Creevagh Heights B&B is only a few kilometers from a place called Downpatrick Head, where parts of the cliffs have eroded into the sea, so we went over there to look at it in the morning.
While we were walking up the hill to the edge of the cliffs, there was a sheep lying all alone in the middle of the field with its legs sticking straight up. We assumed this to be a dead sheep. None of the other ones were paying attention to it at all. Then a crazy German woman went over there and KICKED IT and it got up and ran away. What is happening.
Anyway, Downpatrick Head turned out to be indeed beautiful.
There used to be a natural bridge connecting this to the land but it collapsed hundreds of years ago, stranding some people who happened to be out there at the time. Our B&B owner said it took weeks to figure out how to get them back to land. It's hard to tell how much of this story is apocryphal and what is really true; the guidebook said the bridge collapsed in the 1300s but the B&B lady said it was "a couple hundred years ago."
During World War II, someone lived in this little stone room to watch for bombers.
He had a pretty good view.
EIRE is written in huge stone letters at Downpatrick Head - this was done all up and down the Irish coast during the war, because Ireland was neutral and they didn't want anyone on either side to assume they were over enemy territory. We'd had no idea Ireland was neutral in World War II until this was casually mentioned to us.
Ye olde Seat Mii at the Downpatrick Head car park.
After this we drove a few kilometers back to the Lacken area to hike around before it started raining. The road to reach the trailhead was completely ridiculous. At one point we met someone head on and had to literally back up for probably a quarter mile to allow them to pass. The woman at the B&B had told us to "drive for a bit until you reach the big stone wall, and the car park is just beyond there at the church." We drove for what seemed like much too long, passing many big stone walls, and were just about to give up on the whole thing when suddenly there was a big stone wall followed by a church with a car park and posted hiking maps.
This turned out to be an utterly deserted 8km loop.
This was the first real beach we'd seen in all our days along the coast.
County Mayo's football team was in the upcoming All-Ireland championship against Dublin, to be held the day after we left. We learned that following Mayo's last victory in the all-Ireland championship, they failed to stop the victory parade for a funeral procession, and are now considered to be cursed - they haven't won again in around 50 years. The curse says they won't win until all the members of that disrespectful team are dead, and there's only one poor guy left. Nonetheless, everyone was really excited for the upcoming match.
The curse held, however - Dublin won.
Anyway, the walk was paved and wound around through fields with nice views of the beach and the hills.
At one point there is a megalithic passage tomb you can look at. Just sitting here with no supervision.
This is a real road! There were houses on it!
The Lacken Gazebo is visible through the last quarter of the hike, high on a hill. It was built in the 1800s but nobody knows why. There are stories that it might be related to the Masons, or possibly someone built it in honor of his dead wife.
As we came down the last hill, it started to rain.
Then it rained constantly for the rest of the day. This was our only day of truly bad weather, where you couldn't really be outside. Fortunately we drove through a couple hours of it, arriving in Donegal mid-afternoon.
Our hotel in Donegal kind of sucked. The reviews are glowing, but half the hotel turned out to be motel-style rooms with doors to the outside and we got one of those. After our stellar experiences the previous two nights, it was a bit of a bummer. But we were only there one night so it was fine.
It was still pouring in Donegal, so we bundled up and went to see Donegal Castle, a short walk away.
The newer part is in ruins.
But the older parts still exist, or have been restored.
The castle was occupied by the O'Donnell clan for hundreds of years. They built the staircase with intentionally uneven steps, to deter potential attackers.
After this we decided to find a pub and hang out for a while, as there are not many indoor activities in small villages in Ireland. We looked into a movie but the nearest theatre was 13 kilometers away. Instead we went to The Olde Castle Bar, which turned out to be fantastic. They seated us in a cozy little booth in the back, but when we ordered the seafood platter for two the server recommended we move to a bigger table as "the seafood platter is quite large."
It WAS large! A great way to finish the day.
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