Carndonagh - town

Carndonagh (Carn Domhnach) is a market town on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal. With a population of 2471 in 2016, it's the largest settlement in the north of the peninsula, which ends at Malin Head the most northerly point on the Irish mainland. Other villages described here are Ballyliffin and Clonmany to the west, and Moville and Greencastle on the shore of Lough Foyle. Buncrana near the foot of the peninsula is described on its own page.

Get in

See Derry for inter-city transport by air, rail and road.

Northwest Busways / Foyle Coaches run 3 or 4 times M-Sa from Derry, taking 45 min via Muff to Carndonagh 📍, where The Diamond is village centre. They don't serve Ballyliffin, but one bus per day continues to Moville. They also run five times M-Sa from Derry along the coast to Moville and Greencastle.

McGonagle Bus 951 runs once on M-Sa mornings from Carndonagh to Letterkenny, and returns in the afternoon taking 80 min via Burt, Burnfoot, Fahan, Buncrana and Ballyliffin.

Local Link Bus 953 runs from Letterkenny via Bridgend and Muff to Moville, with three M-Sa and one on Sunday.

Lough Foyle Ferry sails in summer from Magilligan Point in County Londonderry to Greencastle 📍. It sails Jun-Aug, shuttling continuously from 09:00 to 20:00, a 10 min crossing. It carries light vehicles, and there's no public transport to Magilligan Point. In 2021 one-way fares are €16 for a car and passengers, €2.50 for a foot passenger or motorbike. Make sure your personal and car documents are valid for Northern Ireland.

See Buncrana for the summer ferry across Lough Swilly from Rathmullen.

Get around

You need wheels to explore Inishowen Peninsula. A bike would do.

See

• Church of the Sacred Heart in Carndonagh is the RC church prominent on the mound southside of The Diamond. It was completed in 1945 in Romanesque style. Barrack Hill Park and gardens are just south.
• Donagh Cross is 500 m west of The Diamond on Church Rd, junction of R238 and R244. It's a 7th century high cross, one of the oldest in Europe, flanked by two "guard stones" like Dismas and Gestas. Across the street is the C of I Donagh Church, built in 1769. Look for the ancient "marigold stone" in the graveyard. Another 400 m north, a roadside white cross marks the Mass Rock used in the Penal times.
• Carrickabraghy Castle is a scenic stump north of Pollan Strand. "Carrick" means a rock, "braghy" no-one knows, maybe something rocky. From 834 to 1215 AD it often featured in "The Annals of the Four Masters", which reflected the site's importance but was not good news, as the Annals mostly recorded people hacked to death in battle. It then fell into obscurity until 1600 when the present castle was built, as part of the final conflict between Gaelic and English rule. The Gaels lost and fled into exile, and the castle was abandoned from 1665. It's free to stroll around any time.
• Doagh Famine Village, Lagacurry, 55.3086°, -7.33598°, +353 74 937 8078. Apr-Oct daily 10:00-17:00. Open-air village museum showing local history from the Great Famine in the 1840s to 20th century border troubles. Adult €10, child €6 2021-08-19
• Glashedy 📍 is the uninhabited island seen 1 km off Pollan beach. It's been used for grazing, but is best known for the number of ships it's wrecked, and for the scale of illegal poitín distillation discovered by the coastguard.
• Lenan Head Fort was built in 1895, so it was a late addition to the Napoleonic-era artillery positions along this coast. Its three 9.2 inch guns stood ready during the First World War, and like the other Lough Swilly positions it remained held by the British until 1938 when all the "Treaty Ports" were handed over. The Irish held the position during the Second World War then abandoned it in 1952. And abandoned is what it appears, more like a derelict factory site than military. You can stroll it anytime.
• Fort Dunree: is the best preserved of the coastal defences, see Buncrana for this and others further south.
• Malin is the attractive small village that gives its name to the headland 13 further north.
• Five Fingers Strand is a long beach with sandhills facing Doagh Famine Village across the channel. Reach it via the lane off R242 at Lagg.
• Malin Head 📍 is the most northerly point on the Irish mainland. Dúnalderagh at the tip is several km further north than anywhere in Northern Ireland (those extremes being Benbane Head near Giant's Causeway on the mainland, and Rathlin Island off Ballycastle). Ptolemy's "Geography" of the 2nd century AD calls it Βορειον - "Boreion", north, which pretty much sums it up. Bird-watching is the main attraction. There's a Napoleonic-era lookout tower, some ugly army huts, and clifftop viewpoints, such as Pólifreann or Hell's Hole, a cleft boiling with spray when the weather drives onshore. Ballyhillion is a series of raised beaches: after the glaciers melted the sea-level rose but the land rose faster as it rebounded from the weight of ice. A walk east brings you to the "Wee House of Malin", a hermit's hidey-hole. The Eire 80 marker is one of 82 etched around the coast in 1943 to advise aircraft that they were approaching the neutral Republic. Sadly, this neutrality was breached during the Star Wars between the Last Jedi and the First Order Fleet, filmed here, at Skellig Michael and in hyperspace in 2015 / 16. Later transgressors are wont to modify the access road sign from R242 to R2D2.
• Inishtrahull 📍 10 km north of Malin Head is Ireland's most northerly island, though the wave-dashed Tor Rocks lurk another km further north. Its fisher folk left in 1929 but the lighthouse keepers stayed on until 1987 when the light was automated. The island is now a birdlife reserve, check the rules before landing, especially in the hatching season May-July. Inis Trá Thuathail means "island of the empty beach" - the landing point is north facing the Atlantic, away from the mainland and shelter, so it's always precarious.
• Clonca Church 📍 is the ruin of a 17th / 18th century church, on the site of a 6th century monastery. There are elaborately carved tombstones and masonry. The High Cross depicts the miracle of the loaves and fishes; another cross has fallen.
• Temple of Deen is a group of megaliths 1 km east of Clonca Church, access via R238. These were support pillars for a large burial chamber, originally (maybe Bronze Age) covered in an earth cairn.
• Bocan Stone Circle 📍 is 1 km south of Culdaff village besides R238. Only 7 of the original 30-some stones remain standing.
• Inishowen Maritime Museum & Planetarium, Coastguard Station, Greencastle F93 T2KA (by Lough Foyle ferry pier), +353 74 938 1363. Tu-Sa 10:00-16:00, Su 12:00-16:00. Small museum about the area's maritime history. Museum alone adult €5, conc €4, child €3; with planetarium show €10, €8 & €6 2021-08-19
• Northburg Castle is the ruin of a 14th-century bastion, smashed up and abandoned in the 17th. It's just a scenic stump, half a km east of Greencastle harbour.
• Slieve Snaght 📍 is the 615 m mountain between Carndonagh and Buncrana. You might be content to admire it from afar, as it's boggy and midge-ridden by any route. Shortest but soggiest approach is from the lane to the east, 12 km return. Many prefer to ascend from R244 around Drumfrees: a track leads up towards Slieve Snaghtbeg (505 m), then pick your way to the main summit.

Do

• Boat trips: Inishowen Boating sail from Bunagee Pier by Culdaff, for sea-angling and sightseeing.
• Golf: Ballyliffin GC is north side of that village. The championship course is Glashedy Links, which hosted the 2018 DDF Irish Open: black tees 7542 yards, par 72, visitor round €200. The Old Links off blue tees are 6937 yards, par 71. Pollan Links is a nine-hole Par 3 course.
• Inishowen 100 is a scenic 100 mile / 160 km driving circuit around the coast of the peninsula, an easy day excursion. The route is signposted and self-evident, start anywhere, and it doesn't matter which way round.
• Wild Alpaca Way is by Five Finger Strand. You get to take them walkies.
• Wild Atlantic Way is the 2500 km (1550 mile) coastal itinerary starting at Moville and winding all the way south to Kinsale in County Cork. So it coincides with the Inishowen 100 through Carndonagh and Ballyliffin to Buncrana.
• Dylanfest celebrates the music of Bob Dylan. It's in Moville in late August, dates for 2022 are tba. It's not known if the town's Beatlefest will return in 2022.
• Greencastle Regatta is in early August, with lots of shore activities. The next is probably 4-7 Aug 2022 but tba.

Buy

• Carndonagh has a SuperValu open daily 08:00-22:00. The "Co-op" here is a hardware store not a grocery.
• Carndonagh Market is held on The Diamond Sa 11:00-16:00.
• Ballyliffin has Atlantic Stores, open daily 08:30-22:00 and with an ATM.
• Moville Centra is open M-Sa 07:00-22:00, Su 08:00-22:00.

Eat

• Simpson's in Carndonagh is open for food and drink daily 09:30-23:30, along with Tul Na Ri nightclub. It's 500 m east of The Diamond.
• Taste of India in Carndonagh is open M-F 16:30-00:00, Sa Su 16:30-03:30. Yes, like its namesake in Letterkenny, it serves pizza.
• The Butterbean in Carndonagh is a restaurant with rooms.
• Nancy's Bar in Ballyliffin is open daily 09:00-17:00, their chowder is popular.
• Rosato's in Moville is open M-F 16:00-23:00, Sa 15:00-23:00, Su 12:30-23:00.
• Inish Fusion bistro in Moville is open F Sa 16:00-21:00, Su 12:30-20:00.
• Kealy's Seafood Bar in Greencastle is open W-Su 13:00-23:00.

Drink

• Carndonagh has Joyce's, Glen Bar, Tully's and Persian Bar.
• Ballyliffin doesn't have a freestanding bar, but Clonmaly 2 km south has a cluster: The Square, McFeely's, James Tam's, Toland's and Mac Tams.
• Farran's (dead link: January 2023) at Malin Head is the most northerly pub in Ireland, open daily 11:00-01:00, with food served 12:00-16:00.
• Moville has Corner Bar, Trawler Man, Susie's, Annie's, Market House and Rawdon's.
• Greencastle has Ferryport Bar and Kealey's.

Sleep

• Ballyliffin Hotel, Main St, Ballyliffin F93 XT52, +353 74 937 6106. Reliable mid-range hotel, good service and food. B&B double €110 2021-08-19
• Strand Hotel, Shore Rd, Ballyliffin F93 TY75, +353 74 937 6107. Comfy relaxing value-for-money hotel. B&B double €100 2021-08-19
• Moville Boutique Hostel, Malin Rd, Moville, +353 83 843 8002. Small hotel in a converted farmhouse, it doesn't have a dorm. Dog- and family-friendly. B&B double €90 2021-08-27
• Barron's in the centre of Moville is a cafe and B&B.
• Cosy Cottage on Bath Terrace, Moville is a B&B and cafe with bike hire and other activities.
• Greencastle B&B's include Temple View Lodge.

Connect

As of Aug 2021, Ballyliffin, Carndonagh and Moville have 4G from all Irish carriers, but there are lots of dead areas on the roads between and up to Malin Head. 5G has not reached this area.

Go next

• Derry is a fascinating city with intact 17th century walls.
• Buncrana is the main village on the west side of Inishowen Peninsula.
• Letterkenny is Donegal's largest and liveliest town and transport hub.