Parks & Gardens in County Donegal

The six places gathered here sit at opposite ends of the county. Sheephaven Bay, on the north coast, is a broad shallow inlet held between the Rosguill and Horn Head peninsulas, with Doe Castle standing on the water near Creeslough and beaches and small villages spaced around the shore. Trawbreaga Bay, at the northern tip of Inishowen, is a sea lough braided into channels by sandbanks, protected as a Special Protection Area and Ramsar wetland; barnacle and brent geese fill it in winter, and bird hides, ruined Carrickabraghy Castle and the Knockamany Bens viewpoint are all close by.

The southern pair sits on Donegal Bay. Mountcharles is six kilometres west of Donegal Town, where the Wild Atlantic Way pier is level and free and has a café; Salthill Gardens, behind century-old walls just outside the village, opens only on selected summer afternoons, so check before you travel. Inver, a Gaeltacht village at the mouth of the River Eany, keeps the stone ruins of Ireland’s first whaling station at the Port of Inver, three kilometres out from the village; charter boats now leave the harbour in summer looking for whales and dolphins.

Inland, Ballybofey and Stranorlar face each other across the River Finn. Drumboe Woods runs along the river on the Stranorlar side, and Seán MacCumhaill Park, the county’s main GAA ground, sits on the boundary between the two towns. Both are well away from the northern bays, so they make a separate day.