The Town
Donegal takes its name from Dun na nGall , and the original "fort of the foreigners" was thought to have been built on the banks of the River Eske by invading Vikings. There's no doubt, however, that the first Red Hugh O'Donnell, king of Tir Chonaill, had a Norman-style tower house, known as O'Donnell's Castle , constructed on its site in the fifteenth century. When the English defeated the second Red Hugh in 1603, Sir Basil Brooke was given command of the town and it was he who rebuilt and extended the old castle, retaining the lower parts of the original tower, which had been razed to the ground by Red Hugh to prevent its capture. This well-restored example of Jacobean architecture sits on Tirconaill Street by the Diamond (April-Sept daily 9.30am-6.30pm; last entry 5.45pm; GBP3/?3.79). It's a fine marriage of strong defence and domestic grace - note the mullioned windows, arches, ten gables and no fewer than fourteen fireplaces, over the grandest of which are carved the escutcheons of Brooke and his wife's family, the Leicesters. Brooke topped the tower with a Barbizon turret and added the mansion on the left, with the kitchens and bakery on the ground floor and living quarters on the floor above. Brooke was highly prolific in Donegal and was responsible for the overall design of the town. On the stone bridge by the castle on the Killybegs road is a plaque commemorating the town's most famous author, the Reverend Dr John Boyce, better known by his pseudonym "Paul Peppergrass". After ministering for some years in the county, he travelled to America in 1845, concerned for the spiritual welfare of the newly-arrived Irish emigrants. Though largely forgotten now, his most popular work was Shandy Maguire , a novel describing the tribulations incurred by the Irish Catholics in defence of their faith. Later dramatized, it became a major success on the American stage. In the Diamond stands an obelisk in memory of the compilers of the famed Annals of the Four Masters . The Annals were compiled in Donegal Abbey, on the coast close to Bundoran, and were a systematic attempt to collect all known Irish documents into a history of the land beginning in 2958 BC and ending at the time of writing, 1616 AD. Down at the quay an anchor is on display, retrieved from the sea near Mountcharles in the 1850s and traditionally believed to have belonged to the French frigate Romaine , a member of the fleet transporting French troops to support Wolfe Tone's rebellion in 1798. On the left bank of the River Eske, not far from here, stand the few ruined remains of a Franciscan friary , built in 1474 by the first Red Hugh and his wife Nuala O'Brien of Munster. It was occupied by the English in 1601 and seriously damaged by the besieging O'Donnell army, being finally abandoned after the Flight of the Earls. On the opposite side a woodland path known as the Bank Walk runs out alongside the bay with a pleasant view towards its many sandy islets and stony shoreline. A Waterbus (tel 073/23666; GBP6/?7.59) offers a one-hour trip around Donegal Bay starting from the quay. The County Donegal Railway, which formerly ran from Derry to Ballyshannon, closed in 1959; its history is told at the Donegal Railway Heritage Centre at the Old Station House on Tirconaill St (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; GBP2/?2.53). Here you'll find a model of the old railway and lovingly restored railcars and carriages from the age of steam.
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