Donegal Day deux

We started our day with a walk on Rathmullan Beach--working up an appetite for the massive spread that is a Rathmullan breakfast. Lovely cheeses and home made granola and stewed fruit and home made breads--plus the hot breakfast.


Rathmullan village with an ivy-covered ruin in the background.

We drove south through the picturesque town of Ramelton on the way to Milford, then north along Mulroy Bay, taking a wee road west over the mountain to the town of Glen. The mountain road is gorgeous, but windy. Probably half a dozen abandoned homesteads like this one.

My photos don’t do it justice at all. Mulroy Bay on one side then, once you get high enough (surrounded by peat bogs and rocky outcroppings), you see Muckish Mountain on the other side and the deep blue blanket of the Atlantic Ocean along the northern edge. After the village of Glen you head north to get a view of Doe Castle, which has a romantic-tragic Romeo and Juliet backstory.


From there to the picturesque village (redundant phrase) of Carrigart and then on to Downings, passing through the two Rossapenna golf courses on your left and right. While mom shopped in McNutts (gorgeous wools and linens), I ran around taking photos.

This cross, with Downings in the background, memorialises those lost at sea:

Near Fanad, the Laurentic sank, killing hundreds. Its gun was pulled from the depths:

From Downings I got serendipitously lost, taking the Atlantic Drive around the Rossguill Peninsula. The photos are hopelessly bad at capturing what we saw.



I’m using my phone at the point because the battery on my camera died.

A cross in Carrigart raised to the memory of the Earl of Leitrim by his grateful tenants.

We shopped in Carrigart for a bit then got back to Rathmullan in time for our 7 pm dinner reservation. Mom had her work cut out for her with a giant lobster caught nearby, while I enjoyed braised fennel, sautéed bok choi, artichokes, and warm potato salad.
After two days of driving around Donegal, I was pretty beat. Spare time is spent trying to upload photos from my phone via a very slow internet connection then downloading them onto my laptop. I find image management (from phone and computer card) difficult--like everything involving technology. I went for a late evening walk on Rathmullan beach and was treated to the sight of two riders galloping horses up and down the beach. This beach is often used for training race horses. It was strange to hear the heavy breathing and galloping hooves on what had 30 seconds before been a quiet beach.
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