Carndonagh

The village

Carndonagh (Ceann Dunnaigh in Irish) is a town on the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal, close to Trawbreaga Bay. Its 2022 census population was 2,768, which makes it the biggest of the peninsula’s north-coast villages and the practical crossroads of that coast: the road along the bay, the road into the glens and the road to the Fahan all meet here. It is a working village — shops, fuel, a full range of stays — and the kind of place that exists to be based in.

The bay and the coast

Trawbreaga Bay is the village’s front door: a wide, sandy, sheltered stretch of the Atlantic that has been fished and worked for generations, and that still does the work for the summer boats. The coast road out of the village runs to the beaches and the headlands of the north coast, and the drive along it — bay on one side, glens and townlands on the other — is as good as the staying. The sea here is the west Atlantic in its proper form, and the village is the base that makes it easy.

The glens

Behind the village, the country rises into the glens of Inishowen, and the walks from the village into that country are the other half of the day: short enough for a morning, long enough to be worth the drive, and better before the wind builds. The village is the natural start for anyone who wants the interior as well as the coast.

Practical

Allow a day: the bay in the morning, the glens in the afternoon, and the village’s pub at the end of it. Pair it with Glencolmcille to the south for a full coast day.