Spring 2023

Tullagh Strand via Letterkenny and Buncrana - 19 May 2023

19 May 2023 - Tullagh Bay Beach via Letterkenny & Buncrana

Highly nutritious peanuts, followed by egg on toast to eat last night - Sarah - say nothing…

There were quite a few swimmers coming and going - obviously a popular spot. Lovely to hear the happy chatter carrying across the water!

Yesterday, I had to reverse into the parking area due to the angle in the road and the length of Dave - pictures don’t really do it justice of how narrow it was to get in and out! Was even mentioned in Park4night for being a bit ‘tight’ getting in!

Tintin in the driving seat today - about 2 hours before lunch, and another few this afternoon! Again, mixture of roads - both surface and width 😉

First discovery point was Ballymastocker Strand - yes, another lovely beach.

Drove to Rathmullan, husband was on the hunt for a tap! It was just a push button one, so we’d have to use the container and funnel - so gave it a miss.

From here, we could have caught a ferry to Buncrana - saving over 60km of driving - but the ferry doesn’t start until June! Such a short season over here.

The bronze sculptures are ‘The flight of the Earls’ which were just alongside the carpark.

Decided to get more diesel, as apparently it’s cheaper in Ireland rather than Northern Island. Was €1.44/ltr. I asked if we could top up with water, and a man went outside and made it available for us. The place was a building site with lots of work going on. Very kind 🙂

It was food shopping day too. We stopped off at Lidl - well they do huge tins of very good peaches for less cost than usual size tins at other places. In hindsight, we probably should have done all our shopping there! We were in Letterkenny, so Tintin had asked if I’d like to go to a Tesco for a change. Was ok, but I don’t think it’s cheaper if you don’t have a club card. We even had to (!) buy some more rum - €23 for 70cl - could be worse!

Being in a larger place reminded us why we prefer smaller towns and villages. Traffic queues all the way. Also got stuck in lots of school traffic around Buncrana…

We stopped off at the visitor centre in Buncrana, as we could empty black waste here. Whilst Tintin had that lovely job, I went inside. The information place is only just opening, hasn’t got data yet, and waiting for more brochures and finishing off. The young man couldn’t have been more helpful. He was so enthusiastic about the whole Inishowen peninsula, and gave me lots of reading material, including a map of Derry - so we’re sorted for that! Hope your football injuries heal quickly!

We didn’t stay, as Buncrana seemed quite busy, and there were quite a few mohos jammed in a fairly small space. We’re used to being by ourselves in random carparks!

I was having issues with some of the roads yesterday - did today too!

To the extent that at one point we stopped and asked a man if we were on the right road - as it seemed more of a little lane - we got more than we bargained for! Yes we were on the Inishowen 100 Coastal scenic route, and don’t worry about it being single width lanes, with overgrown bushes!…

He then told us of his (and many others) sad plight. In summary, since 2011 one of the companies, Cassidy Brothers have knowingly been producing defective concrete blocks for use in construction of buildings and homes. They contain too much of the mineral mica. Here’s a link to find out a bit more:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica_scandal

The man has six children under the age of ten. He said there’s been quite a few suicides as people can’t see a way out. They can’t get insurance, they can’t sell, and their homes are crumbling away - and the powers that be won’t help. It’s like the Grenfell Towers issue - takes tragedy before anyone listens. I really hope that the companies selling the duff concrete get their comeuppance.

Onwards on the narrow road. We did meet a tractor, no photo!

Also had a very pretty cow on the road alongside us - novel!

As ever, on the ‘magic road’, by the time we were getting near the top of the extremely steep narrow ‘road’ - we were in the fog again! Tintin actually used the hill descent as it was so steep - thankfully didn’t meet anyone (and thankfully no nutter in a moho!) in crucial moments!

All this for a look out at Gap of Mamore! Mind you, was a lovely view! The road is only 2.5km, and ends up 262m above sea level. The average gradient is 12.2%. Finding out this stuff post visit!