05/10/2024

A very Octoberish ramble today, exploring a network of old roads around Knader forest. The Irish word for a road is ‘bóthar’ - (bo-har) and a little road is a bótharín - bo-har-een) which was further anglicized to ‘Boreen’. The meaning comes from bó - the word for cow, - the bothar is the cow-path. There are bótharíní i ngach áit- everywhere in Donegal, and if you wander down them you’ll be rewarded with birdsong, berries, wildflowers and heathers, mosses, midges, ferns, rushes, gorse, thistles, frogs and the odd red deer. The light is changing now, getting lower in the increasingly darker skies, the doggies, who can see better than their walker, don’t mind this at all. Enjoy!
#donegal #ramble #ireland