Tourism Ireland - have they ever been to Donegal?

UPDATE 
Friday 28th August 2015 - Some changes have now been made to the suggested tour 'County Donegal in 5 days' and more are promised.

St Aengus' Chapel in Burt -  voted ‘building of the 20th century’ in 1999 in a poll by the Royal Society of the Architects of Ireland. Not good enough to get it into Failte Ireland's 'County Donegal in 5 days'

The Wild Atlantic Way is one of the most positive things that has happened for tourism in Donegal tourism. By all accounts Slieve League is very busy with visitors this summer. The two other 'signature discovery points' in Donegal - out of fifteen along the route - are Fanad Head and Malin Head, and they're bound to benefit.

That's what makes it all the more irritating to see the shambolic 'County Donegal in 5 days' presentation at http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/itineraries/wild-atlantic-way/donegal-in-5-days/
Some of the highlights include -

• moving Errigal close to Dungloe
• assuring visitors that Dungloe people do speak English
• suggesting that Fanad people think their lighthouse is taller than the Eiffel Tower [lighthouse c22m, Eiffel Tower 301m]
• re-locating North West golf club to somewhere around Burnfoot
• recommending a trip "to Buncrana castle" (a private house)
• talking of Glenties' "strong links with the sea" (it's one of the few Donegal towns and villages not on the coast)
• saying "film buffs might remember [Glenties] from Dancing at Lughnasa" (shot in Wicklow)
• missing out Glencolumbkille completely ('Ken' from Failte Ireland describes it in an email as 'just [one] of the towns and villages on the route')
• suggesting that the shopping centre and leisure centre are two of the main attractions in the Letterkenny area
• missing out Five Finger Strand, Burt chapel, Carndonagh Cross, Dunree Fort, Glebe Gallery etc etc

It seems to confirm that while you do find excellence in the public service, too often you also find mediocrity and the 'do rightly' approach. Check out the Wifi on Bus Eireann buses for another example.

Another fine pic of St Aengus' Chapel in Burt from the web -  https://protumservices.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/irish-architecture-st-aengus-church-burt-co-donegal/

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Here's an exchange of emails on the subject of 'County Donegal in 5 days' -

May 2015 - it can be better

Hi, Perhaps I can help with your suggested 5-day itinerary covering the Wild Atlantic Way in County Donegal. It seems to have been cobbled together based on a trawl of available websites rather than 'on the ground' experience. It's doing the visitor a disservice to ignore places like Glencolumbkille and marvels such as the Irish 'Building of the [20th] Century' at Burt. I'm a former BBC journalist, local newspaper editor and fiddler, and also a Donegal person. And I'm delighted with the success of the Wild Atlantic Way :-) Regards, Martin

18 May 2015 - sure it's grand, says Ken from Tourism Ireland, have a great day

Hi Martin,

Thank you for contacting Tourism Ireland.

We are always glad to be given feedback in response to all aspects of our website, and your comments are very welcome.

In compiling suggested routes and itineraries we try to provide information about a wide variety of things to see and do in Ireland. This, of course, is so that visitors get an idea of Ireland’s many facets.

In addition to Ireland’s well known, and popular sights, there is a host of less well known attractions, what might almost be called our ‘hidden gems’ which make it extremely difficult to mention everything that can be seen.

Our suggested itinerary does mention Burt, albeit in the context of bird watching, while Glencolumbkille is just of the towns and village on the route of the Wild Atlantic Way.

We appreciate and understand your interest in promoting Donegal and we share your delight at the success of the Wild Atlantic Way.

Hoping you have a great day,

Ken

18 May 2015 - file under 'get a life'

Hi Ken,

I’m not getting the sense that you have picked up on the wider point I’m making - that the suggested 5-day tour of Donegal lacks credibility and does a disservice to those using your site and, more to the point, to their experience of Donegal. Tourism Ireland should share the concern about the omissions, misinformation and plain hokum on its own website. There’s not much wrong with the presentation but the content is an embarrassment.  

Your wider point is well made - that your guide should have room for ‘hidden gems’, and doesn’t have the room to mention everything. However, that is not the problem here. The guide is clearly put together by someone who has precious little knowledge of Donegal, to the extent of falling into gross error and misrepresentation.

To satisfy my own curiosity I’ve just gone through your itinerary again. It’s confirmed my view that this ‘tour’ should be removed as it damages the reputation of Tourism Ireland and is entirely inadequate in terms of being a guide to the Wild Atlantic Way in Donegal. I’ve given some detail below.

Can you give me your full name and title, and let me know who or what department is responsible for this erstwhile guide to Donegal?

Regards,

Martin

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[email continues]

Some examples (from many) of the ramblings, inaccuracies, misinformation and ‘filler’ material included in the 5-day guide to Donegal -

Day One - 

Inishowen

• No mention of the wonderful Five Finger Strand beach, Glenevin Waterfall near Clonmany, Carndonagh High Cross (one of the earliest and most important in Ireland - along the side of the road), Dunree Fort etc etc

Stay at Buncrana and -

• Take a trip to Buncrana Castle - this ‘castle’ is a private house and not open for visitors
• Rent a bike from Cycle Inishowen - this business is in Carndonagh about thirteen miles away

Day Two -

Buncrana to Letterkenny

• No mention of Liam McCormick’s church at Burt - Ireland’s Building of the [20th] Century
• “Further south, Inch Island soon looms on the horizon, and an opportunity for a round of golf presents itself at the North West Golf Club.” Bunkum, the golf club is back in Buncrana, you’re already miles past the entrance to Inch.
• “Veering evermore west, and dipping slightly south again” - meaningless 
• Letterkenny - attractions mentioned include the local shopping centre and leisure centre. No mention of the Cathedral, with stained glass by Harry Clarke and Michael Healy. Colmcille Heritage Centre mentioned, but not the actual reputed birthplace of Colmcille or the nearby Glebe House and Gallery, with pieces by artists including Picasso, Braque, Le Brocquy.

Day Three - 

Letterkenny to Bunbeg - 

• 'most beautiful beach in the world - inaccurate
• “Rumoured by locals to be taller than the Eiffel Tower (we’re not so sure!)” - what locals? more drivel, Fanad Lighthouse height c22m, Eiffel Tower 301m
• ‘King Tory’ - Patsy Dan Rodgers, artist and musician, is known as the King of Tory
• Teac Jack sessions - fine. [Another] pub, Hudai Beag’s, is known internationally for its Irish music sessions all year round. Again credibility . .

Day Four - 

Bunbeg to Dungloe -

• “When you do depart Bunbeg southbound, and edging slightly east” - travelling by compass? More filler
• 'Dungloe is another Gaeltacht town, meaning the primary language is Gaeilge/Irish.’ Wrong
• ‘With Dungloe as your base, you’re free to explore nearby Mount Errigal’. Once again, credibility shot. Errigal is on the far side of Bunbeg, which you left earlier.
• Glenties - ‘time in the limelight’. Wrong again, the film ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ was not shot in Glenties.
• Leo’s Tavern - ‘singer Enya from Clannad’. Wrong again. She made her name as a solo artist. 
• Ardara: No mention of Nancy’s Bar, former Irish pub of the year; Assaranca Waterfall; Kilclooney Dolmen; Narin beach; etc

Day Five - 

Ardara to Donegal Town - 

• No mention of Glencolumbkille, one of the most beautiful spots in Ireland. To describe it as “just one of the towns and villages” along the Wild Atlantic Way underlines that you haven’t been there. No mention of the Folk village (including old pub, school, shop, hall). Silver Strand beach [ . . .]. Etc.

[thus ends the correspondence]

Fine, but not fine enough for Tourism Ireland's guide to Donegal . . .
Silver Strand at Malin Beag in Glencolumbkille - described by Fodor's as "one of the best beaches in Ireland, renowned for its calm waters, dramatic scenery, and lovely golden sand"

The map of ancient Ireland

I was brought up in the bright lights of the Tops, Raphoe, beside the car-park for that remarkable site/sight, the Beltony Stone Circle. Naturally I thought this was the most wonderful place on earth. More than half a century later, I'm still assembling the evidence.
In recent times this project has received real encouragement.
First there was the discovery, through the 'Words We Use' column by the late Diarmuid O'Muirhithe in the 'Irish Times', that 'Tops' wasn't an English word for a hilly eminence, as I feared. Instead, it refers to 'tap tineadh', the place where the torches were lit for the procession to the stone circle. (Beltony, of course, refers to the Bealtaine fire feast which has occurred for several thousand years around the eve of May 1st.)
Next, in 2006 (simply can't believe it's been that long) came the book from Brian Lacey, 'Cenél Conaill and the Donegal Kingdoms AD 500 - 800'. It's dangerous to paraphrase here, but as it's close to bedtime I'll say it establishes that the people of the countryside around the Beltony Stone Circle were very important in the early history of Ireland, and provided two or three of the first High Kings. Only surprising, of course, to those not from the area :-)
I saw Brian in Glencolumbkille last week but the rigours of Fiddle Week meant it wasn't the most opportune time to thank him properly.
Now it's the turn of two more books - and an American - to make their contributions.
I met the American woman outside Oideas Gael last Monday. I was waiting for the Donegal fiddle students to arrive and she was waiting to go on her archaeology trip. She mentioned she was doing a Master's which involves what might be called a 'holistic' approach to early Irish history and pre-history. She's looking at the archaeological evidence and also at the mythological tales and the places mentioned in them, and trying to map all the info (if I understood correctly). She said she's already unearthed some interesting connections, and enough to consider developing the project into a PhD.
I mentioned that I was reading a book which was outlining a whole series of relationships between ancient Celtic and druidical sites, mostly looking at France, but also, briefly, at England, Scotland and Ireland. As I couldn't remember the name of the book or the author, this information was of limited usefulness. But here now is the book, 'The Ancient Paths: Discovering the Lost Map of Celtic Europe'. And here's the author, Graham Robb, a biographer and historian, who has pedalled around 15,000 miles assembling the evidence for what look like ground-breaking and pretty astounding findings.
The final book, for now, is 'The Origins of the Irish' by J. P. Mallory, a solid read if a bit dismissive of the mythological stuff. I haven't finished it yet.
It's hard to believe that little systematic work has been done - or so it seems - on possible relationships between important ancient sites in Ireland (I'll probably find out there are a load of books and theses on this very subject, but I haven't seen them).

A while back I took a ruler to a dog-eaten map of Ireland with what I thought were intriguing results. As my interest was primarily in Beltony Stone Circle, I drew a few straight lines. Here's what I found -

• a line from Beltony to the stone circle in Culdaff goes through Grianan of Aileach
• a line from Beltony to Newgrange runs close to another Beltony outside Omagh and also through an important monument between Augher and Clogher, the tomb of Knockainy. It also goes through Kilmacrenan and Cashel in north Donegal, some ruins near Cashel, and ends up at the tip of Horn Head

I drew a few more out of interest with similar results.

Tonight I've spent another two or three hours on the project after looking at a couple of maps of Ireland in Graham Robb's book. Here's what he found - 

• the five ancient capitals of Ireland form a parallelogram based on solstice lines. Uisneach (capital of Mide) is at the centre, the other four capitals are on parallel lines, Cnoc Áine (Munster), Cruachan (Connacht), Emain Macha (Ulster) and Dún Ailinne (Leinster)
• a line from Grianan Aileach through Uisneach hits the southern coast at Ardmore, probably the oldest monastic settlement in Ireland. If projected onwards towards Spain, it hits land at the exact point where a Celtic king of Galicia, Breogán, sent off his sons and a group of warriors to Ireland, according to the 'Book of Invasions'. For good measure, the line continues to the 'sacred promontory' on the south-west tip of Spain

And still the wonder grew. I drew a few more lines, and here's the most startling finding -

• a line drawn from Beltony Stone Circle through Uisneach, fabled to be where first fire was lit on Bealtaine eve, is almost an exact north-south line - it pretty much follows the line of longitude all the way til it hits the coast at Ram Head near Dungarvan in Waterford

More -

• the line from Beltony to Emain Macha appears (at a glance) to head over the monument on Croaghan Hill a few miles away
• the line from Beltony to Newgrange goes over Kilmonster, a group of passage tombs a couple of miles away from the stone circle. A monastery was established in that locality
• a line from area of the tomb complex at Malin Beg in Glencolumbkille through Beltony Stone Circle seems to finish on the east coast at a monument called the Giant's Grave near Cushendall
• a line from this Giant's Grave at Cushendall to Newgrange goes through a landmark beside Newry called Bernish Rock. So does a continuation of the Beltony/Emain Macha line. This is the vicinity of the wonderful megalithic monument at Clontygora - of special interest to me as that's where I used to go on some of my first holidays with our neighbours the Gills. I'll look into this further.  
• a couple of lines seem to finish on Inisbofin Island off west Donegal - Legannay Dolmen/Beaghmore Stone Circles/ Inisbofin and also Emain Macha/Beltony/ Colmcille's Oratory/ Inisbofin

These are all rough lines hand-drawn with a pen and ruler, but there's certainly a lot to go on. It will be interesting to look at these lines in relation to the solstice lines - where the sun rises and sets at significant times of the year. Also lunar movements, of course (maybe you've seen that stunning pic of the moon sitting like an egg in the Grianan of Aileach eggcup). 

This is also pretty hurried tonight but I'll post up some pics of the maps shortly. Graham Robb has suggested there could be another book to be written about the Celtic maps of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Looks like Ireland alone could provide that . . .

A Graham Robb 'Lost Map of Ireland'

The world's second best beach

You have to applaud the imperative behind 'County Donegal in 5 days' on the www.ireland.com website. It's part of their series, Ireland itineraries > Wild Atlantic Way.
However, it's a let down. It's clearly been put together by someone well-meaning, but who's working mainly off the web and making a dog's dinner of it.
More on that anon. In the meantime, got the chance to check out one of those statements which are repeated so often and in different ways that you wonder how it all began. It's Ballymastocker Bay, which we're often told has been described as the second-best beach in the world. Who did it, and when?
This from 'County Donegal in 5 days' http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/itineraries/wild-atlantic-way/donegal-in-5-days/ -

On a less epic scale, Fanad is fringed by the “most beautiful beach in the world”, according to one British journalist…and it can be found near Portsalonat Ballymastocker Bay.

Turns out it actually comes from The Observer on January 3, 1993 -

Can't find the details on what was the best one! (somebody said somewhere in the Seychelles . . )

Donegal Bay - a guide

Useful info here for anyone planning a wee trip around Donegal Bay -
http://www.everytrail.com/guide/slieve-league-coastal-drive-along-donegal-bay