Two ferry routes carry most of the visitors on this list. Tory lies 11 km off the north-west coast, about 45 minutes out of Magheroarty and answering to the tide; there are no cars, Irish is the daily language, and the eastern end holds Dún Bhaloir and the cliff spur of An Eochair Mhór, where puffins, razorbills and guillemots nest. Arranmore is a much shorter hop, 15 to 20 minutes from Burtonport, with the 14 km Arranmore Way and a clifftop lighthouse. Gola, off the Gweedore shore, is car-free, with two white-sand beaches and granite cliffs that climbers rate.
The northern Inishowen entries are mostly for looking at. Glashedy stands a mile off Pollan Strand near Ballyliffin, ringed by reefs, best seen from the strand, the golf links or the Wild Alpaca Way at Malin Head. Inishtrahull, six miles beyond the head, has no ferry at all and needs a charter boat and settled weather. The Isle of Doagh you simply drive onto.
The rest are tidal or inland. Inishkeel is walked from Narin either side of low water, Island Roy and Red Island sit behind causeways that flood, Inch Island is reached by 1850s railway embankments and fills with geese and whooper swans from autumn, and Doon Fort in Loughadoon needs a boat hired locally in summer.
Eleven kilometres offshore with no cars and Irish as the daily language, it rewards the 45-minute Magheroarty crossing with cliffs, a round tower and a painting tradition.
Donegal's largest inhabited island is only 15 to 20 minutes from Burtonport, a working Gaeltacht with the 14 km Arranmore Way and a clifftop lighthouse.
An uninhabited quartzite outcrop a mile off Pollan Strand, ringed by reefs, it shapes every view from Ballyliffin's beach and golf links.
15 of 15 shown — tap a pin for the place.
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Tory Island lies 11 km off Donegal and keeps its own rhythm – no cars, Irish as the daily language, and until 2018 its own elected king. The pull is the wild eastern end, Dún Bhaloir, the cliffs and the Wishing Stone, along with a round tower, a rare Tau cross, and a school of local painters started by Derek Hill. The ferry from Magheroarty takes about 45 minutes and answers to the tide.
Tory Island, donegal
An Eochair Mhór, the 'Big Key', is a long, steep-sided cliff spur on the east side of Tory Island, ending in a crag the islanders call An Tor Mór. Its jagged pinnacles are known as Balor's soldiers, and the cliffs below hold nesting puffins, razorbills and guillemots. Reaching it means a 45-minute, weather-dependent ferry from Magheroarty and a walk along an unfenced coast path.
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Arranmore (Árainn Mhór) is Donegal's largest inhabited island, a 15- to 20-minute ferry from Burtonport. It's a working Gaeltacht of 478 people, 62% of them native Irish speakers, with the 14km Arranmore Way, a clifftop lighthouse, and Ireland's first offshore digital hub.
Ardara, donegal
Doon Fort is a drystone cashel that fills its own island in Loughadoon, walls 15 feet high reflected in the water. Once an O'Boyle stronghold, it's reachable only by boat hired locally in summer – hidden from the road and all the quieter for it.
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Glashedy Island is an uninhabited quartzite outcrop about a mile off Pollan Strand near Ballyliffin, rising to some 36 metres. Reefs and breakers reach up to 1,000 metres out on every side, so it's a place to look at rather than land on. The best views are from the mainland, including the golf links at Ballyliffin and the Wild Alpaca Way at Malin Head.
Gweedore, donegal
Gola sat empty from the 1960s until 2002; today a handful of people live here again. The draw is a short ferry from the mainland, two quiet white-sand beaches, and west-facing granite cliffs that climbers rate among the finest in Europe.
Lough Swilly, donegal
Inch Island sits in Lough Swilly, reached by two railway embankments thrown across the water in the 1850s. Its wildfowl reserve is where Iceland-bound whooper swans make their Irish landfall each autumn, and it holds internationally important numbers of Greenland white-fronted and greylag geese through the winter. A 15th-century O'Doherty castle stands on the south-west shore.
Off the coast of Malin Head, donegal
Six miles north of Malin Head, Inishtrahull is Ireland's most northerly island, built on 1.7-billion-year-old gneiss (the oldest known rock in the country) and topped by its northernmost lighthouse. The last islanders left in 1929 and there is no ferry, so you reach it by charter boat, weather permitting.
Carrigart, donegal
This 90-acre island in Mulroy Bay is joined to the Donegal mainland by a causeway built in 1927 that disappears under the sea at high tide. Around 26 people still live here by farming and shellfish. In 2010 NASA named an iron-nickel meteorite on Mars Oileán Ruaidh after the island, for the rust colour its winter vegetation shares with the rock.
Inishowen Peninsula, donegal
The Isle of Doagh, a former island now tied to the Inishowen mainland by a silted channel, packs a lot into a small headland: one of Ireland's largest clusters of Neolithic rock art, the free-to-roam ruin of Carrickabraghy Castle, and the family-run Doagh Famine Village, an outdoor museum of 19th-century rural life.
Magheraroarty, donegal
Magheroarty Pier is the mainland departure point for the passenger ferry to Tory Island, and a Wild Atlantic Way discovery point in its own right. Behind the harbour wall runs a three-kilometre beach of pale sand and tall dunes, with a reef break, steady winds for kitesurfing and a big free car park that fills fast on summer weekends.
Kerrykeel, donegal
Mulroy Bay is a 12 km Donegal sea loch winding past Milford, Kerrykeel and Cranford, with three narrows only 100-150 m across where currents reach 3-5 knots. Red Island, a Wild Atlantic Way Discovery Point, is reached by a tidal causeway near Carrigart and nests summer seabirds; the 35 km Mulroy Drive links the bay to Fanad Head.
Rotten Island, donegal
Rotten Island Lighthouse has marked the entrance to Killybegs Harbour since 1838, a 14-metre granite tower still working as an automated harbour light. George Halpin designed it for the Ballast Board, and three of the workmen drowned during its construction in 1836. The island is uninhabited with no ferry, so the best views are from the Killybegs waterfront, Carntullagh Head, or a seasonal boat trip.
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William Burton Conyngham built a planned herring port on Rutland Island in 1784. The herring vanished within years, the village emptied, and the last islanders left in the 1960s. What remains is a low, uninhabited Gaeltacht island of dunes, seal-haunted reefs and holiday cottages, reached by a short boat trip from Burtonport.
Narin, donegal
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