Things to do in County Donegal

Donegal Castle is situated in the North West of Ireland. It dominates the centre of the town and sits on a rocky outcrop on the bend of the River Eske near the mouth of Donegal Bay. For the past two centuries most of Donegal Castle lay in ruins but in the late 1990's the tower house was totally restored leaving the remaining wings as ruins. A boundary wall with a small gatehouse built in the 17th century surrounds the limestone and sandstone castle, the 15th century rectangular keep and a later Jacobean style wing. Facilities Guided tours take you around the rooms inside the castle. The tours show the different styles and periods of its previous owners including Persian rugs and French tapestries. The remainder of the castle can be seen without a guide. The castle is open to the public throughout the year. During Spring/Summer opening hours are 10:00 - 18:00 daily and during the Autumn/Winter between 09:30 - 16:30 The castle was built as a stronghold by Sir Hugh O'Donnell in 1474 for the O'Donnell clan who were one of the most powerful families in Ireland from the 5th to the 16th centuries and loyal subject of Queen Elizabeth I until the Nine Years War. The O'Donnells left Ireland in 1607 to in the 'Flight of the Earls', but before they left they tried to destroy the castle to prevent it being used by the English against other Gaelic clans. Captain Basil Brooke was granted the castle and its land in 1611 and quickly restored and improved it. He made additions in a Jacobean style adding a large manor house wing in the keep, a gable, additional windows and a fortified tower. The castle stayed in the Brooke family for generations until it fell into disrepair in the 18th century after Cromwell's invasion. In 1898 the castle was handed over to the Office of Private Works by its owner the Earl of Arran. The Arts The castle hosts events including Gaelic cultural evenings.

Lough Eske Castle estate is set on the shores of Lough Eske at the base of the Bluestack Mountains in south west Donegal. It is 31 miles from Donegal in the North West of the country. The Elizabethan sandstone castle sits in sweeping gardens; containing old and modern statues, and then continues out into wooded estate of ancient trees covering over 43 acres. Built over three floors, Lough Eske Castle has a castellated tower and entrance with outbuildings to the rear. Facilities The castle has been fully restored and is now the only 5 star hotel and spa in Donegal. The hotel has 96 individually commissioned bedrooms and suites, with works of art and fine furniture; some rooms including four poster beds. The guest rooms are located in the main castle, garden wing and the converted stables. The castle suites even have a private access to the tower. The Cedars restaurant serves contemporary, seasonal, locally inspired food. The spa is located on the site of the original glass house with treatment rooms, pool, steam rooms and sauna. The fitness suite offers guests state of the art gym equipment and personal trainers to give advice. The hotel offers wedding packages and can cater for up to 220 guests in the large ballroom. Packages can include a spa day for the bride and her bridesmaids, whilst the groom's party has the option of golf and fishing on the nearby lake. The first castle on the site was built around 1474. Scottish settlers were responsible for the first manor house constructed at the side of the Lough in 1621. During the early 19th century the manor was owned by the Brooke family and an architect employed to completely redesign the property, work was completed in 1868 and was then known as Lough Eske Castle. At the end of the century the castle was sold and became a guest house and by the mid 20th century was in ruins but in 2007 was renovated and opened as a hotel.

Glenveagh National Park covers more than 16,000 hectares of wild mountains, blanket bogs, rivers and woodland in the heart of County Donegal, making it Ireland's second largest national park. The park takes its name from the Irish Gleann Bheatha, meaning Glen of the Birches, and the landscape lives up to that wild poetry at every turn. Its remote location within the Derryveagh Mountains, combined with Donegal's famously dramatic weather, creates a Highland atmosphere that feels genuinely untouched by the modern world. The parkland includes the two highest peaks in Donegal, Errigal and Slieve Snacht, as well as the dramatically named Poisoned Glen, a glacially carved valley shadowed by quartzite cliffs. Glaciation shaped almost every feature of this landscape over thousands of years, and the resulting terrain of steep glens, lakeshore cliffs and exposed moorland remains one of the most rewarding mountain environments in the country for serious hillwalkers. At the heart of the park stands Glenveagh Castle, a castellated granite mansion built between 1867 and 1873 by Captain John George Adair in the style of a Scottish Baronial highland retreat. Adair's story is one of the more troubling in the history of the park. In 1861 he evicted 244 tenants from their smallholdings on his land during what became known as the Derryveagh Evictions, clearing the hillsides to improve the view from his new estate. The castle passed through several hands and was eventually donated to the Irish state in 1979 by American owner Henry McIlhenny, who had used it as a glamorous retreat and reportedly hosted guests including Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo. Today, self-guided tours of the castle allow visitors to see its luxuriously furnished rooms and learn about this complex history. The gardens surrounding the castle were originally developed by Cornelia Adair, John's widow, and later refined by McIlhenny into one of Ireland's most remarkable horticultural collections. Exotic plants from around the world thrive in the shelter of the valley, contrasting dramatically with the rugged moorland beyond the garden walls. The walled garden, the Italian terrace garden and the Belgian walk all provide seasonal highlights throughout the year. Wildlife is one of Glenveagh's greatest draws. The park is home to Ireland's largest herd of red deer, which can sometimes be spotted grazing in open clearings particularly during the autumn rutting season. Golden eagles were successfully reintroduced to the park beginning in 2000, reversing a local extinction that had lasted nearly a century. Patient birdwatchers may also spot peregrine falcons, red-throated divers and a range of moorland species. The park's visitor centre near the main car park contains free exhibitions about the park's history, wildlife and conservation programmes. A shuttle bus service runs between the visitor centre and the castle, or visitors can walk the scenic 3.5-kilometre lakeshore trail along Lough Veagh, one of the most beautiful walks in Ireland. The park is open year-round with free access to the grounds; castle tours carry a modest admission fee.

The Slieve League cliffs on the south Donegal coast of Ireland are among the highest sea cliffs in Europe, a great wall of quartzite and sandstone rising nearly 600 metres from the Atlantic Ocean in a cliff face of extraordinary scale and drama that dwarfs the more famous Cliffs of Moher and provides one of the most awe-inspiring natural spectacles on the Irish coast. The cliffs are accessible from the car park at Bunglass on the Slieve League peninsula and a dramatic coastal walk along the ridge above the cliff edge provides progressively expanding views of the full extent of the cliffs. The One Man's Pass, a narrow ridge with steep drops on both sides between Bunglass and the main summit of Slieve League, provides the most direct approach to the full height of the cliff face, its name reflecting the width at the narrowest section where two people cannot pass side by side. The exposure on both sides of this ridge, with the cliff edge to the south and steep ground to the north, gives it a genuinely vertiginous character that requires head for heights and appropriate footwear. Those who complete the crossing are rewarded with the finest possible perspective on the cliff face and the Atlantic below. The Donegal landscape surrounding Slieve League is one of the most unspoiled in Ireland, the combination of the mountain peninsula, the small fishing harbours of the south Donegal coast and the wild Atlantic Drive that traverses this section of the county creating a scenic touring experience of considerable quality. The evening light on the cliff face, particularly in the long summer evenings of northwest Ireland when the sun sets over the Atlantic horizon, creates a colour display on the quartzite rock that rewards any delay in returning to the car park.

Northburgh Castle is set on a rocky platform near the mouth of Lough Foyle and the village of Greencastle overlooking Magilligan Strand. It is 25 miles north of Londonderry on the northern tip of Ireland. The original castle was considered particularly great due to its scale, intricate towers and gatehouse. Unfortunately the sandstone castle was very badly damaged by cannon fire and very little remains of the original building apart from parts of the curtain wall and the remains of a small Norman church. One of the best views to really appreciate what the castle was like is that from the shore of the Lough. Facilities Northburgh Castle is open 10am until 6pm in July and August when guided tours are also available but closed on Mondays and Fridays. Northburgh Castle is the Anglo-Norman name for the castle which is also called Greencastle, built in 1305 by Richard de Burgo or the Red Earl of Ulster as he was known. The site was chosen so as to have control over Lough Foyle and in particular to control the O'Neill and O'Donnell clans. Robert Bruce captured the castle in 1316 on behalf of the Scots only to lose it again. In 1328 the Earl's grandson William had the title of Earl and immediately arranged for Walter de Burgh of Connacht; his distant cousin, to be arrested and brought to Northburgh where he slowly starved him the death. During this time William's sister was also found dead on the rocky shore underneath the battlements and it is believed that she was fell to her death; either by accident or not, after trying to bring food to Walter. William was subsequently murdered by Walter's family in 1333. His death brought an end to the de Burgo's in Ireland as the remaining family was forced to flee to England. After their departure the castle was controlled by the dependents of the O'Donnell clan, the O'Doherty family. During conflicts with the Scots and within the family itself the castle was suffered considerable damage by cannon fire and eventually was left in ruins after the small garrison left the castle at the beginning of the 17th century.

Glenveagh Castle is located 15 miles north west of Letterkenny in the Glenveagh National Park. The park covers 16,000 acres in the Derryveach mountain range on the shores of Lough Veagh. The castle site consists of a 19th Century Scottish baronial mansion house built of granite with a four storey keep. It is surrounded by gardens which reach out to the wooded hillside beyond with its own herd of red deer. Facilities There are two main attractions for visitors to Glenveagh Castle. The first being the way in which the castle is furnished. The last owner Henry McIlhenny was the Curator of Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum. He furnished each of the rooms with very different characters, some in the period of the castle, others from different periods. The second attraction are the gardens. The gardens were also designed by Henry McIlhenny and developed from 1937 until 1983. The gardens hold a collection of plants from all over the world which were planted under the advice of leading landscape artists James Russell and Lanning Roper. There is an 18 stop garden tour showing some of the most beautiful parts. The gardens are especially spectacular for the rhododendrons in May and June and the walled garden in August. The rooms of the castle can be visited with a guide between Mid March and Early November, 10am to 6pm. The castle also has its own tearooms. The first part of Glenveagh Castle was built in 1867 with additions being made until 1885 by Captain John Adair. He was married in 1869 and along with his wife tried to create a castle and gardens to better those belonging to Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle. During that time Adair was also responsible for evicting 224 tenants from his land, a job which involved 200 police officers, the local magistrate and the sub sheriff. Many of those evicted went to the work house in Letterkenny and some were helped to emigrate to Australia by the Donegal Relief Fund and were settled in Sydney. Henry Plumer McIlhenny from Philadelphia purchased the estate in 1937 and had plenty of interesting guests amongst them Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe. He finally left the castle and gardens to the nation in 1981 and now it is in the care of the Office of Public Works.

Carrickabraghy Castle stands on a rocky promontory at the far northwestern tip of the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, perched dramatically above the Atlantic Ocean on Doagh Island — a tidal island connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. It is one of the most romantically situated tower house ruins in all of Ireland, commanding sweeping views across Lough Swilly to the east and the open Atlantic to the north and west. The castle's extreme remoteness, combined with its raw coastal setting, makes it a genuinely memorable destination for those who make the effort to seek it out, offering something that polished heritage sites rarely can: the feeling of standing entirely alone with history on the edge of the world. The castle dates from the early sixteenth century and is believed to have been built by the MacFadden family, a local Gaelic clan who held territory in this corner of Inishowen. It subsequently came under the control of the O'Doherty family, who were the dominant Gaelic lords of the Inishowen Peninsula during the medieval period. The O'Dohertys were a powerful dynasty with close ties to the wider Ulster Gaelic order, and Carrickabraghy formed part of their network of coastal strongholds. The castle's history is inseparable from the turbulent events of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in Ulster, a period that culminated in the Flight of the Earls in 1607, when the great Gaelic lords of Ulster abandoned Ireland following the failure of their rebellion against English crown authority. The subsequent Plantation of Ulster transformed the entire social and political landscape of the region, and Carrickabraghy, like so many Gaelic strongholds, fell into disuse and gradual ruin in the decades that followed. Physically, what remains today is a substantial but roofless tower house, its thick stone walls rising to varying heights above the wave-worn rocks on which it sits. The masonry is rough and dark, typical of the uncut local stone used in vernacular defensive architecture of the period, and the walls have been significantly weathered by centuries of Atlantic exposure. Lichen covers much of the stonework in shades of grey, orange and pale green, and the whole structure has the appearance of something that has grown organically from the rock beneath it rather than having been built upon it. Visiting in person, one is struck immediately by the sound of the sea — waves breaking against the rocks below are ever-present, and on windy days the noise is considerable, the wind driving in off the ocean with real force. The isolation is profound, and even in summer there is rarely any crowd. The landscape surrounding the castle is extraordinarily beautiful and distinctly wild. Doagh Island itself is a low-lying peninsula of rough grass, bog and sandy shore, and the castle sits at its northwestern extremity where the land gives way entirely to the sea. Looking north and west there is nothing between this point and the coasts of Scotland and beyond. To the east, Lough Swilly stretches southward toward Letterkenny, its waters frequently shifting between deep blue and grey depending on the weather. The Malin Head area, Ireland's most northerly point, is only a short distance away, and the entire Inishowen Peninsula offers some of the most dramatic and least visited scenery in Ireland. The nearby village of Doagh has a well-regarded famine village attraction that tells the story of local rural life and the Great Famine, which adds additional context for visitors interested in the deeper human history of the area. Reaching Carrickabraghy requires navigating the roads of the Inishowen Peninsula, which are narrow and occasionally poorly signed but manageable with a reasonable road map or GPS. From Carndonagh, the main town of the northern Inishowen area, the drive takes approximately twenty to thirty minutes via Ballyliffin and then northwest along the coast road toward Doagh Island. The causeway crossing to Doagh Island is straightforward, and from there a rough track or roadway leads toward the castle site. There is no formal visitor infrastructure — no car park, no ticket booth, no interpretive panels — and the castle is accessible freely as a ruin on the landscape. This makes it best suited to independent travellers comfortable with some degree of self-guided exploration. The summer months from May to September offer the most reliably accessible conditions, though the castle in autumn or winter, with low light and heavy seas, has a bleakness that is its own reward for those prepared for the elements. Stout footwear is advisable as the ground around the castle can be wet and uneven. One of the more unusual aspects of Carrickabraghy is just how thoroughly it has been bypassed by mainstream heritage tourism. Despite being a genuine medieval tower house in a spectacular setting, it appears in relatively few guidebooks and attracts a fraction of the visitors that comparable ruins elsewhere in Ireland receive. This invisibility is partly a function of its location — the Inishowen Peninsula, though physically part of the Republic of Ireland, occupies an awkward geography between Derry and Donegal that many visitors simply never reach — and partly because the castle has no dedicated management, signage or interpretation. For those who do find it, however, this is precisely the appeal. The experience of Carrickabraghy is unmediated, quiet and genuinely atmospheric in a way that is increasingly difficult to find at Irish heritage sites. It rewards slow, attentive visiting, and the combination of its historical depth and extraordinary natural setting makes it one of the more quietly unforgettable places on the Irish Atlantic coast.

Wardtown Castle is a tower house ruin situated in County Donegal in the northwest of the Republic of Ireland, standing close to the small town of Ballyshannon and the broader landscape of south Donegal near the border with County Fermanagh. Tower houses of this type are a characteristic feature of the Irish medieval landscape, built predominantly between the 14th and 17th centuries by Gaelic Irish lords and Anglo-Norman settlers as fortified residences that combined defensive function with the social prestige of a lordly seat. Wardtown Castle represents this tradition in a region that was historically contested and heavily shaped by the competing powers of Gaelic Ulster and successive waves of English colonial administration. Though modest in scale compared to some of the great castles of the Irish midlands or the south, it carries real historical weight as a marker of the turbulent human geography of this corner of Donegal. The castle is associated with the broader history of the Donegal region during the medieval and early modern periods, a time when south Donegal was deeply entangled in the struggles of the O'Donnell dynasty, who were the great Gaelic lords of Tír Conaill — the ancient name for what is essentially modern Donegal. The area around Ballyshannon was of particular strategic importance because the Erne estuary provided both a natural defensive boundary and a key route into the heart of Ulster. The plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century, following the Flight of the Earls in 1607, saw the displacement of native Gaelic landowners and the introduction of settler families, and it is within this context of plantation-era fortification and land redistribution that many tower houses like Wardtown were either built, repurposed, or fell into decline. The precise origins and ownership history of Wardtown Castle are not extensively documented in widely available sources, which is itself not unusual for smaller tower houses in rural Ireland. Physically, Wardtown Castle presents as the kind of weathered stone remnant that characterises the Irish rural landscape — a structure that has been worn down by centuries of Atlantic weather, agricultural change, and the quiet attrition of neglect. Tower houses in this region were typically built of local stone, rising to several storeys with thick walls designed to resist attack, narrow windows to limit exposure, and a simple internal arrangement of vaulted ground floors giving way to upper residential chambers. In ruins, these structures take on a particular atmospheric quality: the stonework becomes colonised by moss, ivy, and the small flowering plants that find purchase in mortar joints, and the broken parapets frame views of sky and landscape in ways that feel almost theatrical. Standing near such a structure, the dominant sounds are likely to be those of the surrounding countryside — wind moving through grass and hedgerows, birdsong, and the distant sound of farm machinery or livestock. The landscape around Wardtown at these coordinates is quintessential south Donegal: gently rolling agricultural land intersected by hedgerows and small lanes, with the broader drama of the Donegal highlands visible to the north and west, and the Erne river system shaping the terrain to the east as it approaches Ballyshannon and its outflow into Donegal Bay. Ballyshannon itself is one of the oldest towns in Ireland, sitting just a few kilometres from the castle site, and it offers a full range of visitor amenities as well as its own layers of history, including the remains of earlier fortifications and the birthplace of the poet William Allingham. The coastline of Donegal Bay is within easy reach, with the seaside town of Bundoran lying just a short drive to the south, popular for its surf beaches. The Belleek pottery village and the shores of Lower Lough Erne lie close by to the east across the border into Northern Ireland. For visitors, reaching Wardtown Castle involves navigating the network of rural roads in south Donegal, and the site is the kind of place that rewards those willing to explore beyond the obvious tourist routes. Access to many such tower house ruins in Ireland is informal, often across or adjacent to farmland, and it is always advisable to be respectful of private land, to close any gates encountered, and to enquire locally if the right of way is unclear. There is no formal visitor infrastructure at a site of this nature — no car park, interpretive panels, or staffed entry — so visits are self-directed and require a degree of initiative. The best times to visit are during the longer days of late spring and summer, when the light in Donegal is remarkable, lasting well into the evening, and when the surrounding landscape is at its most vivid. Autumn also offers beautiful conditions, with low golden light and the colours of the hedgerows and hillsides. One of the quietly compelling aspects of visiting a place like Wardtown Castle is precisely the absence of mediation — there are no queues, no audio guides, no gift shop. The ruin simply exists in its field or roadside setting, as it has for centuries, accumulating the slow textures of time. This part of Donegal, so close to the border and shaped by the overlapping legacies of Gaelic Ireland, plantation, and the complex modern history of partition, carries a particular depth of historical resonance that a small tower house can embody in a concentrated way. For those with an interest in the archaeology and built heritage of Ireland, south Donegal contains numerous such sites that together form a rich if underappreciated layer of the national landscape. Wardtown Castle is a representative and atmospheric example of this heritage, best appreciated as part of a wider exploration of one of Ireland's most scenically and historically rewarding counties.

Doe Castle is located on a rock about 1 mile from the Carrigart to Creeslough road. The castle is on an inlet of Sheephaven Bay protected by sea on three sides, and by a moat cut into the rock on the landward side. Doe Castle is a a fairly well preserved ruin. This impressive fortified castle has a central tower, battlements and a defensive wall enclosing a courtyard. The central tower is reminiscent of a Scottish tower house, and is 50 feet high, with a large room on each of the four levels. The tower walls are about 8 feet thick. There is a dungeon on the third level with a single narrow window in the stone wall, and a single 4 foot high doorway with a pointed arch. The dungeon doorway opens into a winding stairway inside the castle wall to the fourth floor above. The great hall is about 35 feet long by 18 feet wide. There is a well shaft in the south west of the castle courtyard that has dried up. Doe Castle was built in the 16th century and was a stronghold of Clan Suibhne (MacSweeney). Owen Roe O'Neill led the Irish Confederates from Doe Castle in 1642 in the Wars of the three kingdoms. During the 17th century, the castle changed hands a number of times, and was taken by the English hands. General George Vaughan Harte repaired the castle at the end of the 18th century and made his home there until 1864. The generals initials can still be seen over the door. The last occupant was a Church of Ireland minister, and after his departure the castle fell into disrepair. In 1922, Stewart-bam of Ards, sold the castle to the Irish Land Commission. The castle is now a National Monument. The Arts Irish singer Brian McFadden proposed to Kerry Katona (now his ex-wife) at Doe Castle in 2001. This was where his grandfather proposed to his grandmother.

Grianan of Aileach is situated on a hill top near the town of Burt, some 11km west of Derry in County Donegal overlooking Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly. Grianan of Aileach is a stone ring fort surrounded by earthworks on the top of Greenan Mountain, some 244 metres high. The fort has an internal diameter of 23.4m, and has a massive stone wall almost 4m thick. There are several stairways giving access to the top of the walls. Within the walls are a number of small chambers. The Grianan of Aileach is also known by its Irish name of Grianan Ailigh, and the name is roughly translated as "Stone Fortes (or Temple) of the Sun" . The fort was restored in the 19th century, but much of the original drystone masonry structure remains intact at ground level. The restoration team used fallen stones to build on the original foundation, but had to bring in other stone from the area to replace missing stones. The main entrance one the east is 1.12m wide by 1.86m high with a lintel overhead and a depth of 4.65m long. The original gateway did not have a lintel. The inside has three terraces with stairways leading from one level to the next. There are two wall passages, with one on the south side and the other on the north east. These passages run towards the gateway but do not connect with it, so their original purpose is unclear. The passages are roughly 0.5m wide with height ranging from 60cm to 1.4m high, and the longest one is over 20m long. Most of the ramparts have been eroded by time. There used to be a set of inner and outer ramparts with the outer ramparts enclosing an area of about 5 acres. Facilities The fort is open to the public, with a self-guide leaflet available for visitors. The Grianan of Aileach is an Iron Age stone fortress and is believed to have been the seat of the Kingdom of Aileach. It was a political and cultural centre during the time of the early Irish chieftains from approximately 800BC to 1200AD. After the Norman invasion, the Kingdom of Aileach gradually lost control of the territory, and the fort was destroyed by Muirchertach Ua Briain, the King of Munster in 1101. By the end of the 12th century, the Normans controlled most of the lands of Aileach. The fortress fell into ruin over the centuries. George Petrie surveyed the fort in the 1830s, when it was still a ruin, and at that time most of the wall remaining was less than 1.5m tall. It was rebuilt between 1874 and 1878, and the walls and main stone features have been restored. The restoration was intended to preserve the historic authenticity of the structure. The restoration work was directed by Dr. Walter Bernard. The site is now owned by the Irish government. Further restoration was undertaken by the Office of Public Works in 2001 after part of the wall collapsed. The restored areas can easily be seen, being of different colour and pattern to the original walls. Some parts of the upper walls have been cemented in place for safety. An iron gate was set into the entrance way.