Glengesh Pass, or Malaidh Ghleann Gheis, is on the mountain road between Ardara and Glencolmcille in County Donegal. The road climbs a steep-sided glacial valley between the Glengesh and Mulmosog mountains, threaded through hairpin bends. On a clear day the view runs down the valley toward Loughros Beg Bay. This is a viewpoint and a drive rather than a half-day destination. Treat it as a deliberate pause on a longer Donegal loop and it earns its place.
The drive
The road is narrow and bendy, with blind corners stacked one after another. Slow right down, especially if it’s wet or misty, and don’t park on the road itself. The road is a popular cycling climb too and has limited passing places, so give riders room on the bends. Black-faced sheep wander the open ground and aren’t in any hurry to move for you.
The viewpoint
Discover Ireland lists a viewpoint over Loughros Beg Bay. Use the designated area if there is room and keep the road clear. Don’t count on finding a space at busy times, and the verges are no place to leave a car on a road this tight. Slow down in poor visibility and give cyclists and other traffic space. No public transport is listed here, so you need a car or a bike.
The name and the ice
Glengesh is usually translated as ‘Glen of the Swans’ (Irish Gleann Géis, or Malaidh Ghleann Gheis), though geis is also the old Irish word for a warrior’s taboo or sacred oath, which suits the strangeness of the place. The valley is glacial: an ice sheet gouged this U-shaped trough out of the hills during the last Ice Age, around twenty thousand years ago, and the river still works away at the floor of it. The slopes are dotted with dry-stone walls, old field cottages and working farms, the marks of people who have grazed these thin upland soils for centuries.
Nearby
The pass is one stop on a scenic loop through south-west Donegal. Within easy reach are Assaranca Waterfall, the caves and shoreline at Maghera beach, the Glencolmcille Folk Village, the cliffs at Malin Beg, and the sea cliffs at Slieve League. Ardara itself, back down the hill, is the obvious place to eat.
Come in late-afternoon light if you’re after photographs, and build it into a coastal day that takes in Maghera or the Assaranca Falls rather than driving out for the pass alone.