Tags
Carrickabraghy Castle, Donagh Famine Village, Donegal, Famine Village, Ireland, North Atlantic Coast, photography
After spending a few days way up in the North of Ireland I came back from Donegal yesterday, tired but with lots of lovely memories and a camera filled with photos.
I stayed in a town called Cardonagh, close to the most northerly point of Ireland, on the Inishowen peninsula . Donegal is stunningly beautiful, very green and due to it’s isolation to the rest of the Republic of Ireland it has a very distinct cultural identity. As the people of Donegal say themselves: “Up here it’s different”.
As always in Ireland the weather was wet, sunny, windy, stormy, hot and humid one after the other and at times all rolled up into one changeable day. But when you are in good company and have lots to see the weather becomes secondary.
On Monday my friend and I went to the Donagh Famine Village and Carrickabraghy Castle (also known as the Castles), right up at the north Atlantic coast.Here are a few of the many photos I took:
Canny’s Cottage, this little home was built for a Hermite by the people of Inishowen so he wouldn’t have to live in a cave
Doagh Strand
Doagh Strand
for visitors only
green lighting in a ramshackled toilet
Doagh Famine Village, the tour guide lived in this house until 1984
thatched roof
the ceiling inside
hanging from the rafters
a swallows nest
take a seat (green and yellow are the Donegal colours)
cottage rose
hand woven basket
making the door fit
a cup of tea
pebble beach
for the brave
Carrickabraghey Castle, or the Castles as it is known locally
the Atlantic
build on rock (carrick)
an Inishowen Chicken
growing inside
some rusty nails
working farm
wonder if Queen Elizabeth knows about this
jensinewall 
Love the little cottage. So pretty!
and so tiny …
What beautiful photos… My ancestors on my father’s side came from Ireland during the potato famine… I’ll not get to see it but I enjoy seeing your pictures. Someone told me that the grass in Ireland is the most vivid green they had ever seen…. Diane
Diane, the green here is particularly beautiful … has something to do with the rain, the earth and the sky … the famine was around 1837 so your ancestors left a long time ago. I’ll be posting a few more pictures tomorrow so stop by … and I am glad you enjoyed them today
Great pictures Jensine – I laughed out loud at the fixing the door so it could fit one! 😀
Diana xo
I know I thought it was really funny and kind of brilliant
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I thought at first you had to share the toilet, with the next cubicle!! Brilliant. Stunning photos.
The Famine cottage was featured on the ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ TV programme about the actor Julie Walters ancestry; only a couple of nights ago. I know it is very photogenic, but it doesn’t capture what must have been very humble if not miserable living conditions. If you had no food to eat you’d not have the luxury of a pot of petunias on your doorstep 😦 and did they such vivid red pigment for paint at that time?
Well I am not sure about the petunias but maybe it was oxblood that they used (like in Sweden) to protect the wood …
and yes the did show how they lived on the inside … quite horrible and very dark as the English demanded tax on windows (that is where the saying day-light-robbery comes from) . Glad you enjoyed my photographic adventure