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Town in County Donegal, Ireland
Photo: Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Donegal Town is a town in County Donegal in northwest Ireland. With a population of 2700 in 2022, it's neither the county town — that's tiny Lifford — nor the county's largest - that's Letterkenny. It's a small place clustered around its plaza "The Diamond", with the River Eske flowing out of the Bluestack Mountains into the bay. It has a ruined abbey and a restored castle, and makes a good base for touring the south of the county.
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This was a Franciscan Priory established in 1474. It was the scene of a battle in 1601 during the Nine Year's War between the English Tudors and the area's Gaelic rulers: a gunpowder keg caught fire and that was the end of the abbey and anyone in the vicinity. So now there's just a few shards of masonry and you mostly come for the scenic old graveyard overlooking the estuary.
It wasn't just the Normans who built substantial stone castles, this one was erected in 1474 by Red Hugh O'Donnell at the same time as the abbey. That dynasty held it until they fled Ulster in 1607 after the Nine Years War. They torched it to prevent its use against the local Irish, but it was soon restored and extended by the incomers in Jacobean style. It fell into ruin in the 18th century but was restored from the 1990s and is now an event space.
Two narrow-gauge railways huffed and puffed across the county from 1863 to 1959, connecting Donegal to Strabane, Derry and Letterkenny: the 36-inch gauge was cheaper to construct than standard Irish gauge of 63 inches. The Centre displays their history and has a steam locomotive and a railcar from that era, though not in working order.
This is an 18-hole championship links course, blue tees 6819 m, par 73.
Family-friendly place for seafood, burgers and the like.
Good seafood and other fare.
Good Italian fare.
Friendly bar with trad music most nights.
Cosy old bar.
The original, opened in 2016, of what's become a small chain of trad-style Irish pubs.
22 pitches for touring vans, camper vans and motor homes beside the beach. 16-amp electricity outlets, toilet and shower facilities, exterior sink for dish washing, chemical disposal & grey water waste disposal, fresh water refill.
Old style guesthouse, bathrooms are shared, but clean and welcoming.
Very central, mostly comfy enough but stuffy in hot weather, and at weekends the nightclub makes a racket until 2AM.
Friendly comfy central place.
Motel-style rooms a short walk from town centre.
Comfy eight-roomed guest house.
Smart edge-of-town hotel, with 110 large rooms en suite, child friendly, and fitness centre and pool.
A Tudorbethan manor was built in 1868, owned by Major-General Henry George White (1835-1906), who's buried by the nearby Celtic Cross. It was ruined by a fire in 1939 but re-built as the present mock-castle in 2007. It gets great reviews for comfort and service.
Comfy upscale place with large rooms and great lakeside setting.
By road from Dublin follow M3 then N3 via Cavan, crossing the border at Belturbet. The road is badged A509 then A46 through Enniskillen to Belleek, then you re-cross the border and take N15 into Donegal.
Read in the guideThe town is small enough to walk, but you need wheels for outlying attractions. There's no bike hire here, and the nearest car hire offices are in Letterkenny and Derry.
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Donegal · Regional · CFN
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