Walks & Trails in County Donegal

Twelve walks here, and most of them sit in the western half of the county. The Derryveagh Mountains supply the hardest of them: Aghla Beg, two tops at 564m and 603m, is third from the north in the Seven Sisters, and the full Seven Sisters traverse strings seven peaks between Muckish and Errigal over roughly 21 km with about 1,700 m of climbing. Neither is waymarked. The ground is bog and loose scree, there is no signage, and both are navigation days rather than afternoon strolls. An Cnoc Fada is the gentler way into the same range, a 7.4 km loop climbing 343 m to a ridge above the Poisoned Glen.

The coast gives you Glen Head, a free 5 km route out of Glencolmcille past a Napoleonic signal tower to the cliffs at Sturrall, once called the nicest coastal walk in Ireland by the Irish Times.

For something flatter, Ardara is the useful base in the south-west: the Owenea runs down to the sea there, and you can follow it 11.7 km from the Diamond to Glenties on the Bluestack Way. Bonny Glen near Glenties has two short lakeside loops in Coillte forest. Kerrykeel, over on Mulroy Bay, has a 5.6 km waymarked loop to the Gortnavern portal tomb. The Owenea is a spate river, so it can go from clear to roaring in a day.