30/12/2024

Wintertime in Donegal is not for everyone~ limited daylight and mad weather are not phrases for the brochures~ but what you can experience in these days of extraordinary light and the elemental conditions can be unforgettable. You’ll need the waterproofs and the wellies, for sure, but once you’re out there, you’ll love the grassy roads, the chaotic fences, skeletal trees moulded by unforgiving gusts of a salty wind, the rich winter colours of bog, mosses, lichens, fungi, old cottages, rainbows and storm clouds at the same time. And there is always a story, and a local place name that will take you ( if you are interested) into a folkloric, ‘as Gaeilge’ dimension. For example- this ramble was up around Lough Muck, in Fintown. Even though the day was grey and spitty, it was well worth the ramble for the scenery alone. But then… Lough Muck comes from the Irish word for pig ( muc) - and a story in the Fenian Cycle tells us about a young man who upsets a mother pig by eating her babies - mother pig gets her revenge by killing the man’s three hounds, the man himself - and his sister Finn, who drowns in the nearby lake trying to save him. Hence we have pig lake ( Loch Muc) Lough Muck) and Finn’s Glen ( Gleann Fhinne) Glenfin.
Come for the scenery, stay for the shtory!
#ireland #donegal #studyabroadireland #glenfin #loughmuck #irishmythology #feniancycle