In February I posted that this year one of the things we would be doing together as a family was to take a monthly day trip to spend time together and to play the tourist at home. I want to visit places that I have either never been to or simply haven't been to for ages.
On Saturday we braved the cold and blustery weather and set off on an adventure north of the County to Fanad Head and Portsalon.
What prompted this was a recent TV advertisement featuring the beautiful Fanad Lighthouse. Having lived in Donegal all my life I have never been to the Lighthouse. We also decided to take in the Great Pollet Arch in Portsalon, which not only was somewhere I've never been to but I hadn't actually ever heard of it. I found it by chance when looking for directions to the Lighthouse!
I have to admit that the weather was atrocious, we had snow and gales on Friday and I didn't think that we would get away at all. It was snowing slightly when we set off and we were wrapped up like Eskimos.
We drove by the Harry Blaney Bridge and took in the views around us - snowy topped mountains and Mulroy Bay.
It took a while to find the actual Lighthouse itself but my God it was definitely worth the visit. I'm sure there was gale force winds at the top of Fanad Head but we didn't care the views were stunning.
The Little Fella was wrapped up in the car and slept most of the time, it wouldn't have been wise to take him out. Check out his not very impressed face below!
Fanad Lighthouse first lit up on March 17th 1817. Early in 1978 the Assistant Keeper was transferred making the station a Principal Keeper station. On the retirement of the Principal Keeper on 30th September 1983 the station was re-classified as an Attendant station.
It most certainly is wild and beautiful and if you ever visit Donegal I would say put this on your to do list for sure.
Next stop was Portsalon and a spot of lunch. We had some lovely food in Sally's Restaurant, the seafood chowder is the best I've had and the view from the restaurant overlooks the beautiful Portsalon beach, even on the day that was in it you could appreciate the beauty.
Then we set off to look for the Pollet Arch. Now, we had great fun looking for this, we drove round in circles and were told we were mad to even think about going near it.
Undeterred we pressed on and found it, to me words cannot really describe this place but breathtaking kinda sums it up. I must add that my Teen refused to get out of the car as we were basically on top of a cliff so whilst she took care of the Little Fella the rest of us took off with cameras at the ready.
All in all we had a great day out, plenty of fantastic photo opportunities - something I must get better at! We argued about directions, we laughed, we climbed over walls, through fields and down a cliff or two and The Little Fella could be heard giggling loads in the back of the car being entertained by his big brother and sister!
Totally weather beaten and exhausted we slept really well on Saturday night the effects of all that Atlantic Sea air and I'm really looking forward to our next day out.
No comments:
Post a Comment