Ireland Day 8 - Sligo & Donegal

Day 8 turned out to be one of the more beautiful days that we had and we were able to take advantage and see some beautiful scenic locations.  We started out by heading into Sligo to see a little bit of the town but mainly just to find some good breakfast (aka coffee).  We found this really cool cafe with outdoor seating right on the river that runs through Sligo.  We enjoyed a great pancake breakfast, great views, and great hospitality from the waiter.  Here is Am at Lily's Cafe and her yummy breakfast:

We opted to head for the scenic coast rather than spend the rest of the morning exploring the town.  We headed for Rosses Point which turned out to be amazing.  The views of the ocean were fantastic and the waves were really pounding the shoreline.  As fantastic as the location was, there really were very few people around as well which made it even more enjoyable.  Here are some pictures of the Rosses Point experience:

From Rosses Point, we continued around the peninsula and found Parke's Castle on the banks of Lough Gill.  The castle dates back to 1610 and had amazing views of the water.  We decided not to spend the money to tour the castle (they wanted a fortune) but did enjoy the views from the outside.  Here we are at Parke's Castle:



Am and I piled back in the car and headed for Glencar Waterfall.  As you are driving down a back road to access the waterfall you can start to see the water making its way down from the high cliffs.  A short hike brings you to the lower part of the falls.  This waterfall is made famous by the poet W.B. Yeats who loved this waterfall and wrote about it in his poem "The Stolen Child".  Here is Glencar Waterfall and a picture of us from the parking lot of the falls:

From Sligo, we headed to Donegal to find us a place to stay.  We had not had any luck calling places from the guidebook so we took a quick tour of the town to see what we could find.  Am was finally able to reach one of the B&Bs only to find that they only stayed open during the summer months and were closed for the season...however, they owned another place in Donegal that was still open.  This led us to Mill Park Hotel which turned out to be another fantastic find.  The hotel was crazy nice but had reduced their pirces since the really busy summer season had past.  We ended up with an amazing room at a super low price!  God provided once again.  Here is Mill Park Hotel:

We closed out the evening with dinner at The Olde Castle Bar just outside of Donegal Castle in downtown Donegal.  Good food and a cool pub atmosphere was a great way to close out a fantastic day!