Day 11: Buncrana

The Wild Pacific Way Part 2!😎

Today’s post took place on September 16 & 17th. First we went north out of Buncrana with the whole gang for a picnic. Fort Dunree was our first stop where we viewed the scenery and then had our picnic.

*Fort Dunree, built to defend the area against a possible invasion by Napoleon’s forces. Everyone was concerned that they might be next.*

*Looking north on the east side of the channel.*

Then it was off to the beach to let the four kids run and play in the sand. There was even a bit of swimming!

*A sad but somewhat familiar story from WWIi.*

*The way down to the beach. A lovely path!*

*A very nice crescent beach, looking out to the open Atlantic Ocean.I spent some time searching for large feathers with the kids. Found quite a few.* 🙂

That night we all gathered at Joe and Geraldine’s lovely house for pizza and ice cream cake to celebrate Caitlin’s birthday.

Yesterday morning we met for breakfast and it was pretty good. Carried me all day until dinner last night at 7pm.

We said our goodbyes as Caitlin and Paul headed for Portugal for a few days. The kids will stay here with Paul’s parents and we are on standby. Should work well as we are off to Norway Thursday very early, a day before Caitlin and Paul return for another 9-10 days in Buncrana.

And then we set off to continue our drive along the Wild Atlantic Way.

We came across Doe Castle which was built in the 15thC. has a bit of a Romeo and Juliet story. As the legend goes, it seems that Aileen Mac Sweeney threw herself out of the top window after her father murdered her lover Turlough O’Boyle, son of his bitter enemy. Not something easily gotten away with these days!

The Mac Sweeney clan occupied the castle for over 200 years losing it to the English (who else) in 1690. Refusing to submit, the Mac Sweeneys chose to walk the roads of Donegal rather than have English landlords. Ireland, a land of many tears.

From there is was out to the west coast on some fairly narrow roads.

*As usual along the west coast, it was stunning!*

The coastline wasn’t as dramatic as it was a couple days ago, but nonetheless it was very scenic.

And there were some terrific beaches with nary a soul on them.

*Perfect summer retreat…when in the sun!*😂

A bit more scenery! By now it was a very nice 24°. Summer has arrived.

The lighthouse at Fanad Head at the top of the inlet that runs down towards Buncrana and Letterkenny at the foot of the inlet.

We hiked along the shore to get a better view. A lovely sight! There was a group tour taking quite a few people through, but we chose not to go having seen other similar lighthouses. We even stayed in one while walking the Great Ocean Trail in Australia during our 2015 visit. Now that was a pretty cool experience!

Another great long near empty crescent beach.

*A tragic ship wreck happened just off this shore*.

*Looking back towards Fort Dunree which we had visited the prior day for a picnic.*

*Fish and chips seemed like a traditional Irish meal tonight.*

*The sunset from our comfy temporary, Irish home.*

And that’s it from here! Another great day! No big plans for our last day. We drive down to Dublin early tomorrow morning and fly off to Oslo for a two week sampler of Scandinavia. Looking forward to that! I will be posting as we go and there is a map attached to the second page of this blog showing our stops.

Geoff😎