Doesn’t Benbulben look like a mossy version of Australias Ayers Rock sometimes? To me it does. Here is a lovely shot of the mountain, posted on the Wild-Atlantic-Way-Group on Facebook yesterday by CarverPhotography (if you are not logged into Facebook you need to allow showing of Facebook-content and reload this page to see the picture).
The Ballyshannon Folk & Traditional Festival
The Ballyshannon Folk Festival (1. – 4. August 2024) is one of the biggest in the country, and this year it will take place for the 47th time!The town will be buzzing with music.
It started in 1977, when Ballyshannon hosted the Fleadh Cheoil. The experience led to the decision to host a non-commercial Trad-festival every year – probably the reason, why it survived, while many of the great festivals at the West Coast gave up after the Folk-Boom of the 70ies and 80ies came to an end.
Ballyshannon lived on and survived the Covid-years as well. The line-up 2024 is impressive, but that is not the whole story: apart from the “official” concerts you will find plenty of music in the pubs and on the streets of Ballyshannon.
Every year the official poster is a must-have souvenir. Since 1980 they are designed by Barry Britton from Rossnowlagh, and this year’s is a cracker once again (if you are not locked into Facebook you need to allow showing of Facebook-content and reload this page to see the picture):
Barry’s family played a pivotal role in introducing Surfing to the northwest of Ireland. His mother bought a couple of surf-boards for the guests of their beach-hotel in Rossnowlagh in the middle of the 1960ies – and kicked off a real transformation of the place to become one of the best-known watersport-centers in the country. The family instigated the first lntercounties Surfing Contest in 1968, and it was Barry’s older Brother Conor who produced the posters for that – until Barry took over in 1971.
So Barry still hand-draws Posters for Sport- and Music-Festivals, one of the last artists of that craft in Europe – in a tradition that produced artists like Alfons Mucha or Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. But Barrys designs are naturally not art deco or frivolous french, but very celtic indeed: Do check out his website!
Beaches of Donegal
Many say that Donegal has the finest Beaches in Ireland, and it has an exceptional number of them as well! Although Ballyshannon itself does not have direct access to sea and beach, there are some of the finest you could find really nearby!
Tullan Strand, seen from the cliff walk at Bundoran. And yes: it often is that lonely. Photo from march 2024
The closest is Tullan Strand which actually stretches between Ballyshannon and Bundoran, but can only be reached from the Bundoran side. It is roughly 6 km away. Just a couple of hundred meters towards the town center you’ll find Bundoran Beach. Kids love it for the fossils in the rocks, for the starfish in the pools – and for the fairground right at the beach.
To the north the first long beach would be Rossnowlagh, very popular with families and Surfers. It is an unusually long, straight beach that draws visitors all year around. Especially in the evening hours locals love a long stroll along the shoreline that looks straight out to the west: on good days you’ll get a lovely sunset over the cliffs of Slieve League that you’ll see on the horizon across Donegal Bay.
Bundoran Beach in late winter: the place is popular with surfers, but great for kids as well. The rocks are full of fossils, and with low tide you’ll find lots of rock-pools full of shrimp, starfish, crabs and sea anemones.
Another gem worth mentioning is Murvagh Beach, aprx. 5 km above Rossnowlagh on the way to Donegal town. It is the most sheltered Beach in the area: endless stretches of sand, hardly any surf – ideal for families with very young kids and for dog owners looking for a really long walk with their pets.
Check out the website Donegal Beaches for more infos!
Mountains: Errigal and Benbulben
There are two very iconic mountains in Sligo and Donegal that are both worth a hike: Benbulben and Errigal.
Benbulben, although less high, looks most imposing: in several perspectives it reminds a bit of Ayers Rock, just in a totally green, mossy version. It’s roughly half an hour’s drive south of Ballyshannon.
But the irish mountain I like the most can be found in Donegal’s Highlands, which begin roughly 1/2 hours drive north of Ballyshannon. Errigal, at 751 meters (2.464 feet) the highest of the Derryveagh mountains, is a real peak – very unusual for an irish mountain. Most of those are approximately six to seven times older than the Alps and because of that “softened” and rounded by time, erosion, and glaciers.
Apart from Errigal: It stands tall above the Poison Glen in one of the most thinly populated areas of Europe. If the view from up there reminds you of the Scottish Highlands, that would be no coincidence: geologically, the Derryveaghs are an extension of the same mountain range that stretches from Inverness to Fort William.
Errigal can be easily accessed today. There is a pathway now that leads all the way up to the summit. The climb and the views are just spectacular:
Surfing
Bundoran is a very interesting place for surfers. The city beach draws people going for the surf after work, best time to catch them is late afternoon in autumn. The below was taken at Tullan Strand, the other big beach that stretches between Ballshannon and Bundoran, but can only be reached from the Bundoran-side (aprx. 6 km distance). It was taken in September, which is a surprisingly pleasant time for journeys to Ireland: often May and early June and September and October are nicer than the actual summer.
There are quite a couple of rental places in Bundoran, which is called Irelands Surf Capital. Here you can get the necessary equipment, and the most of them operate surf schools as well – all year round, clad in thick wetsuites.
Here we go:
Shop around, compare, there will be a fitting offer.
Rossnowlagh, aprx. 8 km north of Ballyshannon, is another fine surfing spot. It is especially popular with beginners, for obvious reasons: beach and surf are endless and there are no rocks. Waves are usually less high than at Bundoran or even Mullaghmore Head, but steady and reliable. Here’s a little impression:
- Rossnowlagh Surf School
- Fin McCools Surf School
- Rossnowlagh Surf Club
- Bundoran Surf Co operate a Rossnowlagh Surf Camp as well
Mullaghmore, south of Bundoran, is the hot spot for the ambitious surfers. To catch the really high beasts surfers are being dragged out to sea. What awaits them there is competition-level. The video underneath was taken in 2020, when Bundoran-based Conor Maguire mastered a 20-meter-wave. There are very few places in Europe where you could tackle such a beast:
A walk around Ballyshannon
Going up the hill, looking back: Ballyshannon has a One-Way-System
The first time we came to Ballyshannon was back in 1985. It was a terrible summer, cold and rainy, but we pitched our tend up at the school — just a couple of hundred meters from our house now. It was the time of the Ballyshannon Folk Festival, at the time one of the biggest Fleadhs on the West Coast, and it was a mad ride!
There was music everywhere, the pubs were busting, although there were a lot of them. Think of a town with less than 2500 inhabitants and 13 pubs! According to the BBC 10,000 people attended the festival.
Eleven of them are still going, but most are only open a couple of nights per week. As everywhere else Covid has taken a toll, and many businesses suffered. So the plentitude of pubs means that outside of festival-times there are just not enough guests to fill them.
Luckily, Ballyshannon still is a festival-town! There is a yearly Theater-Festival in February, the Folk-Festival in August and a Literature-Festival in November. But the best-known Festival still is the Rory Gallagher Tribute Festival that takes place every year on the first weekend in June.
Dicey Reillys: pub and micro-brewery
Gallagher is the most famous son of the town today, the other one being William Allingham, the 19th century poet. Since 2010 there is a Gallagher-statue by artist David Annand in the town-center, that quickly became a true “instagram spot” in Ballyshannon.
Ballyshannon calls itself the “oldest town in Ireland”, which is more of a legal thing than a historical truth: Ballyshannon was granted Town-rights in 1613, as one of the first settlements in Ireland. But the first inhabitants arrived significantly earlier: There were people living in and around Ballyshannon more than 5000 years ago, as archaeological finds from the neolithic period show.
Far more important than that: According to legend the mystic Partholon and his people landed on Inis Saimer, the little river-island at the pier, to repopulate Ireland 300 years after Noah’s flood. There you go now.
Rory Gallagher, 1948-1995: his father took part in the construction of the power-station
You won’t see much of that ancient past in town itself. The oldest houses today date back to the late 18th century. The town was always a workers and fishers place, so don’t look out for fancy mansions and royal palaces – I do not think that Ballyshannon ever was a particular rich place. For me the most interesting building is the old workhouse from victorian times, just round the corner from our house.
Those tragic places, once upon a time created to soften the impact of poverty, are deeply connected to the most bitter periods of history – and not only in Ireland. The Workhouse in Ballyshannon was left to rot far too long. Although the decay added to its eeriness, it is good news that there is a scheme on its way to renovate it.
Evening mood at the pier, early March 2024: according to legend the first place humans set foot on Irish soil after Noah’s flood.
That might have been the reason the town readily agreed to the proposal, to construct the first hydroelectric power-station at the top of town in the early 1950s. A dam was erected that created the reservoir that is known today as Lake Asseroe. At a time a remarkable technical achievement that not only brought electricity, but lots of employment to town. Today it is regretted by many: There was a picturesque waterfall where the dam is today. What a tourist attraction the famous Asseroe Falls could have become!
Since a couple of years the discussion is on, how the river can be renaturalized to make it more appealing again.
Going down to the little pier you get an impression how idyllic that could be: Inis Saimer in the sunset, the river going out to the sea and on the horizon the dunes of Tullan Strand are indeed a nice view. The park above it is a popular evening stroll – and in the morning you might see joggers and sportive people on the work-out-stations provided.
The town itself is easily walked, the road leading up the hill comes down again on the other side of the block. Shortly before you are back at Rory’s statue you’ll reach the Diamond, the little central square: It is not only the local “foot mile”, but the center of nightlife as well.
Coming down the hill: parking can be tricky, but most of the time you’ll find space at the Diamond
Puffins
A lot of people come to the Northwest to see Puffins. But it is not easy to catch a glimpse of them, they are shy little critters. What many people don’t realize is, that they are migratory as well. They only come to Ireland for their breeding-seasons, the early birds arriving in April, and the last lazy ones leaving again in July.
That means: You can’t see them between August and March.
That might be the reason many people never saw a Puffin in Donegal (or anywhere else in Ireland): you need to look out for them in the right place at the right time.
Your best chance to catch a glimpse of them is in the most remote places. They need to be steep and rocky and straight above the sea as well. There are two places in Donegal where you would have a really good chance to see the colourful little muckers: the cliffs of Horn Head near Dunfanaghy and Tory Island.
Apart from that, there is a fair chance to observe the birds in neighbouring County Sligo: the coastline between Belderrig Beg and Ross Port hosts a couple of small colonies. If you look at the map, you get an idea why: it is pretty hard to get there.
“Our” Donegal-spots are easier to get to, but it still takes effort – and luck. Here is a lot more info about those shy birds.
And here is some input from the Facebook-Group “Wild Atlantic Way”, where people share photos and tips (if you are not locked into Facebook you need to allow showing of Facebook-content and reload this page to see the pictures):