This Was Donegal Town!

In March 2019, daughter Jill and I went on a ten-day tour of Ireland – three days in Dublin on our own and seven days on a guided tour of the Emerald Isle with CIE Tours International. Click HERE to read a short introduction to our memorable adventure.

In this story, which is part of a series, I have written about Donegal Town, the “largest little village in northwest Ireland,” where we savored a gourmet burger and explored popular landmarks.  

Donegal Town, Republic of Ireland (Monday, March 18, 2019) Jill and I have enjoyed every day of our tour – each filled with uniquely-Irish sights and attractions and lasting memories we will treasure. And so it was this day too, as we traveled from Galway to Derry.
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This morning, we stopped in the pilgrimage village of Knock, where we visited Ireland’s National Marian Shrine, and then called on Atlantic Sheepdogs Farm, in the coastal neighborhood of Streedagh, where we learned about the art of sheepherding. We were off to a great start, to be sure…and with hindsight, I can tell you that our day got better! 

If you’re venturing westward in Ireland, no visit would be complete
without a visit to Donegal Town, which has been occupied by humans
since prehistoric times. In this small Irish village, you’ll find the remains
of 15th-century Abbey and Donegal Castle right in the town’s center.
~ SmartTraveler.com

One of the reasons I loved the CIE tour was that Bryan, our driver and travel guide, was a fount of knowledge who freely shared information on each destination we visited – a bit of history, something about recent events, and/or a fun fact. (Bryan also sang Irish folk songs in a lilting voice and told jokes that were mostly corny - but I digress!) So, before we arrived in historic Donegal Town (pop. 2,700) – from here forward, I have referred to it simply as “Donegal” – I learned:

• Donegal sits at the mouth of the River Eske, which runs southwest from Lough (Lake) Eske to Donegal Bay. (Yes, a river runs through it!)
• The town’s Gaelic name was Dun na nGall (sometimes spelled Dunnagall), which meant “Fort of the Foreigners” – a possible reference to a Viking fortress in the area that was destroyed in the mid-12th century.
• Donegal was once the capital of the Gaelic kingdom of Tyrconnell, which was controlled by the O’Donnells, an Irish clan, from the 15th to 17th centuries.
• National Geographic Traveler named Donegal as the number 1 “coolest destination” in December 2016.

It was early afternoon when Bryan stopped the bus in front of the Abbey Hotel, located adjacent to a triangular mall known locally as “the Diamond.” The weather had improved a bit from this morning – the temperature was a mild 52 degrees and, although the sky was overcast, there was no rain. We had two and one-half hours of free time, which Jill and I put excellent use – we had a scrumptious lunch, explored a few prominent landmarks, and shopped for that all-important souvenir that said, “I was in Donegal!” 

Breakfast was a distant memory – we were reminded of this by the rumbling in our stomachs! – so lunch was the first order of business for Jill and me. We spotted a menu board, near the entrance to the hotel, for the Abbey Bar. The bill of fare included many classic dishes with an Irish bent, including Donegal Seafood Chowder, Killybegs Cod, and Shine’s Wild Irish Tuna Open Sandwich. They all sounded delicious, BUT it was the first entry under “Burgers” that grabbed our attention. The Ultimate Four Masters Burger was eight ounces of Irish beef topped with streaky bacon, Dubliner cheddar, Filligans fiery pepper relish, and tomato chili jam and gherkins. OMG! 

We quick-stepped it into the Abbey Bar, sat down, and soon placed our order – two burgers, two sides of fries (“crispy, please”), and two half-pints of Guinness. It was love at first bite and, when we were done, Jill and I rated this burger the best we ever had. 

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We stayed at the Ardilaun last night, a former country mansion in Galway that was reimagined (and developed) as a quaint hotel. It was surrounded by lovely gardens, and the one I fancied most was the enchanting fairy garden. After dinner, I sat there for a spell with one eye on the garden (to see if I could spot a fairy coming or going through one of the wee doors) as my other eye scanned the internet (to uncover the “top things to see” in Donegal). Truth be told, I succeeded in only one endeavor! 

I shared my list with Jill, and together we selected the three landmarks we saw this day – one on the Diamond and two nearby. We walked less than a mile as we made our way from one landmark to the next, and the first was just a two-minute walk from the Abbey Bar. 

The Gothic-style Church of Ireland was designed by William Graham, a local architect and builder. Constructed from cut stone, the church was completed in 1828 and consecrated in 1831. The gate to the church grounds was locked, so we were left to admire the architecture of the building. Jill and I LOVED the soaring tower with its many pinnacles and sharply tapered spire – perhaps the defining feature in Donegal’s proud skyline!

Next, we stopped at Donegal Castle, which was up the street and around the corner from the church. The castle was built by clan chief Hugh Roe O’Donnell near a bend in the River Eske “for defensive reasons, the river protecting it on two sides.” When the castle was completed in 1474, it was described as “the largest and strongest fortress in all Ireland.”  Perhaps so at the time, but it lay in ruins 200 years later. The castle and a three-story Jacobean wing that was added in the 17th century (the building jutting out to the left in the photo below) were partially restored in the 1990s. The photo at the right shows the rectangular keep – a fortified residence that was the “refuge of last resort” during a battle. Hmmm, I thought, a Middles Ages’ safe room. Pretty neat! 

Yet I hear them in my musings,
And I see them as I gaze,
Four meek men around the cresset,
With the scrolls of other days;
Four unwearied scribes who treasure
Every word and every line,
Saving every ancient sentence
As if writ by hands divine.
~From The Four Masters,
a poem by Thomas D’Arcy McGee

Jill and I backtracked from the castle to the Diamond, where we gazed at the Four Masters Memorial, a freestanding obelisk that commemorated four Franciscan monks – the “Four Masters” – who compiled the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, a written history of the Emerald Isle from 2242 B.C. to 1616 A.D. The 33-foot-tall memorial, unveiled in 1938, was designed by an architectural firm from Dublin and constructed from sandstone. As we walked around the obelisk, we read the names of the four monks, one name on each of the four sides – Michael O’Clery, Peregrine O’Clery, Peregrine Duigan, and Fearfeasa O’Mulconroy. This artistic memorial, which dominated the Diamond, was imposing!


(And “yes,” that burger we had for lunch was a clever ploy by the Abbey Bar to capitalize on these Irish historians.)  

Jill and I had a half-hour before we needed to reboard the bus for Derry – time enough to hunt for a souvenir as we wandered in and out of the many shops that lined the three streets along the Diamond. We admired the tweeds and knitwear in the Irish House - signature goods for this area of Ireland – but doubted we would get much use of woolen items at home in the desert clime of central Arizona. Instead, we opted for a couple of tried-and-true keepsakes we found in the Four Masters Bookshop – a T-shirt for me and a fridge magnet for Jill, both of which sported the town’s name. 

It was an hour-long drive to Derry – time enough for me to jot a few notes in my travel journal and reflect on our time in Donegal, a charming town with a rich history that felt Irish-traditional and authentic. I loved it!