By Letterkenny Golf Club on the town’s eastern fringe is a small zoo dedicated to species from the tropics. The best day trips from Letterkenny according to Tripadvisor travellers are: What are the most popular things to do in Letterkenny with kids? Across the water from Portsalon, Fort Dunree has a majestic setting, on a headland and hosts a military museum and restored BL 6-inch Mk VII naval guns from the First World War. During the Napoleonic Wars a system of martello towers (small circular forts) was set up to defend Londonderry to the east. Heading north from Letterkenny you could go on a magical drive on the Wild Atlantic Way with the waters and surrounding hills of Lough Swilly on your shoulder.

The Franciscan friary was begun in 1471 by the O’Donnell clan, and was built on the site of an older church from the 900s. Adair picked an epic lakeside location for his home, and went as far as evicting 244 tenants to get some solitude. The striking, conical shape comes from the mountain’s quartzite geology, which has resisted erosion. In essence he was found guilty of copyright theft for this act and was banished to Scotland, which he introduced to Christianity for the first time. The favorite form of lodging in Letterkenny is the bed and breakfast, complete with hearty home-cooked meals. On your drive you can pause at boundless Atlantic beaches like Ballymastocker Bay, or step out to investigate prehistoric dolmens at Saltpans and Gortnavern.

The centre of attention on the estate is the Scottish Baronial-style Glenveagh Castle, built from granite for Captain John George Adair at the start of the 1870s. The architecture is neo-Gothic and was planned by William Hague, responsible for numerous religious monuments in Ireland in Victorian times.
What makes this such an interesting place is that combined corn and flax mills can only be found in Ulster and Northwest Ireland. Water is conducted to the complex from the Swilly along a one-kilometre mill race. A little way along Lough Swilly you’ll come to an abandoned 15th century friary, in the grounds of a cemetery that is still in use today. The very center of town can be quite noisy at night, so if this bothers you, consider staying a …

Rated Ireland’s “tidiest town” in 2015, Letterkenny is a bonny market town, close to where the River Swilly widens into a fjord on the northwest coast. The English painter Derek Hill lived and worked at this house on Lough Gartan from 1954 until he donated it, along with a top-notch art collection, to the Irish state in 1981. You can catch a shuttle bus from the national park’s visitor centre to the castle, or walk in a matter of minutes. Glenveagh National Park. more, Top Things to Do in Letterkenny, Ireland - Letterkenny Attractions. The material was shipped along Lough Swilly and carried by the townsfolk up to this lofty perch. One of a few days out for people holidaying with younger children, the Lurgybrack Open Farm is a place where kids can come into contact with tame and friendly animals. The gardens around the house were planted in a free-flowing style with exotic species from Tasmania, Madeira and Chile, buffered from the wind by large pine groves and rhododendrons. The galleries inside are multifaceted, presenting the folklore, social history, agriculture and archaeology of County Donegal. If you are a resident of another country or region, please select the appropriate version of Tripadvisor for your country or region in the drop-down menu. There are lorikeets and turacos with colourful plumage, as well as lizards, snakes, turtles, meerkats, yellow mongooses and all sorts of miniature monkeys. Let’s explore the best things to do in Letterkenny: Ireland’s second largest national park is an easy 15 kilometres west of Letterkenny. One of Ireland’s most beguiling mountains towers over the western boundary of the Glenveagh National Park. Letterkenny is also a stepping stone for the Glenveagh National Park, on the lands of a romantic 19th-century castle and exotic gardens. TOP THINGS TO DO IN IRELAND Letterkenny’s 19th-century workhouse, built to provide Famine relief, now houses the local museum. Fifteen minutes west of Letterkenny next to the Gartan Lough is a small museum about St Columba (Colmcille in Irish), who helped spread Christianity in Ireland in the 6th century. The Colmcille Heritage Centre is near where the saint was born, and casts some light on this intriguing figure. It’s a world of dry-stone walls, heather and lush meadows flecked with cattle. A first step is the Glenveagh Visitor Centre on the north shore of the lough, blending with the heathland thanks to its heather roof. These were revamped at the start of the First World War, and can still be found in eight scenic spots around Lough Swilly. The top attractions to visit in Letterkenny are: What are the best outdoor activities in Letterkenny? The most popular things to do in Letterkenny with kids according to Tripadvisor travellers are: Things to do near McCafferty's Bar, Letterkenny, See all attractions in Letterkenny on Tripadvisor, See all outdoor activities in Letterkenny on Tripadvisor, See all day trips from Letterkenny on Tripadvisor, See all kid friendly things to do in Letterkenny on Tripadvisor. Types of Things to Do in Letterkenny Nightlife (15) Shopping (9) Tours (8) Sights & Landmarks (8) Outdoor Activities (7) Museums (5) Fun & Games (5) Nature & Parks (5) Food & Drink (4) Spas & Wellness (4) Concerts & Shows (3) Transportation (2) Classes & Workshops (1) Zoos & Aquariums … The top attractions to visit in Letterkenny are: What are the best outdoor activities in Letterkenny? In an elevated position looking down on the town, Letterkenny’s cathedral was built during the 1890s and was consecrated in 1901. At the end of August the family-oriented Party in the Car Park takes place here, organising music, arts, food, bouncy castles and games for kids. The best day trips from Letterkenny according to Tripadvisor travellers are: What are the most popular things to do in Letterkenny with kids? Types of Things to Do in Letterkenny Nightlife (15) Shopping (9) Tours (8) Sights & Landmarks (8) Outdoor Activities (7) Museums (5) Fun & Games (5) Nature & Parks (5) Food & Drink (4) Spas & Wellness (4) Concerts & Shows (3) Transportation (2) Classes & Workshops (1) Zoos & Aquariums … The house and its sublime art can only be visited on guided tours at Easter and then from May to September, when you can also grab coffee and a light snack at the tea rooms.

One of the most interesting chapters in his life came after he spent a year copying a manuscript of the Book of Psalms.

This is the land that gave the world figures like St Columba, who took Christianity to Scotland in the 6th century. The cathedral’s fantastic stained glass windows were produced by the An Túr Gloine studio and Harry Clarke, while the Great Arch is decorated with images from the lives of St Eunan and St Columba, active in Ireland and Scotland in the 6th and 7th centuries.

The park unfolds across 16,500 hectares of heathland, forest and bare mountain slopes around the glorious Lough Veagh.
The very location of the Donegal County Museum is charged with history: The venue is the old Warden’s House of the Letterkenny Workhouse, a stern stone building completed in 1845 during the Great Famine. Before long you’ll be on the Fanad Peninsula, graced by some of Northwest Ireland’s most dramatic scenery. The most popular things to do in Letterkenny with kids according to Tripadvisor travellers are: Things to do near McCafferty's Bar, Letterkenny, See all attractions in Letterkenny on Tripadvisor, See all outdoor activities in Letterkenny on Tripadvisor, See all day trips from Letterkenny on Tripadvisor, See all kid friendly things to do in Letterkenny on Tripadvisor. Mount Errigal is 751 metres high and is the southernmost and tallest of the Seven Sisters range. There’s a tea room here, as well as an orchard, flowerbeds, mature trees and a herb garden. Also on the farm is a soft play area, an adventure playground with zip-line, sunken trampoline and a barrel train.

Little more than a century later, in 1603, the friary was closed down in the Plantation of Ulster. The woodland gardens around the house stay open all year. Historians can really immerse themselves in Donegal’s past, investigating the Donegal Islands Film and Radio archive and the Northwest Film Archive. The best short path is the one-kilometre View Point Trail, leading you up to the ridge above Glenveagh Castle for a supreme perspective of the lake. A glacial fjord, Lough Swilly cuts a serpentine path from Letterkenny to the Atlantic Ocean some 40 kilometres to the north. Ireland’s second largest national park is an easy 15 kilometres west of … This is the version of our website addressed to speakers of English in Ireland. This is the version of our website addressed to speakers of English in United Kingdom. Hill gathered works by leading 20th-century artists like Renoir, Braque, Picasso and Oskar Kokoshka, as well as an array of Islamic and Oriental art and William Morris textiles. What are the top attractions to visit in Letterkenny? On land belonging to a deanery that became a stately manor in the 19th century, Oakfield Park is an exquisite outdoor attraction where you can spend a classy day wandering through woods and formal gardens and next to lakes. If you have time to spare in Letterkenny, the four-hectare town park is just the ticket for a sunny day. Once you hit the peak you can fight the winds on the narrow and spectacular “One Man’s Pass” to Errigal’s lower sister summit. In summer you can go in to see how flax fibre was separated (scutched) from its outer straw, and see the wacky network of hoists, pulleys and elevators at the corn mill. more.