Thursday, August 07, 2008
At long last, a bridge across the narrows…
Stretching the bounds of the terms of the blog, but this one is personal. One of the problems Donegal has always had (before and since independence) is drastically poor transport infrastructure. Especially for people living at the tips of those long, scenically beautiful fingers of land on peninsulas like Fanad and Rosguill. For years the only way across was by boat. And then taxi on to wherever it was you wanted to go. Now, at long last, there is a bridge gradually reaching across the narrows near the end of Mulroy Bay. Thanks to BogFish, we have a photo of a new bridge that will join two of the most beautiful parts of the island (then again, I confess more than a little bias on that score)...
Mick Fealty @ 01:37 PM
Hope the taxi lads haven’t made any long term purchases.
Posted by on Aug 07, 2008 @ 03:32 PMThey’ve had a few generations to prepare for this one Bob.
Posted by on Aug 07, 2008 @ 03:57 PMFor those unfamiliar, this is the area
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode;=&q=Mulroy+Bay,+donegal,+ireland&ie=UTF8&ll=55.187934,-7.762785&spn=0.034741,0.077248&t=h&z=14Posted by on Aug 07, 2008 @ 04:59 PMhey a symbol of the new dispensation, building bridges
Posted by on Aug 07, 2008 @ 05:11 PMAwesome news. I make that journey every two years. I didn’t even know that a bridge was proposed. Yee Haw!
Posted by on Aug 07, 2008 @ 05:15 PMHow many folks remember the old Lough Swilly Railway? It ran/ambled from Derry to Letterkenny I recall. It went so slowly, you could get off, pick flowers and remount.
During the war, it did business in helping to feed Derry. We used to go ‘en-famile’ to Buncrana and Movile, the old ones to buy butter and ham and if we behaved ourselves, we were treated to sweets.
All illegal, of course, but that made it all taste twice as good.
Posted by on Aug 08, 2008 @ 09:27 AM“during the war…..” :D
Posted by on Aug 08, 2008 @ 01:25 PMThere are many spectacular vistas in Donegal but my favourite has to be travelling from Glen down towards Carrigart… simply awesome.
Posted by on Aug 08, 2008 @ 02:32 PMYes Dr Strangelove. My bother’s brother in law had a cottage in Glen and me and the missus got a few chances to stay there on our own for a few days.
Posted by on Aug 08, 2008 @ 06:59 PMLondonderry and Lough Swilly Railway closed in about 1950, if I recall correctly. I’ve an English friend who recalls being taken as a child on holidays by train to Buncrana and then taking the ferry across to Rathmullan. But he may have misremembered.
All that was left by my childhood was the Lough Swilly buses (that used what remained of the old Railway station - now Tescos in Letterkenny) that used to stop by what was Cannon’s shop in Ballymichael up in Fanad.
Posted by on Aug 08, 2008 @ 08:16 PM