Our summer was a blur. We travelled a lot.

We able to connect with many friends and family members in the States, but restful was not a word we’d use to describe a summer with as much travel as our’s had. So, as school began Liz and I were discussing a time when we could get away…at least for a long weekend.

The kids heard our plans and decided that they’d like to join us. It’d be the first trip for all 6 of us since Christmas two years ago. The first thing we had to do was figure out where. We ended up in Donegal mainly because:

• we’d never been there and wanted to see it,
• we found a cool looking Airbnb on the coast.

Friday morning 5 of us piled in a car and headed north. Brenna has just started school and took a bus to Letterkenny after her classes.

The first stop was a last minute diversion in Co. Tyrone. Liz wanted to see if she could find her grandmother’s family farm and we ended up having tea at her dad’s cousin’s home. While the stop was not as brief as predicted, it was a good start to the trip.

Once back on the road we headed to the Beltany Stone Circle.

It was an overcast day, but you could see for miles from the top of the hill.

There was also a very cool looking forest near the circle.  Hannah, Erin, and I did a little exploring while we waited to Liz and Méabh to join us.

After the Stone Circle, we drove to our Airbnb near Falcarragh. The roads from Letterkenny to Falcarragh were narrow, to say the least. But they did go through the Glenveagh National Park, so the scenery was amazing. (but since I was driving, I don’t have any photos.)

We got to the house, unpacked and turned right around and went back to Letterkenny to eat, get food for Saturday and pick up Brenna.

Photos from Falcarragh:

We didn’t do a lot of sightseeing while we were there…other than what we could see in the car. Since we were near the Glenveagh National Park we did make a couple visits there.

Glenveagh National Park and Castle

First off, the castle was impressive and the gardens and park were beautiful. But, like so much of Ireland’s history, the story of the castle involves overt cruelty from those in power to those on the margins. (You can read about Capt. Adair and his inhumanity here.) 

Yes, that is a heated swimming pool. Although it does take 12 hours to warm up.

On the bus back from the castle to the visitor’s centre, I recorded a brief video in slow motion.

Glenveagh National Park from bob wilson on Vimeo.

Finally…

Sunday was the drive home. This we did stop a few times to admire the scenery.

So that was our weekend in Donegal. While our focus was more on resting than sightseeing, we did decide we need to plan a vacation there some point and see more of Donegal!

Also published on Medium.