Dorf · Co. Donegal
Rathmullan is the Fanad Peninsula village where the Flight of the Earls began on 14 September 1607. The 1516 Carmelite friary ruins and the lough views are short walks from the quay.
Rathmullan sits on the western shore of Lough Swilly at the foot of the Fanad Peninsula. It is eleven kilometres north-east of Ramelton and twelve east of Milford. The Irish name, Ráth Maoláin, means "Maolán's ringfort". The country around the village carries the earliest settlement of all. Court tombs and ringforts in the neighbouring townlands of Crevary Upper, Rathmullan and Ballyboe predate the rest of the site by a good few thousand years. The history stays in the open. The quay, the friary and the lough views are all within a short walk of one another.
The ruined Carmelite friary dates from 1516. Eoghan Rua MacSweeney built it. An English garrison from Sligo sacked the place in 1595. In 1617, Andrew Knox, the Protestant Bishop of Raphoe, occupied it. A later Bishop of Raphoe turned it into a fortified house, anticipating a possible French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. The walls are what remain. The setting is above the village, with the lough beyond. It is a good place to feel how that history happened rather than read about it.
On 14 September 1607, ninety-nine aristocrats of the Gaelic order left Rathmullan for the European continent. The group included chiefs of Clan Ó Néill and Clan Ó Domhnaill. This was the episode now known as the Flight of the Earls. It closed an era in Irish history. The quay has marked the anniversary with commemorations. The village's calendar still turns on that date.
The village makes the base for the Fanad Peninsula. The lighthouse at the head, the coastal walks and the view across to Inishowen are all an easy drive or a long walk from the centre. Allow half a day here.
Übernachten
Stay where the Flight of the Earls began — the Fanad villages are small and the light is big.
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