Northwest Ireland and Lakelands is the tourist name for the Border Region of Ireland, more poetically defined as "NUTS-3 IE041". It's not a unit of government, it's just a grouping of counties for statistical and planning purposes, namely Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo, with a population in 2016 of 392,837. It's all within the Republic of Ireland, and historically mostly within Ulster, though Sligo and Leitrim were part of Connacht.
In the centre of the drumlin belt, dotted with lake islets.
With mountains and rugged coasts, and Malin Head the northern tip of all of Ireland.
The quiet county at the head of the navigable River Shannon.
Also in drumlin country, with early Christian remains.
This has the prehistoric sites and dramatic crags that inspired the poetry of WB Yeats.
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"Don't mention the Border!"- it's no coincidence that this region looks a bit like Croatia on the map, with a chunk missing where its heartlands ought to be. When Ireland became independent in 1921, six of the nine counties of Ulster remained within the United Kingdom while three - Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal - became part of the Republic. So what was decried as a partition of Ireland was especially a partition of Ulster, with a "hard" border blighting trade and transport on both sides. Monaghan and Cavan lost their links to Belfast but at least their road to Dublin lay open. Donegal was doubly detached, with only a 9 km strip of territory joining it to the Republic, otherwise you had one border crossing to reach Derry and Belfast and two for Dublin. It was a major inconvenience at best, dangerous at worst during the late 20th century Troubles.
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 brought peace, enshrined an open border, and allowed Ulster to re-launch itself as a tourist destination. The Enterprise Train plies back and forth between Dublin and Belfast, the Shannon-Erne waterway was built to connect the navigable River Shannon at Carrick with Enniskillen and the lakes of Fermanagh, and a daily bus brings the students of Monaghan and Cavan to Ulster University in Coleraine. The county town of Donegal, Lifford, is effectively just the outskirts of Strabane in Omagh. The border was actively downplayed, for tourist and other purposes, so this region needed a different identity. What it has in abundance is lakes, so "Northwest and Lakelands" is what it became.
By air, Dublin (IATA: DUB) is a good choice, for its range of flights and good onward transport. With a rental car, you'll reach this region in a couple of hours. Belfast has two airports, and is more convenient for Donegal, Monaghan and Leitrim.
City of Derry Airport (IATA: LDY) has flights from London Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Liverpool.
Donegal Airport 📍 (IATA: CFN) has flights from Dublin and Glasgow. Perched way out on the coast, it's convenient for northwest Donegal but not for anywhere else.
Ireland West Airport Knock 📍 (IATA: NOC) south of Sligo has flights from London Stansted, Luton and other UK cities, and some European destinations.
The only railway across the region is from Dublin Connolly via Carrick, Boyle and Ballymote to Sligo, with five trains a day. For Donegal you can take the train from Belfast to Derry then the bus.
Buses from central Dublin run via the airport to Carrick and Sligo. Buses from Belfast run via Armagh to Monaghan and Cavan, and buses from Derry run to Donegal.
You need your own wheels to get anywhere in this scattered region. The only rail connection within it is Sligo - Ballymote: that leaves you some miles from the prehistoric sites that are the main reason to visit Ballymote, but bike-on-train would work.
See individual counties for bus routes, which radiate from the largest towns. Inter-city buses can convey you between towns but are too sparse for sightseeing along the way. Those main routes are Derry-Letterkenny-Donegal-Ballyshannon-Sligo-Galway, Dublin-Cavan-Enniskillen-Donegal, Enniskillen-Manorhamilton-Sligo-Enniscrone-Ballina, and Cavan-Monaghan-Belfast. Sligo also has an hourly service to Strandhill and Rosses Point.
Ferries ply from the Donegal mainland to Arranmore, Gola Island and Tory Island.