Ireland, day 6 (Donegal)

Thursday we packed up the car and left Markree Castle, and spent the entire day wandering around County Donegal. First we went to Bundoran. On the way there, we passed by William Butler Yeats' grave, you could see it as it was right off the road but since it was (once again) pouring down rain we didn't stop there. We got to Bundoran fairly early.

It was a bit chilly and windy, but the rain stopped. I got some pictures on one of the beaches, and then we walked around a path that followed the coastline to the fairy bridges and a wishing chair. I got some pictures of another beach too. I was hoping to get some good shots of the ocean, but for a beach meant for surfing the water was absurdly calm. Jade said she'd never seen it that still.

We left Bundoran and continued north to the fishing port of Killybegs. We took some coastal roads on the way there, which had some really incredible views. We stopped in town to get directions and then kept going up to the Slieve League Cliffs. They're about three times higher than the Cliffs of Moher, and they were absolutely stunning. I took some amazing pictures and they don't even begin to do the place justice. We hiked up the cliffs too - it was tiring but exhilarating, and so worth it!

After we left the cliffs we went back to Killybegs and I had (proper) fish and chips for the first time. We wandered around the county for a while after that, picking some random roads on the map and heading in the general direction of where we wanted to get to. We went north and then cut through the Derryveagh Mountains over to Letterkenny, and from there up to Downings. There's an Atlantic Coastal Drive that goes all around Downings, and it was fantastic. We did the entire drive - it was only five miles long or so but we stopped at a lot of different points to get pictures of the views.

We stopped on the beach as well for a little while, and I nearly fell in the ocean a few times while climbing around on the rocks to get more pictures. Thankfully Jade was still up above sitting on a rock, so I think she missed most of my clutz moments there. Then we left Downings to head back towards Letterkenny. We stopped at Doe Castle since it was on our way, and then cut through Northern Ireland to go back to Jade's house for the evening.

Had dinner at Jade's and talked about everything we'd done while we were gone, and that was about it for the day. I was a bit depressed because my trip was really winding down and it was nearly time to go home. At the same time I was really looking forward to the next day, the places we were planning to go were ones that I'd been looking forward to for months.

The last three blogs for Ireland will be coming soon!


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1. A picture from the beach in Bundoran
2. Fairy bridge in Bundoran
3. Me at the Slieve League Cliffs - yes that white blob to the right of me is a boat (one of my favorite pictures from the trip)
4. View from the Atlantic Coast Drive in Downings.
5. Doe Castle