Day 186, Sunday July 28, 2019
“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder”
–Kinky Friedman
Sites Covered in this Post
• Studio Donegal (Kilcar)
• Cionn Mhucrois (Muckross Head)
• Sliabh Liag (Slieve League)Cliffs
Studio Donegal
From County Kerry we drove north. We’d intended to stop in Galway, but a little thing called the Galway Races was going on. That’s the Irish equivalent to the Kentucky Derby, on steroids. There was not a room to be had anywhere, so we kept on going north to Sligo and all the way into County Donegal. We found a great little apartment in the village of Kilcar. Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it, I think the population is around 250. There are more sheep here than people, but it’s drop dead gorgeous to see.
The main business in town is Studio Donegal, which is a high-end textile mill that we had to stop in to see the mill in action and shop a little. Studio Donegal is a small woollen mill on The Wild Atlantic Way with its own carding, spinning, hand weaving and garment making. Tristan Donaghy manages the business (saved from closing by his parents in 1987), employs fifteen people, and is producing beautiful hand woven tweed products.
We were fortunate to stop by and tour the mill when John was in charge of the weaving. I didn’t get John’s last name, which is a shame because he took time out to show us all through the mill and even let Ellen run one of the looms for a minute. John was a pleasure to talk with (he has a daughter and grand kids in Boston), and he’s been weaving for 50 years. We really got the VIP treatment and their woolen products are wonderful. There was a tweed vest that I thought was fabulous, but it was about $225 bucks and a little out of my price range. But it looked great. Ellen did buy a nice scarf to bring home.
This mill, under various owners has been in existence since the late 1700’s. The story goes that it was originally a cottage industry. Local farmers supplemented their farm income by hand weaving tweed from the rough homespun woollen yarn, which had been spun by the women, from the indigenous blackface sheep.
Kilcar is a sleepy little town with the mill, a pub, a tea shop, one take out diner, and a post office and that’s about it. We had a great “Ahhhhhhh” visit and didn’t do much of anything except enjoy the quiet countryside.
Cionn Mhucrois (Muckross Head)
Muckross Head is a small peninsula about 10 km west of Killybegs, Co. Donegal. It contains a popular rock-climbing area, noted for its unusual horizontally layered structure. When you drive up to the cliffs and look out over the Atlantic, you want to pick out your dream house site to keep this amazing view for your own.
Muckross Head is a narrow peninsula, clinging beautifully to the hills of a picturesque, rugged, hilly landscape. Much of the area is covered with a thick, lush, make-you-want-to-walk-barefoot grass carpet that would make any greenskeeper jealous. A scenic view can be enjoyed from the roadway, which is really no more than an asphalt driveway not wide enough for cars to pass each other safely, overlooking the headland as well as the popular sandy beach. It may be popular, but the weather was cool and no beach people were seen during our visit.
There’s really not much to say about the place, except to really let the beauty sink in. On Trip Advisor there are only 17 reviews. All of them rated the place with an Excellent (70%) or a Very Good (30%). You could spend a couple hours here, or a couple of days if you had camping gear. We loved it, and it’s definitely off the beaten path.
Slieve League Cliffs
Sliabh Liag Cliffs, situated on the south west coast of County Donegal, are said to be the one of the highest and finest marine cliffs in Europe. There are a couple of parking lots on the base of the cliff, but unless you are really in shape, I’d suggest you save your hiking until you get to the top. Beware, though, there’s a cattle gate on the road by a lot that tricks most people to park and hike to the top, which is only about 3 kilometers up a 15% grade. Piece of cake.
When your reach the top there are terrific views of the Atlantic Ocean, the Sligo Mountains and Donegal Bay and a paved walking trail and stairs towards the top of Sliabh Liag, where the cliff face of Bunglas rises over 600m above a very dark green churning Atlantic ocean. If you have enough gas left in your motor after your trek up the roadway to the top you can venture on beyond the observation deck onto One Man’s Pass which loops around onto the Pilgrim’s Path. I have no idea how far that is, but its very steep. So, we skipped that hike.
There’s a lot about this place being sacred, and it is beautiful, but I’m not sure about the sanctity part. They say that for over a thousand years there was a Christian pilgrimage of monks who went to Iceland or some place. You can buy a T-shirt or charm about it if you want.
The towering Slieve League Cliffs are among the highest sea cliffs in Europe. They dwarf the Cliffs of Moher with their highest point at 609 meters (1,998 feet) above the ocean below.
For more info you can stop at the Slieve League Cliffs Center, because once you get to the top of the cliffs there are some kiosks with food, but no info or trail maps about the area. Of course, like all information centers, they have a souvenir shop stocked with all sorts of things like locally made knitwear and artworks and, in summertime, you can even catch a traditional Irish music session and other stuff you can probably live without.
There are remains of an early Christian monastery, with chapel and stone beehive huts. There are also ancient stone remains that suggest that the mountain was occupied by people BCE. At Carrigan Head, you can see another Signal Tower built in the early years of the 19th century to watch for a possible French invasion (there are a lot of those on the West Coast of Ireland). Also, another common sight is to see stones (painted white), which marked out the word “Éire” as a navigation aid for aircraft during World War II. We had been seeing this marking all up and down the Irish coast and didn’t know what it meant until we came here.