The Wild Atlantic Way - Spectacular Donegal

After a busy month back in the UK we're back on the road for the month of August to drive the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland which stretches the whole of the west coast from the Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal in the north to Kinsale in County Cork in the South. The route is 2,600km long (1,600 miles) making it one of the longest defined coastal routes in the world. The route is well signposted the whole way and there are abundant attractions to see.

While a month might sound like a long time to drive this route, with so many recommended places to stop off, we're pretty sure we'll be lucky to cover around two-thirds of it as we plan to have some days cycling and taking time to admire the stunning scenery as we go. We last visited Ireland together, I'm guessing, around 30 years ago when we thought a trip to Ireland for our main summer holiday would be grand. In the 2 weeks we didn't have one dry day which is why we've always headed to more far flung places since, so I'm not sure why we thought returning here in August (one of the wettest months) was a good idea.

Having driven much of the southern coastline on the first trip, we're starting at the top and heading south this time to ensure we see as many new places as possible.

We took the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin, after spending a tranquil night in a nice small campsite in Anglesey.

From Dublin we drove straight to the small coastal town of Rathmullan on the Fanad Peninuslar in Donegal. This isn't quite the start of the route, with the most northerly point being Malin Head on the neighbouring peninsular, but there didn't seem to be so much to see there.

The first thing we noticed was there were green and yellow flags and bunting everywhere - on pubs, businesses and private homes. We assumed it was for an up and coming match, but they were for the All-Ireland Football Championship final 2025 that had been played the previous weekend. We discovered that Kerry had beaten Donegal by 10 points, so it was nice to see their undying support for their team was so strong.

We thought Rathmullan would be quiet little town, but as we drove into the centre we realised it was the weekend of their annual community festival and the place was rammed with revellers and there was a big stage set up. We had to edge past the crowds of drinkers outside one of the pubs to get to the car park which was already full of cars and motorhomes. They all stopped and stared at Lolly with lots of comments of 'look at that - it's awesome'. The car park attendants were equally appreciative and thankfully said they could squeeze us in. We looked at the festival schedule for this night and were a bit horrified to see the bands would be playing until 1.30 am, although I was delighted to see there was an Abba tribute band (the Bjorn Identity) playing from 9-11 pm.

We had a stroll down the stunning white sanded beach and had a quick walk through the town. There had been community events on all through the day and most people were already pretty well oiled. As it was only 6 pm we were pretty nervous at starting to drink so early, but with rain in the air and the wind picking up we took shelter in a pub overlooking the bay and nursed our drinks very slowly. The atmosphere in the pub was amazing - there was a constant stream of people coming in who all knew everyone else with lots of easy banter going on (or craic as they say here). We had some stomach lining chips with curry sauce and sipped a second drink while everyone else was downing pints, including the ladies. We really didn't want to start the trip with a terrible hangover though.

We left the warm shelter of the pub to brave it outside. The band on the stage were playing a good selection of nineties music. We headed back to Lolly to get warmer clothes and waterproofs and got chatting to several other campers who all wanted to know about Lolly and what we were planning. They are all so genuinely friendly, open and helpful.

At last the Abba tribute came on and we had a fabulous 2 hours of cheesiness and enjoying watching the locals - it was lovely to see everyone getting so stuck in enjoying themselves of all ages and sex.

At 11 pm we decided to bow out gracefully and listen to the final band from Lolly with a mug of hot chocolate. George Murphy and the Rising Sons played a good mix of Irish classics and had the crowd singing along even more than Abba.

We woke to a beautiful bright sunny and breezy day, with some dramatic clouds looming in the distance. We had a walk down to the pier, wondered at the bravery (or madness) of people going for a swim and bought a coffee from a very friendly coffee van. We had another stroll around the town which was starting to come to life again - everything was so well cared for, although they must have harsh weather year round. We imagine most of the young people must work elsewhere now, and were home for the bank holiday/festival weekend. There was still another full day of festival events, plus fireworks and more bands scheduled.

We wanted to get going to make the most of the fine weather as Storm Floris was due to hit the following day. We set off along the scenic route up Lough Swinny and just a few miles in had our breath taken away with the viewpoint of Portsalon beach (known as Ballymastocker beach) - a 1.5 km stretch of golden sand. We had read it was once voted the worlds second most beautiful beach - we'd love to know where was voted number one.

We then stopped for a short walk down to a beach to view the Great Pollet Sea Arch which has been formed by the wind and the waves over thousands of years - at 150 ft it is the biggest sea arch in Ireland.

We continued on to the Fanad Head Lighthouse perched at the tip of the peninsula. It's set in a beautiful location, but the car park was full so we decided to keep going passing more magnificent beaches and rolling green hills. The hedgerows were beautiful bright red fuscia bushes and orange plants adding to the colour.

We arrived in the village of Downings where there was a football ground with motorhome parking, but we couldn't believe it when we realised they were also having their annual festival and the place was rammed. We needed to find a sheltered spot to sit out the storm winds due the following day, and managed to find one of the last remaining spots in the sports ground.

We had been recommended Downings by a lovely Irish family we'd met at the theatre in London a few weeks previously. Their favourite restaurant was nearby (which looked amazing, but sadly was fully booked for the next 2 weeks) and there were good pubs and famous beaches in the area. The village itself sits on a sheltered horseshoe shaped bay, sadly largely filled with an ugly caravan park.

The town was buzzing with people enjoying the sunny weather. We wanted to get lunch at a little seafood restaurant called Fisk attached to the popular Harbour Bar that overlooks the bay. They don't take reservations, and when we arrived we had to join a long queue. They also serve food to people in the pub too. They were only open until 5 pm and were closed on Mondays so we waited it out and were glad we did. We enjoyed the most delicious fish tacos, a salmon sushi roll and the best scampi we have ever tasted.

We had a walk down to the harbour and back along the beach. We met the guy collecting fees for the parking who was another super friendly person. When we didn't have the right change to pay he told us not to worry - 'we like to treat our visitors well'. We had planned to cycle up the peninsular from Downings along another scenic road but weren't sure the weather would hold, but he encouraged us get on with it which we are grateful for.

It was only a 21 km ride but it was incredibly scenic (and hilly!). We made it to Murder Hole beach which is a 'must see' site but there is a steep uneven path to get there not suitable for cycling shoes.

Back in the village we went out later in the evening to see what was going on in the festival. The pubs were all packed, so we ended up back at the Harbour Bar which was also packed but had a great little group playing outside.

Back down in the centre we watched a bit of the stage band - playing the usual crowd pleasers and ended up in another pub which also had a good band on.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey - we can't keep up with it all!

Unfortunately the forecast was right and we woke to Storm Floris battering Lo11y at 5 am. We didn't feel it was safe to drive so had the morning holed up. Lo11y was rocking so much we both felt a little sea sick. The washing up water was slooshing around the sink too.

After a walk into town to get a coffee we decided to brave it and get back on the road. We drove back to Murder Hole Beach. The sea certainly looked a lot wilder today. It was a 15 minute walk across farmers fields to reach the beach from the car park. We got lulled into a false sense of security where the path was in a sheltered dip. However when we climbed up the dunes leading onto the beach we were nearly knocked off our feet with the force of the wind, then got painfully sand blasted. We took shelter in a small cave but with the tide still coming in we felt we should get back higher again. It was a hard scramble to get back up on the dunes. I was clinging onto the rough grasses trying not to slip back down. Photos taken, we made a hasty retreat back to Lolly. Two days later we still had sand coming out of every orifice.

From here we continued on the WAW route to the next peninsula. We had a drive up round the narrow dramatic road loop of Horn Head.

We looked for a good spot to park for the night but it was still very windy up here so we headed back through the town of Dunfanaghy and parked in the local beach (Killahoey beach) car park. It was still incredibly windy and we weren’t in a rush to get sandblasted again so instead watched the hardy dog walkers pull up and brave it from the comfort of Lolly.

We thankfully had a more peaceful night and it was brighter in the morning - enough to have a quick look at the vast stretch of golden beach.

We drove a short distance on to Falcarragh Beach - a 4.5km stretch of stunning golden sand.

We then headed away from the coast to Glenveagh National Park hoping to get some respite from the wind. It was a beautiful drive into the National Park.

We parked up at the Visitors Centre and got chatting to two of the grounds men who were admiring Lolly (of course). There is a castle with gardens and several walking trails around the park. We took the recommendation of catching the shuttle bus for the 4.5kms to the castle, visited the castle then did a walk along the loch before walking all the way back to the visitor centre. All very nice and the weather stayed fine all afternoon.

Leaving the park we drove another dramatic route called the Poison Glen. There were great views down onto Dunlewy church.

We headed back to the coast to visit Bunbeg Beach - famous for the Bad Eddie Shipwreck that comes into view when the tide is out. Local fishermen towed it there in 1977 for repairs, but they never got done and it has now created a tourist attraction for the town.

We found a great park up for the night on a little island called Cruit Island joined to the mainland by a bridge. We overlooked a beautiful bay. It was even more beautiful in the morning light.

With calmer weather promised the following day we caught a 15 minute ferry across to Arranmore Island with our bikes. We have to admit as we approached we didn’t have high hopes for it being that nice a ride - thankfully we couldn’t have been more wrong. We had an unneeded second breakfast before setting out on a 15 mile loop around the island. There were some punchy hills but the scenery was fabulous. We cycled down to a lighthouse - on the way there we passed a memorial to all those islanders who had emigrated to settle in America during the potato famine.

When we rejoined the main route we stopped to talk to a young lady cycling in the other direction. She was visiting her Granny for the week and was out on her bike to train for a running event she had coming up. As she’d hurt her ankle she couldn’t run but thought cycling would at least help her fitness - she was doing 6 laps of the island that day. How useless did we feel at one little lap ? She told us we must visit a scenic viewpoint just off the road - a high-viz jacket on a post marked the spot. We had to push the bikes a couple of hundred metres up a rough track that took us to an abandoned bothy (small hut for anyone to take refuge) with the most amazing view across to the lighthouse. We were joined by an Irish group of friends and then a German couple of holiday makers. The route continued with more great views and we rewarded ourselves with an ice cream before catching the return ferry.

Back on the mainland our next stop was at the Assaranca Waterfall which is sat at the side of a narrow windy scenic road. Lolly seemed to be as much as a tourist attraction as the falls as she had her photo taken and we fielded questions.

From here we drove another spectacular windy road through the Glengesh Mountains before arriving at the quaint village of Glencolumbkille where we found a good spot to park for the night in the car park of the Folk Village museum (a living history museum showing rural village life in past centuries). It also had a great view over a beach and bay.

In the morning our first port of call was to the Silver Strand Beach, also known as Malin Beg. It is situated in an incredibly scenic position surrounded by green horseshoe shaped cliffs. The turquoise waters are apparently popular for scuba diving. There are 174 steps down to the beach which we didn’t try.

Not far on from here is the Silver League Cliffs - Ireland’s highest and most dramatic sea cliffs. We had some rain on the way there so made the decision to park at the visitor centre and take a shuttle bus up to the viewpoint. The other option is to park up further up the road but this leaves you with a 40 minute hike up to the viewpoint. It was a good decision as we beat the crowds there and got to see the magnificent views before the next swathe of rain passed through. There was a stone formed word of Eire on the cliff side. We read this was for aircraft flying from the US in the second world war so that they could see they were over the Irish coast and friendly territory - apparently there are many of them all down the coast.

From here we continued along the peninsula towards Donegal. We deviated off to a place called Muckross Head. It was a scenic drive there but we had no idea what was special about it until we got out of Lolly and walked up into the boggy headland. The cliffs are composed of an unusual horizontal rock strata. The interspersed mudstone in the rock has eroded quicker creating dramatic overhangs. It is a popular place for rock climbing.

We retraced our steps back to the WAW route and called in at Killybegs, Ireland's largest fishing port, for a spot of lunch.

On our way to Donegal we visited another Discovery Point called Mountcharles Pier. We couldn’t see what was special about the place even though there were lots of other visitors. A family group rushed over to us and the parents said their 3 boys are crazy about Monster Trucks. We let them take it in turns to sit in Lolly - I never thought I’d see Spiderman sat in the driving seat.

On to Donegal which is smaller than we expected. Motorhomes can park in a big public car park in the centre of town by the river Eske.

We had a good seafood dinner at a local restaurant and braved a popular Irish bar with the obligatory loud music. There was a group of very well oiled young people, one who came over and slurred at us. Despite Colin's experience working for an Irish company, even he couldn't translate it all for me.

The following morning we visited the castle and had a further mooch around the town. With the wind still being so strong on the coast we decided to go off piste a little and head inland to Northern Ireland to visit a couple of attractions near Enniskillen.

County Donegal has been spectacular - so many beautiful sights and lovely warm people. The rest of the WAW has a lot to live up to after this amazing first week.