Having finished in Derry, we headed west into Donegal for a mixture of golf and touring. One of Irelands’ two most remote counties, the locals say that it gets forgotten by Dublin and left to its own devices.

Certainly when it comes to golf, they have lots to offer. I played 6 rounds and there are 3 other courses that rate just as highly (Nairn & Portnoo, Port Salon and Donegal. You could easily do a golf tour just playing the Donegal courses on their own.

We started on the Inishowen Peninsula, which is the most northerly part of the county (and country). First stop was Grianan (fort) of Aileach just over the border from Derry.

The origins of the Grianán of Aileach fort are dated back to 1700 BC. It is linked to the Tuatha de Danann who invaded Ireland before the Celts and built stone forts on top of strategic hills. They worshipped Dagda (the Good God) and he too is associated with the origins of Aileach. It was he who ordered the building of a stone fort to act as a burial monument to his dead son.

The round fort is built largely without mortar. The outline of Bronze Age or Iron Age ramparts can be seen below the fort. Legend states that the giants of Inishowen are lying sleeping but when the sacred sword is removed they will spring to life reclaiming their ancient lands.

The Grianan is 23m in internal diameter with walls measuring 5m in height and approximately 4m in thickness. The dry stone walls contain two passages within them as well as terraces along their interior which would have allowed access to their summit.

It is claimed that St Patrick visited the site in the 5th century and baptised the local chieftain, Eoghan, here.

Our first base was a loch side AirBNB just outside the lovely little town of Malin. From there we toured the Inishowen Peninsula as well as two rounds of golf at the two Ballyliffin Golf Courses.

Ballyliffin - The Old Links

Course rating 7.5

My score 27 points.

Played well the front nine, but tired on the back and started hitting terribly. Nice enough course through low lying dunes. Nothing particularly special about it though.

Ballyliffin - Glashedy Links

Course rating 8.0

My score 28 points. Struggled on the holes where I had two shots, wiping 3 out of 4 to ruin my score. Not that they were particularly hard, just some bad shots.

The newer course, it is a mix of about half the holes similar to The Old Links (and in neighbouring areas) with the other half cut into far higher dunes. Some very special par 3s (big drops) among those holes and far more challenging / attractive.

Ballyliffin Glashedy Links (Glashedy (or Glaiséidí in Gaelic) Island in the right hand corner)

We tried to visit Malin Head, the most northerly point of Ireland and famous to all Irish people from listening to weather forecasts over the years! We got there and it is obviously beautiful, but with a pea souper of a fog that was down all day we could hardly see more than 10m in front of us!

Also near Derr is Wild Ireland, an animal sanctuary focussing on animals that were originally native to Ireland, most of which are now extinct in Ireland. This includes Bears, Wolves, Wild Boar, Irish Lynx etc.

We were expecting a pretty small outfit - it is actually a very impressive facility, well worth a visit.

Back across the border to Donegal