Dorf · Co. Donegal
Dunlewy sits in the Poisoned Glen at the foot of Errigal, beside Dunlewey Lough. Boat trips depart from the lakeside centre, while the castle ruins sit on the far shore. Irish remains the daily language of the village.
Dunlewy (Dún Lúiche in Irish) is a small Gaeltacht village in the Gweedore district in the north-west of County Donegal. It sits in what is known as the Poisoned Glen, at the foot of Errigal and on the shore of Dunlewey Lough, with the Cronaniv Burn running along the southern edge of the village. The mountain looms on one side. The lough stretches out on the other. You can walk the whole village in minutes and still have a view of both.
The lake is the village’s living room. The Lakeside Centre — Ionad Cois Locha — runs boat trips on the water. The western shore carries the ruins of Dunlewy Castle, the old seat of the O’Donnells of this country. A walk around the lough is the day’s proper thing to do. The castle and the mountain do the talking from the far shore. The water is quiet and shallow at the edges. It has been fished and worked for longer than the village has had a name in English.
As a Gaeltacht village, Dunlewy is one of the places in Donegal where Irish is still the working language of the street and the shop. That is not a museum piece. It is a community that keeps its language as its everyday one. The music, the culture and the sense of place follow from that. It is one of the most intact Irish-speaking villages left in the west.
Allow two to three hours for the lough walk and the centre. The trip from Gweedore is the natural pairing. The two villages make a full day, with the foothills of Errigal between them and the lough at the bottom of it.
Übernachten
A base in Gweedore puts the lough, the glen and the mountain all inside the hour.
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