Working day 3 – Ireland East to West – Downpatrick to Glenveagh
The shortest route from Newcastle to Glenveagh can take about three hours and immerses you in the heart of the Irish countryside. You journey from the outskirts of Belfast, the funds of Northern Ireland, into the heart of Gaeltacht, the Irish Gaelic-speaking region of Eire.
You can see the changeover as before long as you go away the seaside. The farther west you generate, the much less houses you see. This route requires you by the Ulster American Folks Park, an immersive, interactive living museum that tells the story of Irish immigration to America. Alternatively, you could consider an hour’s detour north to see the Giant’s Causeway, 40,000 interlocking basalt columns at the ocean’s edge.
Once once again, there is a seamless border between the United kingdom and the Republic of Ireland at the Foyle River. You may possibly not discover it at all, besides the road symptoms swap to metric and are composed in Gaelic very first, with English as a secondary text. Though that is the common for all of the Republic, it’s especially significant in the Gaeltacht regions.
You also will detect the weather conditions and landscape improve as you enter the Atlantic coastal zone. The environmentally friendly pastures out your window improve to peat bogs as you transform into the oddly named Glenveagh (glen of the birches) National Park.
There ought to have been a time when trees lined this valley, but that was a extended time ago. It was lengthy before John George Adair developed Glenveagh Castle, his palatial place estate, and drove off the area villagers on a person cold and brutal early morning. It was not extensive right before invasive rhododendrons escaped his manicured gardens and started ravaging the hillside.
People can nevertheless see the castle, gardens (one of Ireland’s greatest), and vestiges of temperate rainforests in microclimate pockets around Lough Veagh that contributed to this estate getting a National Park. You can also experience bikes through the park, learn a lot more about historical past, and see how biologists are restoring the valley to its former glory.
Logistically, you are going to want to program lunch at the park at both the Synge & Byrne Cafe by the customer centre or at the tearoom by the castle and gardens. Depart the park in the late afternoon to delight in the viewpoint higher than Dunlewey Lough prior to arriving at Gweedore for the night time. An Chúirt Lodge is a 4-star lodge together the Clady river that features relaxed beds and a pleasant on-premise restaurant.
