A fairly short drive took us to Donegal City with plenty of time to visit a train museum and Donegal Castle to tour its reconstructed interior.
Aonghus (Aengus, Angus) - O'Donnal King, 1348 - 1352
Across the street we had an excellent supper at the Olde Castle Seafood Bar
Then we drove on to our favorite Donegal lodging, Errigal View Bed & Breakfast and Crafts, just below its namesake mountain. After our excellent breakfast the next morning, we drove under gray clouds to the starting point for a climb of Errigal, one of our trip goals. Our climb up to 2400 feet was steep and included some very handy stone steps. We pushed into the clouds until we reached the first peak – and that was as far as we wanted to go, although others were tackling the final ridge into thicker cloud.
Our descent out of the cloud was just as fraught as the climb up, but we appreciated leaving the mist above us.
From the slopes of Errigal we could see into the Poison Glen. After a brief tour of the Old Church at Dunlewey, we ventured as far into the Glen as the boggy track allowed us.
The remains of a road into the Poison Glen took us this close to Split Rock, also called Balor's Rock, in the middle distance
We visited Glenveigh National Park where my grandparents had been guests and my father and uncle had stalked the wild deer in the 1920's. The gardens are extensive. I was intrigued by the 5-foot tall Gortahork Cabbage, clearly more ornamental than edible. We continued walking up the valley to view the Asteleen Burn Waterfall before returning to a final view of Errigal from our B&B.
View into Glenveigh National Park
From the Castle gate we walked into the garden and found the ornamental cabbage
The Gortahork Cabbage makes an impressive yellow wall across the garden
Asteleen Burn Waterfall was as far as we walked into Glenveigh National Park
From Errigal View B&B, our summit climb appeard very impressive
On our drive into Northern Ireland, we stopped at Ards Forest Park where the succession of isolated coves and headlands reminded me of Point Lobos.
And our final stop in Donegal before crossing the Northern Ireland Border was Doe Castle at the end of a long narrow lane. It has been seriously renovated and no longer allows precipitous clambering along the high walls or crouched crawling through the sally gate as I remember doing in 1956.
Safety prohibitions at the entrance to Doe Castle are augmented with slip-proof steel gratings
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