The Northern Counties…

From Mayo to Donegal, via Sligo and Leitrim, here we are in the northern counties of Ireland, between spectacular cliffs and immense white sand beaches. What’s more, the good weather continues, something never seen before in Irish memory! 😁

The truth about the Achill Island affair…

First of all, we left off last week with a quiz. What had happened on the slopes of Croaghaun that, upon returning from our hike, we found four aircraft engines laying there? We received quite a few correct answers, but the first came from Colombia, confirming that the engines did indeed come from an aircraft, and that many of these planes had crashed along the Irish and Scottish coasts during World War II, while conducting reconnaissance patrols and test flights. For those who would like to know more, we were even sent a video (available here), explaining that the aircraft in question was a Handley Page Halifax bomber, with four engines and eight people on board (all of whom died in the crash). Today, only the four engines remain on the slopes of Croaghaun, each weighing over a ton… Thank you, in any case, to everyone who sent us their responses, by email or in the comments…

At a local’s house…

Two or three last photos of Achill Island and the Cloughmore cliffs, with this beautiful sunset and these two small V-shaped cliffs in front of us, in between which the sun set very precisely… We then hit the road again and headed back to the mainland, and more precisely to Wild Nephin National Park, before meeting up with Trish and spending the weekend with her and her sister, Celia, visiting the Mullet Peninsula and Blacksod Bay. Between white sand and pebble beaches and a full Irish breakfast, Trish also showed us the cliffs of Ann Bhinn Bhui, and we loved the area so much that we decided to spend two nights there, after leaving Trish and Celia (thanks again, Trish, for hosting us for these two days! It was great to see you again and spend this time with you! 😘).

Ann Bhinn Bhui is an area of ​​cliffs located just across from a tiny islet, Kid Island (or Oileán Mionnán, in Irish), which will undoubtedly be one of the mysteries we bring back from Ireland because, even though it’s a real islet (separated from the mainland by the ocean), there are sheep on it… The big question is then: how did these sheep get there? 🤔 Our favorite (and probably least likely) theory is that, given the rather steep surroundings of Ann Bhinn Bhui, a few adventurous sheep fell off the cliffs and swam to the island, before finding a way back up the equally steep walls of Kid Island to settle on THE meadow at the top of the islet. Since then, they’ve had babies, and the population has gradually grown… 😜

Aside from the swimming sheep of Kid Island, our stop at Ann Bhinn Bhui also allowed us to discover, from the top of a cliff, a tiny beach (probably completely submerged at high tide), where a whole colony of gray seals was basking… 😍

The Northern Counties…

Even though we were pretty comfortable, atop our cliffs, watching over our seal colony, we still decided to continue our journey after a short day of work… Especially since today’s leg took us to one of the most famous points on the Wild Atlantic Way, namely: Downpatrick Head!… As Benjamin would say (before seeing what it really was…): another rock in the water a few meters from the cliffs… Yes, certainly… but what a rock!… It’s a bit like transporting the Flatiron Building from New York here, installing it in front of vertical cliffs covered with “nodules” of strange green plants, and adding hundreds of birds (fulmars, guillemots, gulls) flying all around and nesting in every nook and cranny of the rock… The Downpatrick Head site also has a “blowhole” (one of those tunnels in the rock that emerge a little further and into which the waves rush and end up making a geyser) and a statue of Saint Patrick (how could it be otherwise? 😜), but there’s no doubt about it, it’s the “rock in the water in front of the cliffs” that inevitably provokes a “wow” when you approach it and discover it for the first time. That said, you also let out another “wow”, but with a little shiver down your spine, this one, when you walk a little along the cliffs and realise that they are all riddled with caves and other more or less large cavities, underneath… a real Swiss cheese eaten away by the waves! There is also one of those “Eire” signals from the Second World War that we already told you about, at Downpatrick Head. Number 64 to be exact. We then headed to the small town of Ballina to do four errands, and back to the coast, in Easkey, where we will spend our first night in County Sligo… Yes, we have officially reached the last 3 northern counties of Ireland… 😉

Queen Maeve…

A quick stop at Aughris Head beach this morning to watch a group of ringed plovers running from one side of the beach to the other, before joining our main stop for the day, recommended by another of our fans (thanks, Georgina! ☺️). A few kilometres from the town of Sligo (which gives its name to the county around here…) is a strange rounded hill a little over 300m high. This is Knocknarea. But apart from its rounded shape and the pretty views it offers over the surroundings, the particularity of this hill is that its summit is occupied by an enormous cairn 55m wide and 10m high! According to legend, this is the tomb of the mythical warrior queen Maeve of Connacht, who ruled the province of Connacht and was known for her strength, resilience and cruelty. Maeve’s most famous story is her role in the Cooley Raid, where she led Connacht into war against Ulster to capture the Brown Bull of Cooley. According to archaeologists, the cairn atop Knocknarea is actually a 5.000-year-old Neolithic tomb, surrounded by various other remains of what was likely a sacred place of worship for the region’s earliest inhabitants. That was all it took to pique our curiosity and make us climb the 325m of elevation gain in just 1.5km (gulp! 😮‍💨), but the 360º panorama and the idea that we were perhaps facing the final resting place of a legendary warrior queen more than made up for the effort!…

Then we headed to the large Streedagh beach where we will spend the night behind the dunes, sheltered from the wind, hoping that the nearby lagoon won’t rise too high at high tide, otherwise we might have to get out of here quickly! 🤓

Beach-hopping…

Okay, it wasn’t far, but this time, we were good!… The tide stopped just 5 meters away from Marvin… Now, given the depth of the lagoon, we weren’t in danger of drowning either… but since the sand is rather loose around here, with the effect of the water and Marvin’s weight, we probably would have ended up stuck in the sand… But hey, we got it right this time… 🤓 That said, it’s rather impressive to see the speed at which the water rises… Okay, it’s not Mont Saint-Michel either, but it rises fast enough to literally see the water advancing over the sand…

After a sunny morning on our beach, we headed to Tullan Strand, another beach a little further north, known as the local Mecca for surfers… And indeed, the place is not only pretty, but the waves are rather impressive!… After a few photos and a mandatory stop at the “Fairy Bridges”, some bridges (or arches) carved into the rock by the waves, we continued our journey north and crossed Donegal Bay (the largest bay in Ireland) and, very briefly, the penultimate county we’ll pass through: Leitrim. I say “briefly” because, in fact, we only saw 4,5 km of it (that is, the entire length of its coastline) before entering the last and most northerly of the Irish counties on our route: Donegal.

County Donegal is supposed to be the wildest of all Irish counties (along with West Cork), and from what we’ve seen so far, that seems to be true! We settled on Slieve League Mountain (Sliabh Liag in Irish), just at the start of the “Pilgrim Path” that we’ll take tomorrow to reach the cliffs and the ruins of McBric Church and its well. All we have to do now is mentally prepare ourselves (it’s hot and the wind has practically completely died down, and it should be like this until Monday…) while contemplating the beautiful panoramic view we have of the Doonin Valley and the ocean, in the background… Honestly, it would be difficult to complain in these conditions… 😜

Indiana Jones…

There are names like that that evoke adventure, Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones. The “Pilgrim Path” is one of them. We immediately imagine a journey strewn with challenges to find, upon arrival, the Ark of the Covenant or the Chalice of Christ. If we add a section of the path with the charming name “One Man’s Pass,” we immediately enter the category of mythical places where a Spanish galleon once ran aground, its crew forever carrying with them a fantastic treasure in a chest adorned with precious stones…

Okay, okay, the reality is a little different… 😜 The Pilgrim’s Path is a lovely trail of about 2 km and 500 m of elevation gain, which runs along the northeast slope of Slieve League right up to the ridge, that is, just above the cliffs… And what cliffs! The second highest in Ireland (after Croaghaun), and three times higher than the Cliffs of Moher (definitely a tourist trap, these Cliffs of Moher… 😉), with the added bonus of a pretty little lake and a tower dating from the Napoleonic Wars on a small peninsula… At the end of the Pilgrim’s Path are also the ruins of McBric Church, a primitive Catholic site of which only a few stones remain. At the end of the Pilgrim’s Path there is also a small sign indicating that the official trail ends here, and that any incursion beyond the sign is at the hiker’s own risk… Enough to give you confidence, especially since it is precisely a few meters further that the famous One Man’s Pass begins. So yes, the One Man Pass is indeed a fairly narrow ridge, with a 500m cliff dropping directly into the ocean on one side, and another grassy overhang about 300m high on the other, but it’s not the ridge of the Aiguille du Midi either! And the best proof is that I was able to do it in both directions without any problems (despite my fear of heights)!

All this to say that the Slieve League area is rather spectacular. Impressive cliffs (even if perhaps less vertical than some others), and a breathtaking panorama of half the peninsula and Donegal Bay (with the mountains of Mayo in the background). From there, we descended and continued our route to the tip of the peninsula, Malinbeg, and the pretty Silver Strand beach, then continued a little further north to settle in an astonishing spot. North of Ardara, the Owenea River flows into the ocean through a small, flat estuary surrounded by sand dunes. At low tide, the turquoise blue meanders of the river snake across the white sand to reach the ocean. At high tide, all of this fills with water, leaving only a large estuary… We’re set up right on the edge of one of its sandbanks. We’ve asked several people, and the tide shouldn’t reach us tonight. So, it’s like being on a huge, deserted beach. And in the worst case scenario, the sand seems hard, and if we do get stuck, we’ve spotted a farm, just behind the dune, with at least two tractors. That should be enough to get us out of trouble… 😁

Back to Blog

in the south, AS in the north, LEAVE NO TRACE!

– Always travel on public ways and respect the signs.
– Limit noise and interfere as little as possible with wildlife.
– Respect the other users.
– Leave rocks, plants and other natural features as you found them and respect historic sites.
– Take your waste with you and throw it into the appropriate containers, in the nearest village.
– Do not camp inside protected areas and do not make any fires.