Where on Earth is Fanad Head?



The Lighthouse



Well, it’s the second most northern point of Ireland, in County Donegal and my friend Olivia happens to live there, otherwise we’d have no reason to go!  But I’m glad she does live there, because we would have missed out on seeing a gorgeous part of the country.

It’s about a 5 hour drive from Dublin, so half way there we stopped at The Murphy’s for lunch.  I’m giving it capital letters, because even though it’s my good friend Sinead’s family home, it’s also good old fashioned Irish hospitality at its best, and we may as well have stopped in at a pub or restaurant of the same name!  Lovely Margaret treated us to a full lunch including desert she’d made herself as well as special orders for the kids!  I think they must have been happy to see the back of us though, as Amelia and Noah went absolutely mental in there, running laps around the table squealing and screaming.  I guess that’s what happens after nearly 3 hours stuck in a car! And it was lashing rain, so no hope of letting the energy loose in the garden.

The Murphy’s are in Northern Ireland, and the quickest way to reach our destination was to pass through it.  It was a bit unnerving when we passed through a town and came across thousands of cars parked near a field.  A music festival? A fair?  Men in bowler hats, others wearing some kind of uniform with sash’s bearing numbers/dates?, and Union Jacks flying all around.  It felt like a bullseye on the political dartboard of religion, or country, whichever rings the truest.  Not sure, but with the trouble going on in the North again we were glad once we’d left it behind.  Chatting to Mr Murphy about it later the words ‘march’ and ‘Black Saturday’ were mentioned.  Not sure what that really means, but haven’t heard any news about it since so all must have gone well with it.

As we drove further north out of Northern Ireland, the landscape became more rugged and wild, but despite this we found Olivia’s place with no problem at all thanks to her no nonsense straight talking right on the money brilliant directions!  We had packed all our woolies in the boot to have on hand as we expected our heads to be blown off by the gale force winds upon stepping out of the car on the driveway of the house at the end of the world!  But, not so, it was sunny and calm!  Albeit not so warm!

Olivia, Colin and little Ollie live in a gorgeous house with a sun room attached which has a spectacular view of the rugged hills and rocky cliffs that make up the coastline.  The one full day we were there the weather was great, and we spend time on the beach, exploring the rocks while the crazy Irish Fanad Head people actually swam!  Olivia thought we were mad, going to the beach dressed in our winter best with runners and socks on, while she sported flip flops and had little Ollie in a swimsuit!

We had a lovely time, beer drinking, chocolate eating, and catching up on the past seven years (Oh my God, we’ve got kids now!!) and Amelia scored an Oopsie Daisy doll complete with a musical bed!

Room with a view

Thank you for having us.  We’d love to visit again someday.  Apologies though for leaving you with the howling wind and lashing rain in our wake!  It appears we spent our one day in Fanad Head on it's only sunny day of the year!

Freezing feet!