The case for Ardara

We keep a running list of places in Co. Donegal worth the detour. This is the Ardara entry, with the practical bits up front.

Ardara is a small town in the south-west of County Donegal, about twenty-five kilometres north-west of Donegal town, on the N56 and R261 roads. Its population at the 2022 census was 785, up from 731 in 2011 — an increase of about thirty per cent since 2006, which is a good deal for a town its size. In 2012, The Irish Times named it the best village in which to live in Ireland, and the title has stuck to the place ever since: it is the kind of town that is easy to understand, with the shops, the fuel, the pub and the school all inside a ten-minute walk.

Ardara sits at the foot of the Bluestack Mountains, and that range is the town’s other reason for existing. The walks from the town into the Bluestacks are short enough for a day and wild enough to be worth the drive, and the west coast — the bays, the headlands, the small settlements — is the other half of the day. The N56 through the town means it is on the way rather than out of the way, and that is the difference between a stop and a base.

The census numbers and the title tell the same story: people move to Ardara and stay. The town is small enough to be quiet and big enough to be convenient, and the country around it — the Bluestacks to the east, the coast to the west — is the kind of country that does not need much doing to it. It is the practical choice for the south-west Donegal circuit.

Practical. The town and the walks are free; there are no ticketed sites, as last known. Best time: may to September for the walks and the longest light; the coast is best before midday. The town is free and open. The Bluestack walks are open mountain — the weather on the range changes fast, and the tracks are unmade in places. Getting there: from Donegal town, the N56 north-west — about twenty-five kilometres. From Sligo, the N59 west to the N56 and then north-west to Ardara. The town centre is on the N56, with the R261 to the coast

Where to stay. Ardara (in the town) — The town itself — B&Bs, a guesthouse and self-catering, at the foot of the Bluestacks. Donegal town (30 min by car) — The larger base, twenty-five kilometres to the south-east, for the whole western circuit.

Nearby, if the day runs long. Buncrana (The second-largest town in Donegal, on the Inishowen shore of Lough Swilly — the old O’Dohertys’ seat, O’Doherty’s Keep at the river mouth, and the town that the textile trade built up.); Bundoran (The surf town at the foot of the Doran River, listed by National Geographic in 2012 as one of the world’s top 20 surf towns — and the place where Mícheál Ó Cléirigh compiled the Annals of the Four Masters.); Carndonagh (The Inishowen village on Trawbreaga Bay — the crossroads of the peninsula’s north coast, with the Atlantic beaches, the glens and the old fishing country all inside the hour.);

That is the honest version. The full page has the map, the access notes and the source list; this post is the version to read on the drive there.

Checked 18 October 2026. Full details, map and sources: Ardara on the places pages.