Friday, May 10th

The pattern of alternating cloudy and sunny days continued. The morning was crystal clear and would remain so all day and evening. Our objective for the morning was Donegal Castle in Donegal town. The route took us past a few points of interest. The first was Killybegs, which gets the prize for the biggest place in Ireland I'd never heard of. I had read somewhere that it is the main fishing port in Ireland but otherwise I don't think it ever crossed my radar. Well goodness. What a place! It is the home port to LOTS of ocean going fishing boats/ships. And the harbor can accommodate large cruise ships, one of which was docked there and would shortly unleash 1500 people into the town. Quiet little fishing village? Yeah, no.

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We would stop here for lunch later in the week. For now, on to Donegal town and the castle.

The O'Donnell clan had a fortress on this site since the 5th century. The one here now was built by Red Hugh O'Donnell in about 1460. It changed hands several times during the various rebellions. It is in good repair and gives at least a vague clue how the richest guy in the province actually lived. In the picture below the great hall on the left was added in the 1630s. 

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Like all circular staircases in these castles this one turns to the right as you ascend. That's so a right handed defender will have his sword directly over an attacker's head while the right handed attacker's sword is in an awkward position.  _8507833

We also went over to the nearby Franciscan Friary, at the mouth of the river Eske.

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Below is old Red O'Donnell himself.

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On the way back to Carrick we stopped at the Secret Waterfall. In fact we timed the whole day trip to be there at that time, low tide. The waterfall drops into a cave and then flows into the sea.

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We then headed up to the main attraction of this part of Co. Donegal, Slieve League. They are billed as the highest sea cliffs in Ireland and I've seen the claim they are the highest in Europe. It all depends on your definition of the term "cliff". Achill Island in County Mayo has a higher mountain that drops directly into the sea but Donegal says it's not a cliff. In any case, at 1972 feet they are close to three times the height of the Cliffs of Moher and a very impressive stretch of scenery. 

_8507981 _8508017 _8508022  Below is a Napoleon era watch tower with County Sligo's Benbulbin in the background. 

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When everyone had soaked up enough of this natural beauty we headed back down to The Rusty Mackerel for dinner. I would be heading back up for sunset.

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When I got back up to the cliffs I realized that the sun would set too far north to light up the cliff face. But I had another composition in my hip pocket for a backup.

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But there's more. When all the color was gone I drove back to Carrick. It had been a long day. There was however, one more light show in store for us. This was May 10th. All over the northern hemisphere the aurora borealis was putting on a spectacular display. Boo & Rollie went out to scout for it and did they ever find it! We were farther north than any city in Canada and had very dark skies. At times it stretched from horizon to horizon. To the naked eye these colors were not this vivid. But the sensor on my camera sees more than our eyes, especially on a long exposure. The images below are as they came from the camera. They are not pumped up in post processing.

_8508155 _8508171 _8508176 What a day!