Monday 16 September – Buncranna to Buncranna

We don't seem to be making much progress in our quest to travel the west coast of Ireland! Up earlyish today, our plan was to visit the Famine Village which we bypassed on Saturday then head further south. But first we visited the T.I. office, just to check the Famine Village was open today – and ended up with another pile of information leaflets and books. I'm sure these folk are paid by the amount of paper they give out!

It turns out of course that there is a lot to see and do on the Inishowen peninsular so we arranged our routing to take some of it in. There is in fact another guided route, the Inishowen 100, which is a circular tour and we quickly found ourselves following the signposts, some of which coincided with the Wild Atlantic Way.

Suffice it to say we spent the latter part of the morning following narrow country roads, up and down mountains including a recommended stop at a waterfall which involved a 2km stroll up and then back down a valley. Unfortunately dogs were not permitted, cannot see why, so Jamie got left on his own again.

Glenevin Waterfall

Just approaching lunchtime we arrived at the Famine Village, an exhibition set up by a local around the home and village he used to live in, mainly covering the events of the Famine in Ireland but expanding into the why's and wherefore's. The owner was in fact the guide and was very interesting to listen to, offering a personal view of Irish history and the subsequent results of all that befell the land. The effects of religion, poor government, rogue landowners etc. were covered, not in any political way but from his own opinions. Certainly quite different to anything else we've ever experienced and we would thoroughly recommend it – as well as for the tot of poteen (“illicit” Irish whiskey) and the tea and scone afterwards which made up for what we thought was a tad expensive €10 pp admission.

The original "Gypsie" Travellers

Peat thatched cottage

Eviction through non-payment of rent

Several set scenes showing the results of the Famine

We enjoyed our visit, although Jamie was in a huff because he'd been left alone AGAIN for hours and hours........... But as it was now mid-afternoon it was obvious that we were not going much further today so decided to return to Buncranna for tonight then make a serious effort to make progress tomorrow.

It's fairly obvious that there is no way we are going to complete even half of the route so have changed our mindset to progress at a comfortable pace for the time we have left, then make plans to return maybe next year to complete it.