After a long day’s journey around the Inishowen Peninsula we were eager to pull into Buncrana and take it easy.
We stayed at the Tullarven Mill, just a couple minutes away from the main streets of town. When looking for a place to stay, we had a short list of needs, and this place met them. There is a hostel there, but they have a family room with 6 beds and a private bathroom. It was almost like a private dorm room for my family.
the staff there was extremely friendly and helpful. I simply can’t recommend the place enough. One thing though, if you’re booking with a credit card online, and it’s not going through, call or email them.
Going into town we had dinner and once again, it was another example of how nice and accommodating Ireland is to families. As vegetarian, sometimes it can be difficult to find a restaurant that will offer enough dishes that will feed us all. The restaurant where we did wind up the waiter mentioned he never had seen a whole family of vegetarian before. While Ireland is accommodating to vegetarians, having more than one at a time is still a very unusual thing.
The next morning as we left I stopped by John Barr’s store. Originally I was just going to get a shirt and a flag, maybe a magnet, but I wound up talking to him for a half an hour. Family, vacations, working hours, the quality of work, work ethics, weather, so much more. Laura eventually got a little fed up waiting and came in and got me out (not before paying for more than I had initially planned).
Then it was off again to more sightseeing.
One final plug. We stopped at The Lunch Box to pick up some supplies for lunch as well as a quick breakfast on our way out. Again, friendly and accommodating. And this is where August and Déla found one of the magazines we got for Ciárán for his birthday.
We missed the ferry out of Buncrana by literally one minute. So we decided to drive down the coast to find St Mura’s Cross – yet another of the old pieces of stone we were looking for. This one required us to go back and forth along the same stretch of road a couple of times, because things just aren’t clearly marked in this country.
We finally did find it, and it was worth the effort. It is a spectacular cross with intricate designs. Dating somewhere between the 7th and 10th centuries, the cross stands next to the ruins of a monastery that dates back to the 6th century.
Finally we went to Grianan Of Aileach – an ancient ring fort. This was a very cool site, but we were a little disappointed to find out that much of what we were seeing was a reconstruction, and not the actual original structure. Still it was very impressive and fun to walk around.
I’m also glad we went there when we did, because it would be impossible to appreciate when it is very crowded. Go as early as you can in the morning.
The views from the fort are fantastic. August and Dela saw… something from the fort and we went to investigate. What they initially thought was an escape passage instead turned out to be a well.
By this time it was getting late and we had a couple of hours drive ahead of us to get back to Ballycastle. This would end our trip to the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, but one thing is for certain, we had a great time there and can’t wait to go back in the future and explore more of the region.