Donegal

I recently wrote about Donegal for a feature called 'My Neck of the Woods' for the Society of Indexer's newsletter.

Read more if you want to find out more about Donegal town.

I live in the northwest of Ireland, two miles outside Donegal town, in County Donegal. The town has a population of around 3,000 inhabitants. County Donegal lies along the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) which is a tourism trail that stretches for 1,500 miles along the west coast of Ireland from the Inishowen Peninsula in north County Donegal all the way south to Kinsale, County Cork.

Donegal town is 250 miles from Cork, 112 miles from Belfast and 138 miles from Dublin. The town is situated at the estuary of the river Eske where it flows into Donegal Bay. Donegal is surrounded by the Bluestack Mountains, which form a barrier between the south and north of Co. Donegal.

If you look for Co. Donegal in a map of Ireland, you could get the impression that it is in Northern Ireland because geographically it is in the north and it looks cut off from the rest of the Republic of Ireland. However, politically Co. Donegal is in the Republic.

County Donegal borders three Northern Ireland counties (Derry/Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh) and just one county (Leitrim) in the Republic.

County Donegal has two names in Irish (Gaeilge/Gaelic). One is Dún na nGall which means the fort of the foreigner/stranger. It is believed that the name originated from when Donegal was invaded by the Vikings in the 8th century. The second name is Tír Chonaill which means Conall’s land or territory. Conall (Conall Gulban) was a son of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

Let me take you on a tour and point out relics which remind me of the history of Donegal. We start at the north of the town, at the entrance block of the workhouse, built 1841–1842, which is now part of the Donegal Community Hospital. In the 1970s most of the workhouse was demolished and a new hospital was built which now has mainly elderly patients. Nearby is the Famine Graveyard where victims of the Great Famine (1845–1852) were buried in unmarked graves. On display is a famine pot which was used to feed gruel to the starving people.

On our way into the town, we leave the Main Street and cross the river Eske. On the right is Magee’s factory, which was founded in 1866 and designs and weaves tweed. It sells luxurious fabrics and suits worldwide, with prices outside this indexer’s budget. Further along is the Railway Heritage Museum, which has videos and artefacts for train and history enthusiasts. The narrow-gauge railway in Donegal Town ran between 16 September 1889 and 1 January 1960. County Donegal now has no train services; the nearest train station is in Sligo or Derry. The site of the railway station is used as a bus depot.

Heading towards the town centre, on our right we pass Hanna Hats of Donegal, which designs and makes tweed hats. We cross the river Eske again along a different bridge.

On the right is Donegal Castle, which was built by Sir Hugh O’Donnell in 1474. In 1607, the O’Donnell clan leaders left Ireland to go to Spain, during the Flight of the Earls, and burned the castle to prevent it from falling into English hands. However, in 1611 the castle and its land were granted to an English Army captain, Basil Brooke, during the Plantation of Ulster. He restored the castle and added a manor house to the side of the original castle. In 1612 Donegal was granted a royal charter and it developed as a market town. The Brooke family sold the castle to the Gore family. In the early 18th century, the castle fell into ruins, and in 1898 it passed into the care of the Office of Public Works (OPW). The OPW restored the tower house part of the castle in the 1990s. It is now open to the public and attracts thousands of visitors each year. There are occasional cultural events held there. Prince Charles (as he then was) and his wife Camilla visited the castle on 25 May 2016 as part of their visit to Ireland. The castle is on the edge of the town centre, which is called the ‘Diamond’, where I grew up. It has three streets arranged into a triangular shape with access roads to the south, west and north. Markets or fairs were held on the Diamond until the 1950s. Nowadays, it is a pedestrian area with seating, trees and flowers. On the Diamond is a twenty-five-foot tall monument (obelisk) to the ‘Four Masters’ who wrote the Annals of the Four Masters (or the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland), which is a history of Ireland from the Great Flood up to AD 1616. The monument was erected in 1934 and is made from Mountcharles sandstone. Mountcharles is a village about four miles from Donegal town.

A two-minute walk from the Diamond on the quay/pier area, there is an anchor and chain on display. These belonged to the frigate Romaine which was part of Napoleon’s failed attempt to aid the Irish in the 1798 rebellion. The ship was sheltering in Donegal Bay when it was spotted by the English forces. It cut loose its anchor and fled.

Along the pier area there is the ‘Waterbus’, which provides a 75-minute guided tour of Donegal Bay. Passengers get to view Donegal town from a different perspective, and they might even see seals. The times of the tours depend on the tide and weather conditions.

On Donegal Bay, you might spot people training in skiff boats and dragon boats (long boats with a helm at the stern to steer and sometimes a drummer at the bow for the paddlers to keep in time; there can be up to 16 paddlers). I used to go out paddling with the dragons on Donegal Bay pre-Covid and I am looking forward to rejoining this year. It was a great way to meet people and unwind after a day of indexing.

Nearby, on the big pier, there is a life-size bronze sculpture of the chieftain Red Hugh O’Donnell. It was erected in 2007 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the ‘Flight of the Earls’. On the left of the big pier are the ruins of Donegal Abbey, which overlook Donegal Bay. The abbey was built by the O’Donnell clan in 1474. The Annals of the Four Masters were written in the Abbey and it is believed that Red Hugh O’Donnell is buried there. It was used as a cemetery for generations, and it is the final resting place for my grandparents and great-grandparents.

There is a nature walk, known locally as the ‘Bank Walk’, along the other side of the bay. It is a good place to spot wildlife, birds, butterflies, trees, fairy doors.

Donegal is ideal for hill-walkers as there are numerous walks around and you can be in the wilderness in a matter of minutes. There is a way-marked trail called the Bluestack Way, which takes you from Donegal town to Ardara over bog roads, moorlands and public roads. The Bluestack Way has links with the Appalachian Trail and the Ulster Way, which passes through the Sperrin Mountains, the Causeway Coast, Glens of Antrim and ends in Larne, Co. Antrim.

The cool rainy weather does not deter people visiting Donegal. The National Geographic Traveller on 1 December 2016 named Donegal as the number one coolest destination of 2017. Famous people who frequent the north-west include Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick. Pierce Brosnan along with Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter have been in Donegal recently filming The Four Letters of Love, based on the novel by Niall Williams.

Donegal town has a link with World War Two when a plane crashed in the Bluestack Mountains. On 31 January 1944 an RAF Sunderland flying boat DW110 was returning after its German U-Boat patrols off the coast of France, when it lost its way in stormy weather and crashed in the highest mountains. Seven crew were killed and five survived. The plane was on its way back to Pembroke Dock, south Wales, but it was diverted to Castle Archdale in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland. Recently, a grandson of one of the survivors (Jim Gilchrist), along with a group of walkers, climbed up to the crash site for the anniversary.

Donegal is a very peaceful place to live or visit with a slower pace of life than in cities. Donegal isn’t as easy to access as Kerry and the Lakes of Killarney but the scenery in Donegal is just as good as there and is well worth travelling the extra few miles.

For anyone writing a book which needs a proofread or an index, hire a professional from AFEPI (Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers of Ireland) , the Society of Indexers, or CIEP (Charter Institute of Editing and Proofreading) to lighten your load!