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Glebe House (Easter week & mid-May to Sept 11am-6.30pm; closed Fri; GBP2/?2.53; Heritage Card) is a gorgeous Regency building set in beautiful gardens on the northwest shore of Lough Gartan. Richly decorated both inside and out, it owes its fame to the time of its tenure by the artist Derek Hill, though it's now run as a gallery by the Office of Public Works. The converted stables house some of Hill's paintings and are used for visiting exhibitions, while the rooms of the house itself display a rich collection of paintings and sketches, including works by Kokoschka, Yeats, Renoir, Braque, Picasso and Degas. The study is decked out in original William Morris wallpaper, and there are Chinese tapestries in the morning room. The kitchen has various paintings by the Tory Island group of primitive painters , most remarkably James Dixon's impression of Tory from the sea. It's well worth buying the guidebook and taking the tour. Moving on round the northeast of the lake, in the direction of Church Hill, a right turn immediately after crossing the bridge will take you down to the modern Colmcille Heritage Centre (Easter week & May-Sept Mon-Sat 10.30am-6.30pm, Sun 1-6.30pm; GBP1.50/?1.90), on the opposite shore from Glebe. The exhibition space is devoted to Columba's life and the spread of the Celtic Church throughout Europe. If you have no interest in ecclesiastical history, there are other intriguing items, including very beautiful stained glass windows of biblical scenes by Ciaran O'Conner and Ditty Kummer and a step-by-step illustration of vellum illumination and calligraphy. The road to the heritage centre continues a little further on to the Gartan Outdoor Adventure Centre (tel 074/37032), which runs a range of outdoor activities in the locality and on the Donegal coast, including courses in mountain skills and leadership and sea kayaking (prices start at GBP80/?101.27 for a mountain skills weekend). Continuing east from here towards Letterkenny, you ascend from the northern shore to Church Hill , with superb cross-country views as far north as the peninsulas.
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