Ireland - County Donegal

[Cookerhiker]

I returned home 2 weeks ago from a 16 day trip to Ireland of which half was hiking in County Donegal on 2 trails: the Bluestack Way and Sli Colm Cille. Photos are posted.

Donegal is the northwesternmost county in Ireland and thus bears the brunt of the fickle Irish weather. Fortunately after having rain every day our first (non-hiking) week, our 6 day hike featured 4 nice sunny days. Unfortunately, the last 2 days when we had the most climbing and when we were to see the Slieve League cliffs (at 2,000', the highest marine cliffs in Europe), the weather was rain, fog, strong winds, and generally miserable. We didn't see anything.

Anyway, the trails follow old farm roads except for when they traverse moors. Said moors are wet. Next time I'll bring gaiters although feet are still likely to get wet. The moors are like hiking the mucky areas of New England where the crews have put puncheons but no puncheons in Ireland!

Hiking here is not a wilderness experience by any means but the country is still scenic with the moors, hills, distant and some not-so-distant views of the ocean, sheep everywhere (we were there in lambing season), bright yellow-blooming gorse bushes, and of course a friendly pub in every town serving up Guiness. A little bit of roadwalking is involved but it's tolerable.

We slackpacked each day under an inn-to-inn arrangement. We enjoy traditional Irish music and happened upon an annual festival in one of the towns where we stayed. Great fiddling!

You could backpack and set up your tent but it's hard to find completely dry ground in the moors. And forget hammocking; it's all open country, no trees except in a few concentrated areas.

Next time I want to hike in the Connemara area of County Galway where there's some true back country and the terrain is more rugged. But Ireland ain't cheap and you know: so many trails, so little time.:)

[Jester2000]

Glad you had a good time in my family's neck of the woods (or neck of the bog, as the case may be). Did you get a chance to go up Errigal?

[fiddlehead]

I remember hiking in Donegal. It was like hiking in a huge, wet sponge.
I loved the pubs though (and the Guiness)
The people were great! (and the music)

Did you get up to Northern Ireland at all?

[Jester2000]

Did you get up to Northern Ireland at all?

Hikers interested in Northern Ireland may want to look into the Ulster Way. Less ambitious walkers should drive to the Giant's Causeway, get blown over by the wind, and then settle for a walk around the walls of Derry.

[Cookerhiker]

Glad you had a good time in my family's neck of the woods (or neck of the bog, as the case may be). Did you get a chance to go up Errigal?

We drove by Errigal but didn't hike up it - had pretty crappy weather that day plus we ran out of time.


I remember hiking in Donegal. It was like hiking in a huge, wet sponge.
I loved the pubs though (and the Guiness)
The people were great! (and the music)

Did you get up to Northern Ireland at all?

No, didn't get to Ulster. You're right about the sponge effect. We hiked Dingle Peninsula 2 years ago and experienced perfectly dry weather, both overhead and underfoot. But since Donegal is largely moors, we tramped through mucky bogs.

Re music, we happened upon the annual Cup of Tae festival (http://www.cupoftaefestival.com/) in Ardara and enjoyed some world-class fiddle music of which Donegal is famous. Nothing like swigging some Guiness while listening to the music.

[Bluebearee]

What did you hike on the Dingle Peninsula? We're going over in October for 2 weeks and have tentatively planned on doing the Dingle Way. As well as day hiking the Reeks on the Kerry Peninsula, then doing some car sightseeing up the West coast through Galway, Connemara and Donegal.

[Cookerhiker]

What did you hike on the Dingle Peninsula? We're going over in October for 2 weeks and have tentatively planned on doing the Dingle Way. As well as day hiking the Reeks on the Kerry Peninsula, then doing some car sightseeing up the West coast through Galway, Connemara and Donegal.

Your trip sounds exactly like what I've done on my 2 trips in '07 and '09. Re. the Dingle Peninsula, we hiked the Dingle Way inn-to-inn in '07 using this outfitter: http://www.trek-inn.com/ (http://www.trek-inn.com/) A Google search of "Ireland walking tours" will bring you many other outfitters. I chose Trek-inn because they afforded the most flexibility (we could start and end on any day of the week we wanted whereas some outfitters lock you into certain days of the week) and their package included all meals.

In '07, we spent a week on a pub & music tour taking us to Kilkenney, Killarney, Doolin in County Clare, Galway, and County Meath plus 2 nights in Dublin. The package included car rental and 7 nights lodging at B&Bs in the above mentioned towns. We're big into Irish traditional music and saw it live every night. We did the Dingle hike in the second week.

For our '09 trip, the week before our hike (which I described in the first post) was spent driving through Donegal and Connemara. Awesome!

I hope you have better weather in October than we did this past April. OTOH, our April '07 weather was perfect.