Letterkenny

Understand

thumb | 300px | "Polestar": just so you know where you are Glaciers carved out deep valleys around the coast of Donegal, which flooded to become fjords during the post-glacial rise of the sea. The largest were Lough Foyle (now by Derry city) and at Lough Swilly by Letterkenny, with Inishowen peninsula between. Their deep sea channels assisted transport of people and goods in an era when overland roads were muddy tracks in fair weather and morasses at other times. The Vikings (who enjoyed sailing into fjords) are the first documented outsiders, but there were many others including the Celts / Gaels to give Donegal its name Dún na nGall, fort of the foreigners.

The Irish ousted the Vikings but from the 12th century came under attack by the Normans. Those incursions never got far in northwest Ireland, so it was only from the 16th century that the English Tudors could resume their land-grab. Stiff resistance from the chieftains of Tyrconnell (Donegal) and Tyrone was only broken in 1603 by the Nine Years' War; the chieftains fled to Europe and their land was seized for "plantation" by English and Scottish colonists, laying the seeds for the partition of Ireland. The local tracts were granted in 1611 to Patrick Crawford from Scotland: he and his successors developed a town north of the River Foyle, eclipsing the original Irish settlement on the south bank.

In Irish Leitir means a hillside littered with stones, and Letterkenny is the stony hillside of the O'Cannon tribe. Until t…

Get in

thumb | 300px | Citizens in Market Square in 1928 discussing the need for a bypass. It opened in 1999.

See

thumb | 300px | St Eunan's Cathedral "There is a town called Letterkenny which hath a market every Friday and two fairs in the year with a fair Church and a bridge at the east end over the River Swilly" - survey of 1652-56 Main Street (one way traffic south) is a mix of 19th century and modern low rise. Market Square is a little green space, with a statue commemorating its Hiring Fairs: bring any spare members of your family along and hope to hire them out for the season to local farmers. Especially your children: that's money in your pocket, fewer mouths to feed, and their education taken care of; it's just like Montessori only with cuffs to the earlugs instead of violin lessons. Town Park is a pleasant green area north end of High Road by the hospital. St Eunan's Cathedral (RC) on Castle St was built in the 1890s and is open daily 7AM-9PM. The Adoration Chapel adjacent within the Loretto Convent is also usually open similar hours. Cathedral Square outside has a tall Celtic Cross, erected in 2006. Conwal Parish Church (Church of Ireland) across the square is from 17th century, with an interesting interior and graveyard.