The northern Wild Atlantic Way, from Donegal to Mayo

From Malin Head to Clew Bay

The Wild Atlantic Way runs along the whole west coast of Ireland for about 2,500 kilometres. This trip follows its northern part, from Inishowen to Westport. It sets off from Buncrana and first climbs to Malin Head, the northernmost point of Ireland, leaving aside the islands. On the way, you cross the Mamore Gap, a narrow, very steep pass. On the headland, a large “EIRE” in white stones told Second World War pilots that they were over a neutral country.

Donegal is a land of moorland, lakes and headlands. Around Gweedore, people speak Irish, and the road signs are written in that language. The quartzite cone of Errigal, 751 metres, rises above the ruined church of Dunlewey. Further south, the cliffs of Slieve League climb to about 600 metres above the sea.

County Sligo belongs to the poet W. B. Yeats, buried at the foot of Ben Bulben, a flat-topped mountain. In Mayo, peat covers the hills. A bridge links Achill Island to the mainland; the island’s road ends at Keem Bay, a beach between two green slopes.

Her descendants, the Browne family, built Westport House in the 18th century, on the site of an O’Malley castle. The town of Westport was laid out in the same period, around the Carrowbeg River.

South of the bay stands Croagh Patrick, 764 metres. According to a 7th-century account, Saint Patrick spent forty days there. On the last Sunday in July, thousands of pilgrims climb to the top, some of them barefoot. At its foot, in Murrisk, the National Famine Memorial is a bronze emigrant ship, with skeletons in its rigging.

Neolithic fields and tombs

In the 1930s, Patrick Caulfield, a schoolteacher in north Mayo, noticed lines of stones while cutting turf. He realised that the stones were older than the bog. Forty years later, his son Seamus, an archaeologist, studied them. These are the Céide Fields: fields enclosed by low stone walls, with houses and tombs. The Office of Public Works presents them as the oldest known fields in the world, nearly 6,000 years old.

Near Sligo, Carrowmore is one of the largest groups of megalithic tombs in Ireland. Around thirty tombs survive, built between about 3700 and 3000 BC. On top of Knocknarea, a great cairn bears, according to tradition, the name of Queen Maeve.

What not to miss

1. 1Glenveagh CastleA castle and its gardens on the shore of a lake, reached by shuttle bus from the visitor centre.
2. 2Bunglass viewpointThe best-known viewpoint over Slieve League, on foot or by shuttle from Teelin.
3. 3DrumcliffYeats’s grave and its epitaph, “Cast a cold eye / On life, on death. / Horseman, pass by!”
4. 4MullaghmoreClassiebawn Castle, where Lord Mountbatten spent his summers until he was killed by the IRA in 1979.
5. 5Downpatrick HeadDún Briste, a 45-metre sea stack that broke away from the headland, so it is said, in 1393.
6. 6Keem BayA beach of pale sand at the end of the road on Achill.

The northern Wild Atlantic Way in pictures

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Keem Bay, at the end of the road on Achill.

Food and drink in north-west Ireland

Killybegs, in Donegal, is the largest fishing port in Ireland. In the pubs, you eat chowder, a thick fish soup, with brown bread, a wholemeal bread made with bicarbonate of soda. Achill sea salt has Protected Designation of Origin status.

In the evening, you drink a Guinness in the pub, often with traditional music. In Westport, the pub of Matt Molloy, flute player with the Chieftains, hosts live music. In Ardara, you can buy Donegal tweed.