Donegal and St. John’s Point- day 6

We had a break in the weather today. Vince and Dianna went to the Bundoran Golf Club to play a round of golf. We dropped them off and went to discover Donegal. Our first stop was the information center. We have found that when traveling, the people that work there are a wealth of information and very helpful. We talked with Claire and she knew it all! She suggested we go to the Abbey graveyard, the Donegal Castle, stroll around town, then take a drive to St John’s Point to the lighthouse. She also suggested that we stop to see Cyndi- a weaver.
The Abbey Graveyard was interesting with the ruins and old headstones.





Donegal Castle was erected in the 13th century on a Viking settlement site. Red Hugh O'Donnell added-on in 1474 It had a few rooms that had been restored, yet the original wood floor were still intact. They were beautiful after all these years. We walked thru the store rooms, the great hall and manor house. The ceiling and stairs were pegged together and still strong today as when they were first installed. Amazing the craftsmanship of those days.







Donegal was a cute town. Donegal tweed comes from here and people have been weaving since the mid-1800s. Magee started weaving in 1866. The original loom was upstairs in the store. The woven wool is exquisite. We found a small shop, thanks to Claire where a man makes tweed hats and spins Donegal wool. Marty bought a hat and I purchased some yarn to crochet something in the future. The gentleman that ran the shop was darling and so happy we stopped by. Grabbed lunch at a small bake shop/cafe.





On th St. John’s Point which is a peninsula that sticks out of Donegal Bay. It was a nice drive, roads a bit narrow at times, but Marty did an excellent job driving. Lots of sheep in the fields. We reached the end of the road and walked the rest of the way to the lighthouse (1839). Cows in the fields right next to us. The rocks and cliffs just past the lighthouse were stunning. We watched the waves crash.









On the way back, we found the weaver. She explained how she sets up her loom, strings all the treads and then demonstrated her weaving. She uses a loom that was built in the 1700s. It takes here 2 days to set her loom to weave. She did beautiful work. Her husband stopped by and we all talked some more. I bought a scarf. Back to Bundoran to watch the surfer from our place. Tomorrow we head for Northern Ireland.





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