Today was a relatively short day on the bus. We left about 8.45am for the drive out towards Slieve League, which is a mountain not too far away, that is very popular with hikers. There’s some beautiful views from nearby, and of course on the way there, too:
Bruckless was a little town on the way up, with a sweet little church, and then the harbour in Killybegs (photographed out of the bus on the way up – we stayed a while on the way back down):
Then between Killybegs and Teelin as well as the short stop we had at Largy:
Then we stopped to swap buses to something smaller, since our normal tour bus would never fit up there! We had a new guide (Paddy) for this leg of the trip. He was most knowledgeable about the bogs and the area in general. The sheep on the mountain are allowed to live up there for free from several farmers in the area. We were so lucky with the weather! It’s usually misty and raining up there, in addition to the cold wind we had:
The cloud cover started to sink down the mountain as we were getting ready to leave, so we were pretty lucky with the timing in general:
Next stop was at the little Cafe/Craft Shop owned by the tour guide, who put on his apron and served as tea/coffee and scones. We could smell them baking on the way up, and they were still warm when they were served to us. Yumm! A few people bought lamb hand puppets and stuffed toys. They were really quite cute.
Then we headed back to spend a half hour in Killybegs. This was a prosperous fishing town a one stage, but now times are tough, so there’s not much industry there now. Being a Sunday didn’t help allay the impression of paucity, I suppose.
Next we headed towards Ardara. We passed this quaint little thatched cottage along the way, before stopping in Ardara at the Triona Design Tweed Weaving Factory, where we had a demonstration of weaving the tweed and a free irish coffee to go with it. I was so tempted to buy something, but when would I be able to wear it? A lot of the others bought jackets and poncho-type tops. Charlene’s choice was this gorgeous purple and pink that suited her so, so well:
The church across the road from Triona’s has some beautiful stained glass windows, so I went over to have a look at (and photograph) those:
Next stop was Donegal. William let us off in town, to save us the 15 minute walk back from the hotel. I joined up with Ellen and Jina to do the sight-seeing of the castle, as well as everything else between there and the port at the other end of town:
The abbey by the waterfront was pretty amazing, with its huge graveyard:
After this we headed off for some coffee and then back to meet the bus for the ride back to the hotel. Then it was nearly time for dinner and then a (very) few of us headed back into town to the listen to the promised live music, which we were then told wasn’t happening. We found ourselves another pub to have a drink at and then when we walked back to the hotel, Guy started chatting with another couple who were in the The Reel Inn (the pub with the promised live music every night) who told us that they did eventually have the live music after all. Ah well. Such is life. We had a good time without it too, especially when Guy realised he was doing a ‘runner’ and came back to pay his share of the bill when he finally understood what was taking us so long to follow him out of the pub…
Tomorrow it’s another early-ish morning with a 7.15 suitcase out and breakfast before heading off to Northern Ireland.
