Donegal Town in County Donegal is located on Donegal Bay at the base of the Bluestack Mountains. The River Eske flows into Donegal Bay. Like most Irish towns it is charming and picturesque with a town centre known as the Diamond, which is an open pedestrian area surrounded by hotels, shops, pubs, restaurants and coffee houses. One restaurant that stands out that I visited several times was “The Blueberry”, with lunches, dinners and delicious desserts.
While in Donegal I stayed at the Abbey Hotel, which was very conveniently located because upon arriving in Donegal by Bus Éireann from Letterkenny, the bus stop is right in front of the Abbey Hotel, and even better the hotel is right on The Diamond.
While in Donegal I took a boat trip on Donegal Bay and visited Donegal Castle. From Donegal I took a day-long tour with Donegal Tours (www.donegaltours.ie), which I highly recommend as a tour company. They use smaller mini vans which makes the atmophere of the tour more friendly and enjoyable.
With Donegal Tours, I visited the following point of interests:
The spectacular Slieve League Sea Cliffs are one of the highest marine cliffs in the whole of Europe, with a six hundred metre drop down to the ocean, part of the Wild Atlantic Way. Glencolmcille and the Folk Village is a collection of beautiful, traditional thatched cottages. It offers an insight into how the local people lived over the past 200 years. Ardara, a Heritage Town, is home to the ‘Donegal Tweed’ and one of Ireland’s best known traditional centres of tweed and knitwear production. Final stop was at the Glengesh Pass a glaciated valley that was created 12,000 years ago.
When I left Donegal, I caught the bus right in front of the Abbey Hotel with direct service to Sligo. Once in Sligo, I took a train back to Dublin where I stayed one night before taking a plane back to Ottawa.
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