Teelin

The village

Teelin (Teileann in Irish) is a Gaeltacht village in the south-west of County Donegal, at the north-west end of Donegal Bay and close to Slieve League. Its population is about two hundred and fifty to three hundred — small enough that the village is a place you pass through, stop in, and find has done what it needed to do. It is the natural start and end point of the Slieve League country: the cliff walk, the falls and the bay all sit within a short drive.

The cliff country

The village sits at the foot of the cliffs, and the walk that climbs from it to the top of Slieve League is the reason most people come. From the top, the whole north-west end of Donegal Bay opens out — the sea, the waterfalls where the gullies cut through the cliff, and the far shore of the bay where the land bends away to Sligo. It is the kind of view that does not need a caption.

The language

Teelin is in the Gaeltacht, and like its neighbours it keeps Irish as a living language. The village is small and unshowy about it; the school, the shop and the church carry the day to day, and the wider Donegal Gaeltacht — the last great Irish-speaking region in the country — is the context that matters.

Practical

Allow two to three hours for the cliff walk and the village itself. Pair it with the bay: the drive along the coast from Teelin to the Rosses is as good as anything in the county, and the two make a day.