Donegal Day Trip

[Toppie]

I made an early morning start to travel to Donegal yesterday morning.
A bit of a circular route around 400 km.

My days outing was exactly 8 hours, door to door.

 

 

It was a cold start. 

I waited till it was light as I suspected a bit of freezing going on. Maybe a bit of black ice?
So.. 7am saw me on the road.
It was only 4°c and after about an hour I was pretty well chilled through.
(I'd underdressed a bit for the occasion)

Not to worry, by 10am it'd warmed up to over 8° and got slowly warmer across the day.
Stayed dry as well which was a nice bonus.

I stayed off of the main drag as much as possible and  bypassed Omagh by riding a bit of 'The Sperrin'

 

 

It wasn't the most spectacular section of Sperrin but, a whole lot prettier than the main roads...

 

 

 

I had to circle Strabane and I was compelled to stop at the stainless steel road art there.
It's called 'Let the Dance begin'.

I stop to look at this piece of art almost every time I wander along these parts.  The figures are often clothed when there's an event of some sort.  Football gear when there's a big match on.
At Halloween they're dressed as witches and through the pandemic they were all in medical gowns and face masks.

Five figures...two dancers and a three piece band.
Affectionately aka 'The Tinnies'

 

The Piper

 

The Fiddler...

 

 

...and every decent band needs a Drummer,

 

A short while later I'd circled 'round the outskirts of Letterkenny Town and was heading towards my Photo Rally point, the Owencarrow Viaduct Disaster memorial.

A tragedy that occurred there in January 1925.

Here's a link for anyone interested.

https://www.monreaghulsterscotscentre.com/owencarrow-viaduct/#:~:text=Disaster occurred on the night,four people to their deaths.

 

 

Getting very close to my destination, TomTom gave me an instruction.

Time to go just a little off piste.

 

Just around the bend in this picture, the unmade road dropped very, very steeply for about a hundred metres.
It was severely rutted and strewn with loose rocks.

 

 

Once I'd started the descent I was committed... whether I wanted to be, or not.
I managed to pick my way down quite slowly then, came to a fairly easy section.

TomTom said I was 2 kms from my destination but...didn't actually show that I wasn't on any sort of road or track!

A short way later and on a now narrow, more pedestrian path way, I realised I'd made a balls up.
I struggled a bit to get the bike turned around then, made my way back to the main road.

 

 

I backtracked a bit then realised I'd overshot my turning earlier.

When I arrived there was another biker there and two more bikes came along while we were chatting away.

Another feller, in a van, just stopped for a natter and a look at our bikes!

 

I took the required selfie and a couple more photos...

 

 

It's a cold and blowy auld spot here.

I tried to visualise the night of that tragedy.  This place seems like a bit of a wind tunnel.

 

 

 

 

After exchanging stories with fellow bikers, I began heading homewards and decided to take the longer route via Ballybofey and shoot along the lovely winding Lough Erne shoreline towards Enniskillen.

Stopped for a leg stretch and gave a dad 'n lad fishing pair a wave hello!

 

 

Getting nearer to home I stopped on the Cavan-Fermangh border to have a closer look at the 'Peace for All' statue.

The male figure represents Cú Chulainn, a character from Old Irish Folklore and the female figure is 'Mother Ireland'

A story much too long to tell on here.
Back in 2016 some maggots tried to nick the statue. It's thought for its scrap value but, it seems it was too heavy for them to make a clean getaway and they abandoned it.
It is a very 'chunky' looking thing.

 

 

 

 

I rode the last 40 minutes home feeling I'd had a great days riding.

What a good do!  

 

 

[AZJW]

You live in a beautiful part of our planet, thanks for sharing. 

[john_aero]

Nice trip, Donegal has some lovely trails, i must head up that way during the summer

[Toppie]

 

An 05:50 outset Westwards yesterday had me on the very, very most enjoyable day's outing of this year...by far.

 

 

At a quarter past six on this glorious morning I'd been riding for an hour in perfect weather conditions with hardly a sign of any other traffic or, any living souls at all.

 

I travelled through Lietrim, the least populated county in Ireland.

The weather was simply perfect and the roads blissfully void of traffic even though it was a working day.

I stopped at The Ballroom of Romance in Glenfarne for a leg stretch.

My brother in law played in a showband here back in the sixties.

 

I stopped alongside Ballygawley Lough, a lovely little lakeside spot just before Ballysadare Town.

There's a roadside monument there to the poet Yeats.

It was a nice place to stop for a few minutes and I took a little walk lakeside.

The monument depicts a quill and an inkwell...

 

 

 

Quiet bliss with just a bit of a birdsong soundtrack.

 

I was heading to the Errit (Mullet)Peninsular.
There's a Photo Rally point there and I've never, ever ventured onto that island peninsular before.

Mountains in the distance told me I was closer to my destination.

 

I had stunning open roads all to myself but a roadworks section came as a surprise.

The traffic control countdown timer told me I had a 4 minute plus wait.

Couldn't see the road ahead so played safe and switched of my motor.

Nothing came along. In either direction.

I waited alone.

 

Then, I enjoyed mile after mile of the glorious N59.

 

Oh, my word.

What a very good do!

It was +- 4 hours riding to reach Belmullet.

What a stomping morning's riding.

My rally point was Glosh Tower and a bit of research told me about it:

Glosh Tower on Termon Hill is one of the 82 Napoleonic Towers built between 1801-06 around the coast of Ireland. The English, taken by surprise after the landing of the French in Bantry Bay and General Humbert and the French in Kilcummin near Killala in 1798 immediately set about guarding the coastline by building signal towers. They were mostly built around 1806 and noted for their tall square shape with buttresses and quarry slates to protect the outside walls. This tower is situated at the summit of Termon Hill, 53 meters above sea level, and commands a fine view.

Signal Towers were to keep watch on the coast for any sign of the French who might be invading; at such a sign, signals would be passed on the next tower and so on back to the commanding station.

 

I found the island peninsular a lovely area to visit.

Just so 'quietly pretty'.

I'd rode a long way to take in just the one rally point so decided to do a little more exploring while I was in the area.

Road Art and such stuff interests me so I looked up Deirbhle's Twist.

There's some nice views from this heavy duty piece of art work

 

https://www.northmayoarttrail.com/site-o

 

A YouTube wee video gives good idea of what it's like 'up close and personal'.

 

https://youtu.be/8PFpoMKD87E

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here it was just a short ride to Blacksod Lighthouse an Pier.

 

 

By this time it was late morning and I was on a bit of a deadline...

 

 

I took a brief stroll along the beach before starting my homeward 4 hour ride..

 

 

 

I stopped by a lakeside somewhere in Mayo at about half past noon for my Padkos and then...fired the bike no-stop homewards.

 

 

I think I've had just as good a days riding in the past but, possibly, none better.

 

 

Just before reaching home, I took a short cut along some old farm-type trails.

 

 

In fact, it only saves me about 3 minutes but...

It gives me an extra 15 minutes of fun.

 

What a good do!

 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Toppie

[Noel McCutcheon]

On 4/10/2023 at 6:39 AM, Toppie said:

I made an early morning start to travel to Donegal yesterday morning.
A bit of a circular route around 400 km.

My days outing was exactly 8 hours, door to door.

 

 

It was a cold start. 

I waited till it was light as I suspected a bit of freezing going on. Maybe a bit of black ice?
So.. 7am saw me on the road.
It was only 4°c and after about an hour I was pretty well chilled through.
(I'd underdressed a bit for the occasion)

Not to worry, by 10am it'd warmed up to over 8° and got slowly warmer across the day.
Stayed dry as well which was a nice bonus.

I stayed off of the main drag as much as possible and  bypassed Omagh by riding a bit of 'The Sperrin'

 

 

It wasn't the most spectacular section of Sperrin but, a whole lot prettier than the main roads...

 

 

 

I had to circle Strabane and I was compelled to stop at the stainless steel road art there.
It's called 'Let the Dance begin'.

I stop to look at this piece of art almost every time I wander along these parts.  The figures are often clothed when there's an event of some sort.  Football gear when there's a big match on.
At Halloween they're dressed as witches and through the pandemic they were all in medical gowns and face masks.

Five figures...two dancers and a three piece band.
Affectionately aka 'The Tinnies'

 

The Piper

 

The Fiddler...

 

 

...and every decent band needs a Drummer,

 

A short while later I'd circled 'round the outskirts of Letterkenny Town and was heading towards my Photo Rally point, the Owencarrow Viaduct Disaster memorial.

A tragedy that occurred there in January 1925.

Here's a link for anyone interested.

https://www.monreaghulsterscotscentre.com/owencarrow-viaduct/#:~:text=Disaster occurred on the night,four people to their deaths.

 

 

Getting very close to my destination, TomTom gave me an instruction.

Time to go just a little off piste.

 

Just around the bend in this picture, the unmade road dropped very, very steeply for about a hundred metres.
It was severely rutted and strewn with loose rocks.

 

 

Once I'd started the descent I was committed... whether I wanted to be, or not.
I managed to pick my way down quite slowly then, came to a fairly easy section.

TomTom said I was 2 kms from my destination but...didn't actually show that I wasn't on any sort of road or track!

A short way later and on a now narrow, more pedestrian path way, I realised I'd made a balls up.
I struggled a bit to get the bike turned around then, made my way back to the main road.

 

 

I backtracked a bit then realised I'd overshot my turning earlier.

When I arrived there was another biker there and two more bikes came along while we were chatting away.

Another feller, in a van, just stopped for a natter and a look at our bikes!

 

I took the required selfie and a couple more photos...

 

 

It's a cold and blowy auld spot here.

I tried to visualise the night of that tragedy.  This place seems like a bit of a wind tunnel.

 

 

 

 

Nice, bit on Owencarrow Viaduct I didn’t know. 

[Toppie]

Quite a long day out yesterday in perfect conditions.

It wasn't quite sunrise when I left the house but, shortly afterwards I stopped and watched the day begin.

 

I planned my route to take in a Photo Rally spot plus a couple of Club-K Challenge points.
My route took me +- 500 kms.

 

First stop was at the at Beardville House.  It's a private property and originally occupied by Scottish settlers in the 1600's.
The Photo point is the gatehouse, built as a 'folly'.

It was nice riding to reach this point.

 

 

I took my selfie the headed just a few kilometres to MotoPlus in Coleraine town.

That was just around 08:30 and the dealership wasn't yet open.

 

From there I had a couple of hours riding to do to get to the Club-K Challenge point in Downings, Donegal.

Revelled in riding the lovely route to reach that point.

 

Lough Salt is a deep, fresh water lake which is a water source for Donegal.

One of the deepest lakes in the land.

I think it's close on 300 feet at its deepest point.

The narrow road that winds it's way past the lake rises up towards a crest.

It's literally breath-taking if you ride over the crest at around 55+ kph.

The road immediately falls away and you've a miles long view down to the village of Glen.

For just a moment...it's a bit like falling off the world.

 

 

 

The wee town of Downings is very picturesque and has lovely beaches. 

 

It's where the Laurentic Gun is on display. A relic that's documented in a previous post.

It's a lovely place to visit and a stomping bike-ride to reach here.

 

I pointed my bike homewards from here and rode along the Mulroy Way towards Ramelton,  stopping to look across Mulroy Bay.

A beautiful day!

 

 

 

A few moments in the cool on Mulroy Bay's shore before heading onwards...

 

 

After a brief stop for a cuppa and sandwich in Ramelton I topped up with fuel and rode non-stop homewards.

 

 

I topped up my tank near Ramelton and fired my bike non-stop homewards.

A ten hour day that seemed to pass in a flash.

Great summer days!

What a good do!

 

 

[electric_monk]

Ramelton Football Special

[JB700]

Brilliant, we're off to Co Sligo again at the end of next week and always come down the Clogher valley from Belfast and pass the 'Ballroom of Romance' building and love it

That area is stunning and when we were last there 8-9 weeks ago (same time as your pics) the weather was stunning as your pics show and we swam at Dunmoran Strand every day, it was so hot

 

[DT700]

Beautiful, makes me want to visit that part of the world.  Thanks for sharing