Still in Donegal the next day, a good run for Toby along the 3 km- long beach backed by grass-covered dunes at Magheraroarty started us off well. I chatted to someone beside their motor home on the pier: “Yes, we’ve been staying here for three nights…. doesn’t cost anything, and there’s a cafe over there……” I thought of waking up with that view of the sea, looking across to Tory and Inishbofin islands, and vowed to take the next opportunity that the coast of Ireland offered. Which happened after a short drive through the Gaeltacht area of north-western Donegal, past Bloody Foreland (Cnoc Fola), so called because of the colour of the rocks at sunset, and then following the signs to the beach at Narin and Portnoo. Although there were already several motor homes parked there, and no signs saying No Overnight Parking, I decided to check at the small cafe opposite the beach - which I was delighted to find still open and offering home-made scones. “Yes, you’ll be fine - and there are public toilets just down there,” the owner pointed. So Toby and I took up residence directly in front of the long, golden-sand and almost empty beach, beside a delightful Dutch couple who were also travelling in a camper van along the WAW. Plenty of time, on these long early summer evenings, for a good ball-throwing session on the beach, joining several other dog owners, before cooking supper on the electric hob, with the leisure battery full after the long drive. No electric hook-up needed, we were self-sufficient!
Having got a night’s “wild camping” under my belt (I know, not so wild but not a campsite!) the next challenge was going to be the Glengesh Pass, the high mountain pass through the Glengesh and Mulmosog mountains, linking Ardara and Glencolumbkille. Looking at it on the map before I left, the thought of driving through a glaciated valley and such stunning mountain scenery filled me with excitement. But as I got closer, I started thinking - well, it’s a mountain pass, how difficult is it going to be? Checking with one of the campervan/WAW Facebook groups I was in, I got mixed messages: “I drove it in my 7.5m motorhome - those hairpin bends! Never Again!” “It’s windy and narrow, but take it slowly, you’ll be fine.” Which was it going to be? How many big buses would I meet on the way down as I was going up? I was only in a campervan, not a motorhome, surely I’d be fine?
So I braved it, and yes, I was fine. The view was stunning, not to be missed. And I learned my VW campervan is super easy and manoeuvreable. My confidence is increasing! On into Glencolumcille, and the Folk Museum started by an enterprising local priest in the 1950s, to bring employment to the community, a living-history museum with thatched-roof replicas of a rural village over the centuries.
From the carpark at the Slieve League visitor centre it was a shortish walk up to the viewing point of the magnificent cliffs, some of the highest sea-cliffs in Europe. Once a Christian pilgrimage site, there’s a Pilgrim Path you can climb up, or for the brave and/or foolhardy, the cliff-edge narrow One Man’s Pass ridge walk.
I did neither, but headed off to my next campsite just outside Killybegs, overlooking Donegal Bay. I was learning Less is More in this campervan lark, and I wanted a relaxed evening.
We were leaving Donegal now - though not before an excellent porridge with berries and crumble at the well-known Mrs B’s coffee house in the delightful fishing harbour of Killybegs. Then inland, into Co Sligo, where the distinctive flat-topped shape of Benbulben mountain seemed to fill the landscape wherever I looked, and W. B Yeats grave slept in its shadow. On to another campsite with a stunning view, at Rosses Point - such a beach and such a view that I decided to stay two nights.
As well as walks on the beaches with Toby, and meditating on Innisfree at Yeats’ grave, there was also a megalithic cemetery to visit at Carrowmore - the oldest and largest collection of megalithic tombs in Ireland. “No dogs allowed”again - so I couldn’t explore the passage tombs; but I wandered round the impressive stone circles, getting my head round the fact that they’d been there since the 4th million BC - as old as, if not older than the Egyptian Pyramids.
There was still time to visit another neolithic monument in the area, Queen Maeve’s cairn. This vast, unopened and unexcavated passage grave, constructed with small stones around 3500 BC on the top of Knocknarea mountain, is one of the most impressive neolithic monuments remaining in Ireland. Queen Maeve, sovereign of Connacht, was the archetypal warrior queen, apparently so beautiful that she “robbed men of two-thirds of their valor upon seeing her”. So I set off, with Toby, up the path leading to the cairn, having read that it was an easy enough climb. But a third of the way up, I met a couple, with a dog, coming down: “You won’t be able to go any further,” they told me - “There’s a gate with a big sign saying No Dogs…….”. As was indeed the case. Another couple passed me, heading up - “Come along with us, I know the owner of the land, it’ll be fine…” they invited me. But they did acknowledge that they thought the land might have been sold recently, and also it was getting late - so I abandoned Queen Maeve’s cairn and headed back to my van for cup of tea
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