Overview
The Owenea is rated among the best salmon rivers in County Donegal – around 400 fish a year come off its nine beats – but you don’t need a rod to enjoy it. From its source at Lough Ea in the Bluestack Mountains, it runs 21 km through Glenties and into Loughrosmore Bay north of Ardara, and for much of that way the free Owenea River Walk shadows the water. It is a spate river, quick to rise and quick to fall, so it looks different from one day to the next.
Walking the trail
The walk runs 11.7 km from Ardara’s Diamond to Glenties, waymarked with the yellow-on-black posts of the Bluestack Way – of which it forms one section of the longer 65 km route to Donegal Town. The path crosses low stone bridges and threads through oak and ash woodland with the Bluestack range as a backdrop.
The one thing to sort before you start: it is a point-to-point, not a loop. At 11.7 km each way you will want a lift or a second car waiting in Glenties, unless you are up for a full day there and back. Expect muddy going after rain, and in spate the river turns from clear to a brown roar, throwing up gravel bars and short waterfalls that reshape the banks.
Fishing
Anglers have long put the Owenea near the top of Donegal’s salmon rivers. The bottom 12 km is split into nine double-bank beats managed by Inland Fisheries Ireland, with the Owenea Angling Centre at Glenties (074 9551141) as the hub – toilets, hospitality, facilities for anglers with disabilities, and a steel footbridge for crossing. The Stracastle River, the main tributary, joins at The Crambam Pool on Beat 3.
The season runs from 1 April to 30 September. Spring salmon show from April, but the river really comes alive with the grilse run from July, and the fish keep coming to the end of the season; sea-trout numbers have clawed back some ground since the collapse of the 1980s. It is mainly a fly river, though spinning is allowed. Shrimp and prawn are banned outright, and worm is not permitted between the neck of Wards Pool (beat 5) and the tail of Archies Pool (beat 6). A strict catch-and-release policy covers all salmon and any sea trout over 40 cm, on barbless single hooks.
You need a State salmon and sea-trout licence and a fishery permit before you fish. Both can be bought online through the IFI permit shop (permits.fishinginireland.info) or at tackle shops in Ardara and Glenties. Check water levels first, as a heavy spate can put beats out of action.
Wildlife and landscape
The Owenea’s clean, oxygen-rich runs make good hunting for kingfishers, and grey herons and cormorants work the banks. Red squirrels, stoats and songbirds hold in the woodland and moor above. The river sits within a catchment that includes two Special Areas of Conservation, and IFI and local groups carry out habitat work – bank stabilisation and native tree planting – to keep it in condition.
Practical information
The walk is open all year and free. There is free parking in Ardara’s town car park and near the Glenties trailhead, and the first Bluestack Way post is signed within a few minutes of the Diamond. For anglers, the fishery works dawn to dusk in season.
Historically the Owenea (Irish: Abhainn Fhia) marked the boundary of the old territory of Tir Ainmirech, and Ardara is one of Donegal’s five designated heritage towns. For fishery enquiries, the Owenea Angling Centre in Glenties is the point of contact.
Nearby
Ardara pairs the river with the Ardara Heritage Centre and its Donegal-tweed story, and the town’s pubs are known for trad sessions. Within a short drive are Glengesh Pass, Assaranca Waterfall, Maghera Beach and its caves, Kilclooney Dolmen, and the beaches at Narin and Portnoo. For a bigger day on the hills, the Bluestack Mountains rise straight above the valley.