Donegal, Ireland

I didn't mean to ignore this blog for such a long time. I've just been really busy in the past few weeks, and I expect it to be the same for a while so I probably won't be updating this blog again for some time. I thought I'd make a little post now in case anyone happened to be wondering what's going on. I'm getting married in less than two weeks so that's keeping me fairly busy. I'm starting to get quite nervous now... Hopefully everything will go well! Meanwhile, here's a pretty postcard of County Donegal in Ireland I received earlier this year.



Donegal is a county in Ireland. Donegal County Council is the local authority responsible for the county, and is part of the Border Region. County Donegal is located in the province of Ulster and is named after the town of Donegal. The population of the county is 160,927 according to the 2011 census.

In terms of size and area, Donegal is the largest county in Ulster and the fourth largest county in all of Ireland. Uniquely, County Donegal shares a border with only one other county in the Republic – County Leitrim. The majority of its land border is shared with three counties of Northern Ireland: County Londonderry, County Tyrone and County Fermanagh. This apparent economic 'isolation' has led to Donegal people maintaining a distinct cultural identity and has been used to market the county with the slogan Up here it's different. While Lifford is the County Town, the population of Letterkenny is much larger. Letterkenny and the nearby city of Derry form the main economic axis of the north-west of Ireland.

Physically, the county is by far the most rugged and mountainous in Ulster. The county consists chiefly of low mountains, with a deeply indented coastline forming natural loughs, of which both Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle are the most notable. The famous mountains (often known as 'the Hills of Donegal') consist of two major ranges, the Derryveagh Mountains in the north and the Bluestack Mountains in the south, with Mount Errigal at 749 metres (2,457 ft) the highest peak. The Slieve League cliffs are the sixth-highest sea cliffs in Europe, while Donegal's Malin Head is the most northerly point on the island of Ireland.