Letterkenny, Ireland

Leaving the hostel I headed north, aiming to go round the Inishowen peninsula. Within a few miles I was buried in Muff, but passed straight through to stop in Moville, a small fishing village with great views across to Northern Ireland. Though by now I was further north than the north most point of NI. My inner bingo caller enjoyed the car park holding ‘two fat ladies-large ice creams’ and I and the bingo caller both took a walk by the sea edge. It would make a great place to run.

Abandoned buildings.

From there to Malin Head, which is the most northerly point in Ireland. To add to passing Ireland’s highest pub in the Sperrin mountains on Monday, I passed-yes!-Farren’s bar, Ireland’s most northern bar. Something about a whippet, tap n’spile and perpetual trouble at t’mill.

Malin Head is spectacular and wind blown, even on a sunny and calm day like today. Why the Franglais name, I don’t know.

Dunree military museum is housed in a Napoleonic fort, and was very quiet when I got there. It attracts over 10,000 visitors a year, so on more average days there might be as many as 30 people flooding through the gates. It has a fantastic view over Lough Swilly, but then it needed one. The museum is well enough put together, the standard mix of audio, visual and clickable, but there’s a slight air of melancholy about a fort stood in readiness for an invasion that never came. On that note, a stroll around the mostly abandoned and derelict buildings of the wider base fits nicely and let me use my imagination.

The ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/3272 88578

Tonight’s guest nationality: Swiss.

Summary: place picked at random, 1, and cycled to. A travel, see, stop, no dead baby joke kind of a day.