 of 38 words

Right here at Kildoney Glebe in Donegal is a children's burial ground. There are low banks, ridges and hollows, and a small mound with several upright stones standing on it. A well lies just north of the complex.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG107-015---- · source

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English soldiers drowned retreating across Casan-na-gCumha ford

What it said · 135 of 327 words

Coming through Ballyshannon now. In 1597 an English army, four thousand strong, was retreating down the hill in companies, trying to cross a little-used and dangerous ford called Casan-na-gCumha, right above the waterfall. Many soldiers were swept down the fall and drowned. The ford got its name from this, meaning the path of the champions. The commander and officers managed to cross to the south bank of the river and retreat toward Sligo. O'Donnell, who had come to the rescue with soldiers from other parts of Tirconnell, crossed the river after them and pursued them for a considerable distance. English losses were not less than 600 killed, and they lost the greater part of their baggage and stores in their hurried flight. The odds against O'Donnell had been tremendous. The invading army was four thousand men, well armed and provisioned, while the castle garrison numbered only 80, commanded by a Scottish captain named Owen Crawford, six of whom were Spaniards and the rest Irish. O'Donnell had received a cargo of stores from Spain a couple of months before the siege, which he drew on for this emergency. After things settled, Cormac O'Clery, one of the monks of Assaroe, searched carefully and recovered the body of the Baron of Inchiquin, and his remains were buried with solemnity in the Monastery burial-ground. The friars of Donegal Abbey, hearing of this, contended that the body should be buried elsewhere.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ballyshannon Its History & Antiquities (1879), Joseph McGarrity Collection at Villanova University Digital Archives, Internet Archive BallyshannonItsHistoryAntiquitiesOpt, Chapter 16 · source

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Three-day cannonade of Ballyshannon castle fails

What it said · 112 of 356 words

The town of Ballyshannon lies ahead, where O'Donnell's castle once stood against an English assault in 1597. The army crossed the bar and landed supplies on the island of Inis-saraer. On Monday they brought cannon to the mainland and placed them before the castle. The troops marched from the abbey and took quarters on the summit of Mullaghnashee. Then they came down to the neighbourhood of the castle and commenced their cannonade, keeping it up without intermission until Wednesday. The Four Masters described it in their own words: thick flashes of fire and red shot from loud-roaring guns, and immensely large and heavy ordnance planted before the fortress, so that their resounding and echoing reports were heard in the vaults of the air, far and distant. The besiegers wore thick iron armour, polished helmets, and round broad-bucklers and shields of hard iron to protect against enemy shots. O'Donnell's soldiers gallantly defended the castle, pouring thick showers of shot down upon the enemy, and from the battlements throwing heavy stones, beams, and other missiles upon any foe who came under the walls. The good old fortress was proof against all their battering. After three days it stood as impregnable as ever. The besiegers, with great numerical strength and extensive stores, saw that all efforts were in vain. They turned their backs on the walls and retired to their camping ground on Mullaghnashee, receiving a parting salute of shot from the garrison as they went. They lost great numbers, and many more were badly wounded. A council of war was held on Mullaghnashee through the night, until break of day on Thursday, when they decided on a precipitate retreat.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ballyshannon Its History & Antiquities (1879), Joseph McGarrity Collection at Villanova University Digital Archives, Internet Archive BallyshannonItsHistoryAntiquitiesOpt, Chapter 16 · source

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Ballyshannon parliamentary election of 1701

What it said · 142 of 142 words

As you pass through Ballyshannon, you are in a town that once returned members to the Irish parliament. In April 1701, the high sheriff of County Donegal, Richard Bateson, issued a writ requiring the election of two burgesses to serve in parliament in Dublin. The provost and burgesses chose Thomas Conolly of Castletown, County Kildare, and Michael Clarke of Dublin. The ordinary inhabitants of the town had no say in the matter. Ballyshannon was a close borough, controlled by those who held the right to elect, and it continued returning members until it was disfranchised in 1800.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ballyshannon Its History & Antiquities (1879), Joseph McGarrity Collection at Villanova University Digital Archives, Internet Archive BallyshannonItsHistoryAntiquitiesOpt, Chapter 19 · source

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Castle - unclassified, Townparks (Ballyshannon Ed)

What it said · 153 of 294 words

Right beside the road here at Townparks in Ballyshannon stood an O'Donnell castle, built to guard the ford on the River Erne. The town and presumably the castle were burned in 1522 in a raid by O'Neill into Tyrconnell, and Red Hugh O'Donnell stopped here in 1592 on his way north after escaping from gaol. In 1597 Sir Conyers Clifford came north with a large force to subdue O'Donnell and besieged this castle. He stationed his troops and ordnance in Mullanshee Fort on a high hill opposite. For three days they bombarded the fortress, sending armoured soldiers with wall-razing engines to its base. The defenders poured down showers of fire from guns and muskets, along with rocks, stones, beams and timber from the battlements. Great numbers of Clifford's men were destroyed and the rest routed back to camp. Clifford was forced to quit the siege and lost many soldiers on his retreat southwards. Henry Docwra took the castle in 1602 during his campaign in the north. After the Nine Years War ended in 1603 and peace was made with O'Donnell, the Dublin Government retained Ballyshannon castle and fort together with 1,000 acres intended for a town. Sir Henry Ffolliot was entrusted with establishing it, and the borough was incorporated in 1613. Plantation records note that Lord Folliott was building a fair and strong castle there of lime and stone. By the mid-19th century the walls were level with the ground and scarcely traceable. In 1879, Allingham recorded that nothing remained but a portion of one wall, about 10 feet high and 5 feet thick, incorporated into a grain store and a butter shed. Long after the building was demolished, a quantity of human bones was discovered in a garden close to the castle walls.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG107-053002- · source

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Monks of Assaroe inter a slain O'Brien

What it said · 84 of 84 words

Right beside the road here at Assaroe is where the monks found the body of a slain descendant of Brian Boru. He had been hit in the plates of his armour by a ball and fell into the river. The monks of Assaroe took the body and buried it. But the Franciscan friars of Donegal insisted the O'Briens were always buried in their houses, and they appealed to have the body lifted and brought to them. Red Hugh O'Donnell gave the order, and it was done. So great was the contention for the bones of a descendant of Brian Boru. After that, Clifford crossed the Erne and marched down the right bank to Assaroe. On the same day a ship from Galway carrying ordnance for his support put into Inis-saimer, or Fish Island. The troops took up a position on Mullaghnashee, the hill where the parish church stands, and planted their guns there. One of the Four Masters may have seen it himself. He wrote that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they continued to fire, shooting at the castle with heavy loud-sounding fiery balls from the loud-roaring guns of that huge ordnance planted opposite the fortress. They sent large parties of their choicest soldiers with wall-razing engines, thick iron armour, bright shining helmets, and a testudo of round broad hard iron shields to protect them. But the attack was of no avail. From the castle poured down showers of brilliant fire from well-placed guns, costly muskets, rough-headed rocks, massive stones, beams and blocks of timber hurled from the battlements. The coverings of the razing party were no shelter. Great numbers were destroyed, others severely wounded, and they turned their backs and were routed to the camp.

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 23 · source

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Salt manufacture at Portnason and Milltown

What it said · 303 of 391 words

Somewhere around here, salt was once manufactured, both at Portnason and at Milltown. The salt water used in the process was brought from the Erne in large boats built for the purpose. It was no uncommon sight to see one of these lumbering craft towed, canal-fashion, to Portnason by a horse that walked or waded on the edge of the sands. The importation of English salt put an end to this local industry long ago. The weaver's loom and the housewife's spinning wheel, once so common in the neighbourhood, have become scarce. In a few years more, the spinning wheel, once regarded as a necessary piece of furniture in the country house, will be regarded as an antiquarian relic. In the early part of the present century a linen market existed here, and the weavers brought their webs to the market, which was presided over by an inspector and a stamper, both appointed by the Board of Trustees of the linen and hempen manufacturers. These officials were there to prevent frauds such as "fine laps," "short lengths," "thick selvages," and "uneven cloth." The market stamp was impressed on perfect pieces only, as the stampers had to allow compensation whenever their seal was found on defective pieces. In 1828 this Board was dissolved, and the trade appears to have dwindled away afterwards. More than twenty years ago a scheme was set on foot for the establishment of a spinning mill on a large scale at Laputu. A considerable sum was spent on the erection of a suitable building, but it was never completed, and the building has since been tenanted by rooks, who alone disturb the silence of this gloomy-looking structure.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ballyshannon Its History & Antiquities (1879), Joseph McGarrity Collection at Villanova University Digital Archives, Internet Archive BallyshannonItsHistoryAntiquitiesOpt, Chapter 39 · source

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Cromlech with urn of burnt bones in Finner Warren

What it said · 176 of 176 words

Somewhere around here in Finner Warren there are three cromlechs. One of them was unroofed some years ago and found to contain an urn full of burnt human bones. So someone was cremated and their remains placed there in a vessel, long before anyone thought to open the stone. In the same locality there is a stone circle and a chambered cairn. That cairn was discovered by labourers while they were building a wall in the warren. Inside this artificially constructed sepulchral cave were portions of several human skeletons. The teeth in some of the skulls were in good preservation. In this case there was no evidence of cremation having been used. This form of cairn burial is supposed to be of great antiquity. The earliest form of human habitation found in the district is the artificial cave or souterrain. As inhabitants increased in numbers, the woods could not give them the necessary shelter, and the construction of artificial caves, partly for hiding treasure and partly as dwelling places, naturally suggested itself.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ballyshannon Its History & Antiquities (1879), Joseph McGarrity Collection at Villanova University Digital Archives, Internet Archive BallyshannonItsHistoryAntiquitiesOpt, Chapter 40 · source

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Megalithic tomb - passage tomb, Finner

What it said · 98 of 98 words

Right here at Finner in Donegal are the remains of a cruciform passage tomb, with its end chamber and side chambers still exposed. In 1955 someone carried out unauthorised digging at the site and uncovered burnt and unburnt bone, reported by P.J. Hartnett of the National Museum in Dublin. Scholars later argued over whether a 'ruined cromleac' drawn by Wakeman in the 1870s and a 'rude cist' noted by Wood-Martin were the same monument, but it now appears the cromleac in the drawing is this tomb, while the cist was a separate court tomb in the same townland.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from National Monuments Service, Sites and Monuments Record (CC-BY 4.0), DG107-106---- · source

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Cholera plague of 1832 at Bundoran and Ballyshannon

What it said · 106 of 106 words

As you pass through Bundoran, this is where the cholera plague of 1832 first broke out. It was summer. The disease was supposed to have been carried here by a smack from Liverpool, which had called to take in salmon. From Bundoran it spread through Ballyshannon and the neighbourhood. Ballyshannon lost 93 people, with 152 recoveries. The mortality was small compared with many neighbouring towns, but the panic that prevailed gave a serious check to the trade of the town. By 1835 the exports were 10,704 quarters of oats, valued at 11,130, and imports amounted to 9,524.

Told by the narrator (z-ai/glm-5.2) from Ballyshannon Its History & Antiquities (1879), Joseph McGarrity Collection at Villanova University Digital Archives, Internet Archive BallyshannonItsHistoryAntiquitiesOpt, Chapter 39 · source

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Wild Atlantic Way 2/8 Donegal west: Dunfanaghy → Bundoran

The drive in numbers

How the narrator kept up

What it said, in order

The Dunfanaghy Workhouse and Famine Museum

Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Rinclevan

Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Greenhill (Dunfanaghy Ed)

Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Murroe

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Oirear Dhumhaí Beag

Penal Mass station, Baile Na Bó

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Ráith

Cloc-a-Neely — legendary bloody head stone at Ballyconnell House

Tory fishermen strand the Falcarragh doctor

Battering-ram for Gweedore evictions stalled near Falcarragh

Rural slums of Cloughaneely and the congested west

Clough-Kineely stone at Gortahork

Gap of Maum shepherds' house

Burial, Caoldroim íochtarach

Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Caoldroim íochtarach

Paddy M'Kye's 1837 Memorial on Gweedore Poverty

Lord George Hill's estate at Gweedore during famine

River Clady and Gweedore hotel fishing waters

watch tower, An Bun Beag [Bunbeg]

Parish priest of Annagary visits the Anglers' Inn

Ritual site - holy well, Sliabh Mhullach Dearg

Mullaghderg Signal Tower

Penal Mass station, Cionn Caslach

Rutland town built for herring fishery, later neglected

Burton Port: great fishing station for northern Donegal

Famine at Dunglow: no meal and starving mountaineers

Father Finlay opens co-operative factory, praises Dungloe's democratic industry

Dungloe's Ulster University summer college occupied by military

The Wise Woman of the Rosses and the Buried Black Cock

Ancient crystalline rocks at The Rosses

Lough Craghy — picturesque Tully Lough

Gweebarra River salmon fishing and sporting rights

Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Tuaim (Tc Leitir Mhic An Bhaird)

Ritual site - holy well, Mulnamin Beg

A Ghostly Village Like Maas Seen on Gweebarra Bay

Burial ground, Cashelgolan

Children's burial ground, Loughfad (Maas Ed)

A beetle's journey toward Naran

Portnoo emerging seaside resort

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Kilclooney More

Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Kilclooney More

St Connell's Bell Kept at Woodhill, Ardara by Major Nesbitt

Monthly cloth fair at Ardara

Megalithic tomb - unclassified, Ardara

Woman walker on Glengesh mountain

Ritual site - holy well, Leathchoill

Children's burial ground, Cionn Na Coilleadh

Squatter settlement on the Drum mountain common

Ritual site - holy well, An Clochán

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Fearann Mhic Giolla Bhríde

Finn MacCumhal's stag hunt to the Murlin River

Commander of the Wasp buried at Glencolumbkille

Demons driven from Croagh Patrick to Glencolumbkille

Lough Unna brown-trout and sea-trout water

Artists at Carrick beneath Slieve Liag

Carrick district cliffs among finest in British Isles

Slieve League cliffs and their cave

Mass-rock, Cill Chathasaigh

The Spaniard's Church on the road from Carrick to Kilcar

Kilcar townland still held in rundal farming

Kilcar village and its wild flowers

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Shalwy

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, Bavan

Megalithic tomb - court tomb, An Chruach Bheag

Burial ground, Shalwy

Burial ground, Kill (Largymore Ed)

Ritual site - holy well, Kill (Largymore Ed)

Spanish Armada wrecks on the Donegal coast

Spanish crews shelter at Killybegs under MacSwiney

Castle - unclassified, Killybegs

Spanish ambassadors received at Killybegs, 1598

Megalithic tomb - portal tomb, Gilbertstown

Children's burial ground, Aighan

The Oily River free fishing between Killybegs and Dunkineely

Bog Side of Derry, formerly impassable morass

McSwyne's Castle at Dunkineely