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| Dunfanaghy hosts and boasts the most campervan friendly festival in the world; the best pizza on the Wild Atlantic Way and a weekend of music that I just wanted to put on repeat, forever. |
Dunfanaghy hosts and boasts the most campervan friendly
festival in the world; the best pizza on the Wild Atlantic Way and a weekend of
music that I just wanted to put on repeat, forever. And that’s just for
starters, as we also hit on a campsite that would be well in the running for
our best of the season.
This is second installment of our Donegal pilgrimage, so you
may want to remind yourself here of part one, before you turn on the sequel: http://www.vanhalla.ie/2018/09/so-many-delights-on-pilgrimage-to.html
With the fishing out of our system the plan now was for some
tunes and to keep a look out for some surf out of the corner of our eye. We
were also going to have to make a call on a wild camp or campsite option as we
rocked up into Dunfanaghy.
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| It was Hippy Bill who gave us the hot tip for Dunfanaghy Jazz & Blues Festival. |
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| Camper friendly Dunfanaghy, first up, best dressed gets the pick of the spots. |
When Hippy Bill gave us the heads-up on Dunfanaghy he said
there was lots of options as the campervans parked everywhere, and he wasn’t
wrong. No fuss, no facilities (the public toilets block was the worse for wear
and locked up) but there were motorhomes parked
up along the pier, the waterfront, the car parks and in any available
spot that could be squeezed in to. Self-regulating, first up, best dressed got
the pick of the spots and it all seemed to work well and totally hassle free. Dunfanaghy
passed with flying colours when it comes to welcoming campers.
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| The Old Mill is well in the running for our campsite of the season but it also offers inviting glamping and hostel options. |
However, just 3km back out the road Ricky and I had spotted
an interesting looking place, The Old
Mill, which offered the full monty for travellers such as ourselves from camping
to glamping, motorhomes, caravans, campervans to hostel rooms, it catered for
everyone. Perched on the side of the N56 road the Old Mill/Dunfanaghy Holiday Village is a nugget of a spot, really
well laid out, great showers and services, lots of places to hang out –
including The Blow-Ins Club – with its curious military memorabilia, views out
to the coast line, which was sheltering dozens of swans and to clinch the deal
for festival goers like ourselves it is just a €3 taxi ride in to town. The Old
Mill was €30 all in for showers and EHU per night. You can check it out at www.corcreggan.com or millhouse@corcreggan.com
We were up north for the Dunfanaghy Jazz & Blues Festival but this corner of Donegal had
a few more aces up its sleeve before we even settle in to the tunes. There were cafés, craft shops, galleries,
hospitality offerings to beat the band, even a dedicated traditional sweet
shop!
Arnold’s Hotel is
a hive of activity and a buzz with blues and jazz and brass streaming out of
every corner, lounge, lobby and ballroom; the Oyster Bar and Shibín are jammers as is Patsy Dans. The Starfish
Café and Bistro is run off its feet turning out delicious dishes, for us it’s
the all-day breakfast which is great value all day at €17 for two. There are
loads of other inviting spots – Arnou,
Cove Tapas Bar, Buttermilk Art Café, The Green Man Deli - as Dunfanaghy is
a place you are spoilt for choice and spoiled rotten such is the warm welcome
around the small town with a big heart.
We sampled the Lisnamulligan Farm produce burger for €6
and it would give any of your gourmet burgers a run for their money, and that’s
not just beer talk. But the piece de resistance has to be the wood-fired
sourdough pizza from The Rusty Oven
(located behind Patsy Dan’s Bar). On this I’m throwing down the gauntlet – this
is the best pizza on the Wild Atlantic Way and would put it up to any of your
fancy Dan stuff coming out of the Big Smoke for that matter! If you dare, you
can compare…as it's worth going to Dunfanaghy for that pizza alone.
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| The Rusty Oven has the best wood-fired sourdough pizzas on the Wild Atlantic Way. It's worth going to Dunfanaghy just for that reason alone. |
Dunfanaghy is tucked away nicely
on the shores of Sheephaven Bay with
Falcarragh and Creeslough down the road in opposite directions from where you can
take you pick of forests, parks, beaches, strands and shoreline all steeped in
history marked out by a Workhouse Museum to a WW2 monument and a madcap story
of the day an American bomber crash-landed on the local beach. Out the road is
Horn Head with its signal tower and sea cliffs. This entire region is a haven
for surfing, kayaking and windsurfing – we met a few Scots, who were over
especially for a week of windsurfing lessons, stopping out beside us at The Old
Mill.
Small wonder then that Dunfanaghy
should sport the coolest surf shop, Narosa
Life, with its own surf school and the perhaps coolest of surf gear in the
northern hemisphere; www.narosalife.com
And I almost forgot, The Dunfanaghy Jazz & Blues Festival,
which has been one of the best kept secrets for the past ten years. Over 40
gigs in a dozen venues for four days, all free of charge. With names like Bluesy Quattro, The Beekeepers and The
Humble Earthworms, this festival clearly has its veterans and a sense of
humour, but newcomers are never made to feel out of place, on or off the stage.
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| Two Time Polka filled the floor from the get-go and sent them home happy and sweatin' . |
Crow Black Chicken, Portabello,
and The Grand Camaros all gave a good account of themselves but it was the Clandestinos that put down a marker
with their mellow soulful reggae blend. However, festival favourites went to
Ray Barron and Two Time Polka who
had the house heavin’ from the get-go, a full dance floor, leaving them wanting more and sent them home
sweating from Dunfanaghy for another year, a hard act to follow.
Along the way we bumped in to
cartoonist Davy Francis who was plying
his talent for anyone who fancied the fun of a four minute caricature, for a song
at €4. He’s brilliant, check him out on Facebook at davyfranciscartoons.
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| The Rickster by cartoonist Davy Francis. |
And so to the road home. An
overnight in Rossnowlagh so that we
could squeeze in a sneaky surf early the following morning to round off a
massive weekend. You can’t do that without a pint in The Smugglers and the Surfers Bar.
With a good bracing surf under
our belt we were famished. Only one thing for it, a slap up breakfast at The Salty Fox on the Tullan Strand Road in Bundoran. A big thumbs up for this new
spot, another offshoot from the popularity of the Wild Atlantic Way, where we
both had the works for €18.90.
Homeward bound, with only one regret
that this weekend ever had to come to an end…There is only one cure for that.
See you in Dunfanaghy next September.
