Irish Counties - Donegal

County Donegal (Contae Dún na nGall) is a county in the northwest of Ireland. It is one of three counties in Ulster which are not part of Northern Ireland. The name comes from the Irish, meaning "the fort of the foreigners". When first created, it was sometimes referred to as County Tyrconnel (Irish: Tír Chonaill), after the Tyrconnel earldom it succeeded. Attempts to have the county renamed Tír Chonaill in the late 20th century were abandoned due to objections that the Inishowen peninsula was historically distinct from Tír Chonaill.

The county consists chiefly of low mountains, with a deeply indented coastline forming natural loughs, of which Lough Swilly is the most notable. The Slieve League cliffs are the second highest sea cliffs in Europe, and Donegal's Malin Head is the most northernly point on the island of Ireland. The climate is temperate and dominated by the Gulf Stream, with cool damp summers and mild wet winters. Two permanently inhabited islands, Arranmore and Tory Island lie off the coast, along with a large number of islands with only transient inhabitants.

The variant of the Irish language spoken in Donegal is distinctive, and shares traits with Scottish Gaelic. The Irish Language spoken in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area) is of the West Ulster dialect, while Inishowen, which lost its Gaeltacht areas in the early 20th century, used the East Ulster dialect. Scots is still spoken to a degree in the Laggan district of east Donegal.

Click here to view all our books on County Donegal
Click here to view all our prints on County Donegal

• Donegal People
• Donegal History
• Donegal Travel

Writers associated with Co. Donegal include:

• Allingham, William
• Friel, Brian short-story writer & playwright
• Harvey, Francis poet & playwright
• McGill, Patrick
• McGlinchy, Charles
• O'Donnell, Peadar novelist & playwright
• Ó Searcaigh, Cathal file agus drámadóir

Towns and Villages:
Ardara, Ballyshannon, Buncrana, Bundoran, Burtonport, Carndonagh, Clonmany, Donegal, Dunfanaghy, Dungloe, Glenties, Glencolumcille, Gweedore, Letterkenny, Lifford, Killybegs, Milford, Stranorlar