The drive to Glenveagh is about two and a half hours from Belfast, through some very picturesque countryside. The park itself covers more than 16,000 hectares, the vast majority of it heath and moor. We stayed the night in the coach park, adjoining the main, very large car park. Hardly had we arrived when we had a visit. A family of four deer had come to nibble on the various trees in the carpark. A lovely sight, we sadly don't see too often.
I went for a ride on my bike up to the castle, which sits beside Lough Veagh four kilometers from the car park. The estate was established by John Adair, who became infamous for evicting 244 of his tenants and clearing the land so they would not spoil his view of the landscape. Seems like a nice chap.
uneventful, but the blue sky and the call of the birdlife, it was magical. Back in Helga, Margaret had dragged herself from her slumbers and we walked this time. Breakfast in the Castle tea room was delicious, and then it was time to get back and on the road again.
We wound our way slowly along the narrow roads of Donegal, through Letterkenny and on to the Malin peninsula. Malin Head is the most northerly point on Ireland. I'd remembered it from my school days, and to this day still wanted to visit it. Before the end of 2015 we intend to sleep at the four extremities of our island. There is a short guide to Malin Head here. It's by a local guy called John Ward.
No tv reception so we went for a walk. It was pitch dark and all we had was a torch. We walked the path along the cliff top until we came to a sign telling us the rest of the way didn't have a fence! Well that did it, we climbed back up to where Helga was parked and gratefully climbed aboard into the heat.We were sleeping soundly, until at two twenty the wind, the notorious North Atlantic howler started to rock the boat, or in our case, Helga. It was a bit unnerving because I was disorientated with sleep and couldn't remember if we could be blown over the cliff. We were sound and we were safe enough. The much sought, but equally elusive Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights can very often be seen here, but not on our watch! We got up, and in a determined spirit set out to retrace our steps from last night. In the day time this is what we saw, although not at that height. We skipped breakfast because we had passed a couple of lovely beaches on the way up, and thought it would be nice to have a wee fry beside a pretty beach. As it happened, we never got to the beach, instead we stopped by the side of a busy road and got the pan on. Loving the life!
Our next stop was to be at our friends house, if we are ever in the area he lets us park on his drive. Like I was saying, loving the life. Freddie and Catherine have three adorable daughters, two teens and one just past the teen stage. Their house is a whirlwind of laughter and calling out, poor old Freddie must be looking forward to his sixties! We went for a few drinks in a couple of different places, and ended up eating the biggest kebab I've ever seen. Claire went to Kebab House down by the city walls to get it. Yummy. Sunday morning saw us having a breakfast, very ably cooked by Claire and Daddy, the out for a stroll around the city. Derry is a lovely city, compact like Belfast, and so easy to get around. Even up on those walls!
Well, that was another fine weekend, thanks for being part of it all that were there.
