Water in Donegal takes three fairly distinct forms, and this list covers all of them. Assaranca Waterfall, on the coast road west of Ardara, is the one you can watch without leaving the car; it runs hard after rain and thins to very little in a dry week, so check the forecast before you make the detour. Glenevin Waterfall near Clonmany, at the far northern end of the county in Inishowen, asks a bit more: an easy 1 km path up a sheltered glen, rebuilt by local volunteers after a flood took it out, with free entry and parking at the bottom.
The loughs sit inland and mostly need a drive. Lough Eske spreads across 900 acres in a bowl of the Bluestacks a short run from Donegal Town, with a five-star hotel on the restored castle site and salmon and sea trout from March to September. Dunlewey lies under Errigal in the north-west, with the weaver’s cottage and boat trips on the shore and the Errigal trailhead in the village. Gartan, on Lough Gartan, holds Colmcille’s birthplace inside an older hill fort.
The rivers are largely for anglers. The Finn, the Clady at Gweedore and the Leannan all run salmon, though much of the Finn is private estate water; the Twin Towns Heritage Trail and the Ramelton quays give walkers a way in.
24 of 25 shown — tap a pin for the place.
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Assaranca is one of the few Donegal waterfalls you can watch from the car door, on the coast road west of Ardara. It is at its loudest after rain and barely worth the detour in a dry spell. Combine it with Maghera Beach, a few minutes further on.
Gweedore, donegal
The Clady runs just 8km from Lower Lough Nacung to the sea at Bunbeg, but a 1950s ESB hydro scheme still shapes it: 18 timed freshets each summer coax salmon and grilse upstream. One permit covers both the Clady and the neighbouring Crolly, and the grilse run peaks in late June and early July.
Dunlewey, donegal
Dunlewey sits in a bowl of mountains on Lough Dunlewey, with Errigal behind it and the Poisoned Glen to the south. The lakeshore centre runs a restored weaver’s cottage, boat trips and a play area; the village is also the nearest trailhead for the Errigal climb.
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The Finn is one of Donegal's most prolific salmon and grilse systems, rising at Lough Finn near Fintown and running east to join the Mourne at Lifford and form the River Foyle. Most of the fishing is tightly held private estate water, but the free Twin Towns Heritage Trail between Ballybofey and Stranorlar gives anyone a good walk along the river past Drumboe Castle and its woods.
Stranorlar, donegal
The Finn Valley runs between the twin towns of Ballybofey and Stranorlar in east Donegal, following the River Finn to Lifford. It is home to the Finn Valley athletics club, an adjacent leisure centre with a 25m pool, one of the Foyle system's best salmon rivers, and easy riverside walks.
Gartan, donegal
Gartan, on the shore of Lough Gartan, is where St Colmcille was born in 521 before he left for Iona. The monastic site – a holy well, stone crosses and a graveyard set inside a much older hill fort – sits within an 87-acre estate that is now also an outdoor-adventure centre run by Donegal ETB.
Clonmany, donegal
Glenevin Waterfall sits at the head of a sheltered glen near Clonmany on the Inishowen Peninsula, reached by an easy 1 km path that local volunteers rebuilt after a flood washed it away. The falls drop over black rock into a pool the old name calls Pohl-an-eas, the 'bathing place'. Entry and parking are free.
Lough Anure, donegal
Lough Anure is the largest lake in the Rosses, a shallow, island-dotted sheet of water in the Donegal Gaeltacht. Its Irish name means 'lake of the yew', after a wild yew still growing on one island, and the village beside it keeps the memory of a century-long lime-making trade in its ruined kilns.
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A glacial fault-line lake ringed by granite crags near the heart of the Bluestacks, with a lone island that folklore ties to hidden abbey treasure. It draws climbers to sound granite and walkers along the Bluestack Way, with no facilities at the shore and a rough final track in.
Dungloe, donegal
Lough Craghy, also called Tully Lake, is a small freshwater lough 3km east of Dungloe in Donegal's Rosses fishery. Its draw is summer sea trout, fished off the bank on a permit from Charlie Bonner's tackle shop in Dungloe. There are no facilities, no marked trails and no visitor centre, which is rather the point.
North County Donegal, donegal
Lough Craghy (Loch Chrathaí), locally known as Tully Lake, is a shallow, rocky lough 3 km east of Dungloe in the Rosses. Its main draw is the summer run of sea trout; there are no salmon here. Walkers and photographers work the sheltered bays, small islands and birdlife along an informal shoreline path.
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Lough Eske spreads over 900 acres in a bowl of the Bluestack Mountains, a short drive from Donegal Town. The O'Donnell clan built a castle on one of its islands, Franciscan friars settled the western shore, and the restored Lough Eske Castle now runs as a five-star hotel. Salmon and sea trout run from March to September, and local lore keeps a lake monster for company.
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Lough Swilly, one of Ireland's three true fjords, cuts between the Inishowen and Fanad peninsulas of north Donegal. A ring of Napoleonic forts guards its shores, a gold-laden liner lies wrecked at its mouth, and thousands of whooper swans and geese winter on the wetlands at its head.
Donegal, donegal
A village divided between Donegal and Fermanagh by the Termon River, one bank in the Republic, the other in Northern Ireland. Pettigo is the road-head for the Lough Derg pilgrimage, and it's ringed by more than fifty trout and pike lakes, a 900-hectare bog reserve and the ruined Termon McGrath Castle.
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The Drowes runs barely five miles from Lough Melvin to the sea near Bundoran, and most years it produces Ireland's very first salmon of the season on its 1 January opening. The Franciscan friars who wrote the Annals of the Four Masters worked at a refuge on its banks in the 1630s. Free parking and open walking make it worth a stop even if you never lift a rod.
Cavan, cavan
The River Erne runs 120 km from the Cavan hills through Upper and Lower Lough Erne to the Atlantic at Ballyshannon, spreading into a maze of more than 150 islands rather than a single channel. Monastic ruins, crannogs and Enniskillen Castle line the water, and since 1994 the Shannon–Erne Waterway has linked it to the Shannon for boats.
Donegal Town, donegal
The River Eske drops out of Lough Eske and runs the last few kilometres through Donegal Town to the bay, passing under six road bridges and beneath the walls of 15th-century Donegal Castle. It's a spring salmon river with a short, easy riverside walk that takes in the castle and the ruins of the old Franciscan friary across the water.
Station Island, donegal
St Patrick's Purgatory occupies Station Island, a 50-metre patch of rock in Lough Derg four miles north of Pettigo, Co Donegal. Its three-day pilgrimage of fasting, barefoot prayer and an all-night vigil still draws more than 8,000 people a summer, and a sealed cave once held the legend that drew medieval Europe here.
Greencastle, donegal
Stroove Lighthouse has marked the entrance to Lough Foyle from Dunagree Point since 1837, guiding ships clear of the Tuns Bank. The tower is a working Irish Lights station and not open to visitors, but it stands above a Blue Flag beach with picnic tables and the start of the Inishowen Head loop walk, with views across to Magilligan and the Antrim coast.
Dungloe, donegal
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Milford, donegal
Church Hill, donegal
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