Donegal Bay is situated on the North-West coast and boasts some of the finest scenery in the country……or so we who live in this area think anyway. My home port is Mullaghmore, a small holiday resort and fishing village on the South side of the bay, where I have a boat building yard. This part of the coast is unknown to many as far as cruising is concerned, especially dinghy cruising, myself being the only person I know of who has cruised about the Bay in a 16 foot converted dinghy.

Let us pretend that you have decided to come to this area for a holiday --- you have towed your boat to Mullaghmore and have got her rigged on the slipway, and let us also pretend that it is a Sunday --- a fine warm sunny Sunday at that. Well -- we are only pretending. The tide is nearly full, children are rowing around the harbour in dinghies, and just outside the harbour the leading boats are on the last leg of their weekly Points Race organised by the Mullaghmore Yacht Club. Everything is ready and as the forecast for Malin is good you decide to sail at once for the North-Eastern side of the bay and visit Donegal town --- even though you have been invited to stay on tonight because there will be a "get-together" after the race is over.

Once out of the harbour and clear of Mullaghmore Head, the lift of the Atlantic swell can be felt even though the wind is only force 3 to 4. Well-- just remember that once you are about two miles out and you look westward you might be able to see the coast of America --- there is nothing else "in the way". In the winter time this swell can run into the bay like mountains on the move, and hurl itself on to the cliffs and beaches in a thunderous roar that can be heard many miles inland, but this is summer and the swell is even and gentle. To help pass the time you decide to catch a few mackerel for supper. The best way to catch just a few is to have a spinner with a three pronged hook separated from the line by a fathom of fairly stout nylon; it is advisable to have a heavy lead weight, or bob as they call them locally, to make sure the line is sunk far enough down in the water. Soon you have a pile of shining green and silver fish in the box you were wise enough to bring for the purpose --- fish can be very messy in the bottom of a boat, not to mention a cruising dinghy.

You have been navigating, of course, with the aid of Admiralty chart number 2702, and the Irish Cruising Club's publication ‘South and West Coasts of Ireland’. The latter is an excellent book and makes good reading even if you never sail to any of the places mentioned. As winds go you have been lucky and now you have arrived at the entrance to Donegal Town Harbour. The town itself is still about four miles up the bay which has only one narrow channel, and plenty of mud banks are to be seen, so you decide to anchor for the night at the little quay called Salthill, which is just off the port bow. As you lie alongside the practically disused pier and have a supper of those lovely fresh mackerel you can see a number of seals on the nearby mud flats. There must be hundreds in this area, grey seals, black seals, young and old. But there is a price on their heads --- they eat vast amounts of fish and like their human counter-parts they have a liking for salmon.

Next day is spent exploring Donegal Harbour, landing on one of the wooded islands perhaps for lunch. At night you anchor beside the little quay in Donegal Town itself, where all provisions can be obtained and where you can have a meal, and clean-up in one of the hotels, and perhaps a visit to the cinema.

Leaving on the ebb tide in the morning you set course for Inver Port --- not a port really, just a small fishing port with a few lobster boats, but a nice little spot for lunch, before pushing on to Killybegs. This is the main fishing port in Donegal, and is one of the best natural harbours in the country, accessible in all weathers by day or night. You anchor in the harbour or go alongside one of the many trawlers. Everybody is very friendly and great interest is shown in your boat. The hotel at the head of the pier looks OK and you spend a pleasant evening there listening to talk of the sea and fishing, the price of boats and gear.

You may be awakened at 6 am by the sound of the trawlers going to sea, but they make a fine sight as they plough a furrow through the calm waters of the channel. All is quiet again until they return in the evening. You spend the morning looking around the town. You visit the Fishery Board Boat Yard and see how an 85 foot trawler is built. By the way, you ignored the notice outside the main gate saying ALL PERSONS PROHIBITED EXCEPT ON BUSINESS BEYOND THIS POINT. They only put that up to keep patients from the nearby hospital from wandering down when they were getting better. You also allow yourself a look into the Carpet Factory, you can buy one, of course, if you have your cheque book with you; a hearth rug about £150 or a Square 14 x 14 about £600. Killybegs carpets are in Buckingham Palace and the Queen Mary, so why not have one also? After lunch you set sail down the channel again, but this time you turn to Port about three miles down and sail up a little inlet, to the sheltered creek of Bruckless. Here the trees grow down to the water's edge and a little river flows out from beneath an old fashioned stone bridge, and through the trees is a Hotel, so you decide to spend the night here, for the rest of the day you just laze around or explore a bit of the local countryside --- hills to climb with breath-taking views to see when you get to the top, hills covered with heather, and the Donegal Mountains rising a misty blue all around.

From Bruckless you sail down the channel and turn westward along the coast to visit Teelin Harbour before setting course back to Mullaghmore once again. Teelin is a large natural harbour with lovely scenery all around it but it is not very suitable for an over night stay except in fine weather as it is exposed to the South and South-West swell. Salmon are netted in the harbour here which is really an estuary, the method employed being to stretch the nets from one side to the other and when the fishermen think they have a good "haul", one end of the net is towed back to join the other and all is then hauled ashore. But the day is wearing on and you set course for Mullaghmore, 15 miles south across the Bay.

Now you have visited the Donegal coast you decide to explore a bit south of Mullaghmore. First port of call is Milk Harbour, a very sheltered inlet about five miles down the coast. There is a boat yard here also, and a mile on foot brings you onto Streedagh Beach which is well known for its fossils, as are all the beaches around Milk Harbour. Most of the inhabitants of this are natives of Innishmurray Island which lies about six miles off the coast. They were evacuated in 1950 and re-housed on the mainland, some of the reasons being that most of the young men had left the island and the older people were not able to pull up the boats as there is no slipway or harbour on the island, and also there was no doctor and the passage over to the mainland could be cut off for weeks at a time during winter storms. You decide to visit the Island.

Landing on Innishmurray can only be done in fairly fine weather and when there is no ground-sea running, as there is only a natural landing place, called Classiemore Harbour. This is just a gut about 60 feet long and 20 feet wide in the rocks on the Southern end of the island. Boats are moored with four ropes in the centre of this gut, or stand off until the visitors need to be picked up. Poor holding ground for anchoring.

The island is very flat, the houses all being built on the shore next to the mainland. These houses are still in a good state of preservation, and three years ago I found some chalk in the deserted school house. The only inhabitants now are the rabbits. Hundreds of them.

You have landed on Innishmurray. The first thing you notice is the absolute quiet, and also how it seems so much warmer than on the mainland. After walking through what is truly a deserted village you go towards the centre of the island where there is a fine example of 6th century monastic buildings. These are all encircled by a thick stone wall, so wide in fact that there are passages in this. Lord Mountbatten of Burma, who has a holiday estate in Mullaghmore, spends a lot of time on the island and has written a Guide to Innishmurray. On your way around the island you may come upon a nest of Eider Ducks. The island is one of the few places on this coast where they nest. A story also has it that, during the war, a German submarine surfaced off the island, mistook it for a ship and fired a torpedo which exploded on the rocks - waking all the islanders up! Your next port could be Sligo, the county town of this area, or Rosses Point, the holiday resort at the head of Sligo estuary. However there is a very strong tide, about 5 - 6 knots at springs and you decide to pass here and go on another few miles to Culleenamore in Ballisodare Bay. There is a strong tide here also, but by entering on the flood and using the chart and sailing directions to avoid running aground on the numerous sand banks, you find it was worth entering this inlet. There are miles of beaches and when the tide ebbs you go onto the mud flats and gather cockles, winkles and other shell.-fish for supper. All around you is peace and quiet, the only sounds being the sea around the headland and the call of the sea birds, and perhaps the voice of one of the owners of a holiday bungalow on shore; Mr. J W MacMullen who wrote the sailing directions for this part of the coast has a bungalow here and if he is in residence he will no doubt have been down to see you. And over all this scene rises Knocknarea Mountain, atop which is a large cairn, story has it that beneath this cairn lies one of Ireland's Queens of history, Queen Maeve.

Your holiday with us over here is nearly at an end and you return to Mullaghmore to prepare for the journey home. You have met some very interesting people and seen some of our wonderful scenery. People like a certain Doctor who is very keen on sailing and owns a variety of craft. One day last year two friends and myself were sailing his 27 foot yawl over to Mullaghmore from Inver. Just before we sailed he handed me down a cardboard box, saying "I never go to sea without this and I'm sure you will find it useful too". On opening the box I found the contents to be an Enema Pump. After a look o£ astonishment on our faces we found it was for siphoning petrol from a tank to get the rather ancient engine to function. Mr. MacMullen once sent his crew ashore in Co. Mayo to get a few fresh vegetables. They returned with a dinghy full of cabbages. People like fisherman Thady Duffy who fishes lobsters for a living in a 16 foot open punt with a Seagull outboard for power. The top of the carburettor is missing and so he has just covered over the top with a polythene bag, and uses a 3" nail to flood it. The engine works and he is quite happy.

Will we see you around here next year? I hope so. But bring the fine weather with you please, we did not see so much of it here in 1965.