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5 July 2016

This morning produced wonderful weather and was supposed to be our first dry day of the trip.  Yesterday was rough on the children, so we wanted to make sure to give them some physical activity and something that they would enjoy.

We began with a bang at Doe Castle, since it was such a big hit last time.  I think we were the first visitors of the day (we arrived at 10:30 AM) and we really broke it in for the day’s other visitors.  Besides being a castle with a fair number of interesting features, one incredible thing is that there is no admission and a large car park for this castle.  The kids ran around for about an hour thoroughly enjoying every moment.  With the children occupied it was nice to be able to read the signs about the different areas of the castle.  Many other visitor’s came and went during our time there.  The castle was the seat of the Clan Suibhne when it was built and later was at the center of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (Oliver Cromwell, William & Mary etc).  Music fans might be interested to know that Brian McFadden of Westlife proposed to his wife here.   No matter how important it may be been, eventually we got pretty cool and needed a restroom, so we packed into the car and left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the Tourist Office in Letterkenny to use the restroom and ask directions to an artist that Sarah had seen advertised yesterday.  We then made our way to Grianán of Aileach.  The existing structure was built on the site of an existing earthen ring fort sometime between 500 BC and 500 AD, though many think it was probably built between 100 AD and 500 AD.  When Ptolemy of Alexandria made his map of Ireland in the 2nd Century, this is one of five sites that he included on the map.  It was the royal seat of the Ui Néill (King of Ulster) until about 1100.  These structures weren’t really forts (as they are not designed to withstand a proper attack), but were more like palaces and likely were intended as a way to protect against things like wild animals and fast-moving raiding parties.  Like Castle Doe, this really attractive site also has no admission charge and a nice car park.

We ate our picnic lunch in the car park (which has trash cans) and then went inside the cashel.  It has been restored and is very impressive siting on top of the hill.  Prior to renovation the walls were only 1.8 meters high (about 6 feet), so everything above that is a reconstruction.  Also, the fourth stairway likely was not there originally.   All of that said I do like the fact that it has been restored because it gives the visitor the WOW factor that was intended by its builders.  One of the main reasons to visit this site is that it impresses you in a way that the ruined stone forts fail to do.  I recommend a visit to the Staigue Fort on the Ring of Kerry in addition to this site as you can see a mostly intact structure that is the original design.   I don’t know if you can really see five counties from here or not, but the views are impressive in all directions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children thought it was amazing and climbed up every stair and walked on every inch of the walls.  After awhile (we outlasted everyone else there) we headed down to the Holy Well that is located behind the fort.  The well is dedicated to Saint Patrick as the Grianán is said to be where Prince Eoghan was converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick.  I was very interested in seeing it since I somehow had not seen it on my previous visit.  After the well, we let the kids have a few more minutes to run around inside the (now empty) cashel before getting back into the car.

On our way to our ultimate destination, the beach, we took a brief side trip to Ramelton in hopes of seeing Killydonnell Friary.  We only had some very vague directions and ended up in the town of Ramelton.  It is a really lovely town with what looked like a nice heritage walk, but that was not what we were looking for today.

I knew that Friary was about two kilometers southeast of town, but the road that went in that direction took us back to the Letterkenny Road.  At this point, I figured that I would just accept defeat and head to the beach.  Just as I had that thought, I saw a sign post for Killydonnell Friary!  We followed the road, but as often happens in Ireland, just as I thought we must have missed the Friary there was another signpost.  We parked in the small carpark at the end of the road and began investigating the monastery.

So, here is my attempt at a nice set of directions:
– From Letterkenny head north on the R245 (signposted for Ramalton)
– You will see a sign for the Silver Tassie Hotel, the next right turn is your road (Killydonnell Friary and the Castle Grove Hotel are signposted)
– if you reach the Silver Tassie Hotel, turn around; it was the turn just before the hotel
– After about 4 km you will see the signpost pictured on the right
– Keep driving and keep as sharp eye out for a signpost to the right (it is there but not incredibly obvious)

It is an interesting little site and I’m glad we wandered over here.  The friary was built by the O’Donnell’s who also built the friary in Donegal Town (both are Franciscan).  There appear to be three remaining buildings from the friary all in different states of ruin and completely filled with graves.  This is a very tranquil place and the vegetation growing on the buildings gives it a very special feeling.  Some of the graves were medieval, some were only a couple of years old.  One of them was for someone with the same name as my grandfather!  After a few minutes however, the cattle in the fields that surrounded the friary started to become very agitated so we decided to leave.

Once we were back in the car we started out for Marble Hill Strand Blue Flag Beach.  It didn’t take long for us to reach it and as were approaching the beach, we spotted (and stopped at) a public restroom just before the beach.  After our stop, we parked on the side of the road behind the other cars and walked to the beach.  It was large, sandy and gorgeous!  Across the road was a cafe serving coffee and ice cream.

The sun shining off the surrounding hills was quite a sight!  Both children went into the water, so I went in a little as well.  It was pretty cold, but they didn’t care.  We had to force them out of the water eventually because Liam was shivering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We piled back into the car and stopped by Big Bite in Doirí Beaga (Gaoth Dobhiar’s only Halal restaurant) for some take-away.  The pizza was okay, the fish and chips was a huge portion but didn’t have a ton of flavor however the Chicken Tikka was very good.

The views from the house this evening were wonderful.

Gaeilge Experience:  TV, Radio, the only person we interacted with in the Gaeltacht was not Irish.

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