Dunfanaghy
| Dunfanaghy Irish: Dún Fionnachaidh | |
| County Donegal | |
|---|---|
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1182764.jpg) Main Street, Dunfanaghy | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | C015372 |
| Location: | 55°10’59"N, 7°58’16"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 298 (2016) |
| Local Government | |
Dunfanaghy is a small town, former fishing port, and commercial centre on the north coast of County Donegal, standing on the west side of Sheephaven Bay. It is to be found on the N56 road (the West Donegal Coastal Route).
The name of the village is from the Irish Dún Fionnachaidh, meaning 'Fort of the fair field'.
The centre of Dunfanaghy is a small square with a market house built in 1847 and a quay built in 1831 and formerly used to export corn. There are four churches: the early 17th-century Clondehorky Old Church (now ruined), constructed during the Plantation of Ulster; Dunfanaghy Presbyterian Church; Holy Cross Church (Roman Catholic and known locally as 'the Chapel'); and Holy Trinity Church of Ireland Church.
The village has a golf club, several art galleries and craft shops, and a museum, situated in part of a former workhouse, which describes the effects of the Great Famine]] on Dunfanaghy.
Just outside the village is a three-mile-long sandy beach known as Killahoey Strand.
History
On 16 June 1942, a RAF Ferry Command Hudson aircraft was forced to land on a beach near Dunfanaghy. It was feared the rising tides would swallow the aeroplane, but 200 locals came out to pull it to safety. The aircraft was refuelled and the crew of four accommodated nearby overnight. They departed the next day to continue their delivery flight of the aircraft.[1]
The popularity of the story brought an American, Harry X. Ford, to the beach in the early 1990s to find where he had crashed landed on 10 May 1943: having visited the town in 1993 it was discovered that he had not actually landed there but had been on a B-17 Flying Fortress which force landed on a beach at Bundoran on 10 May 1943. (Some sources published around 1993 attribute a landing on 2 May 1943 to have taken place on Killahoey Strand but this is an error confirmed by Irish Army Archives and the archives of the United States Air Force.)
Workhouse
As in many parts of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, a workhouse was constructed nearby for the maintenance of destitute local people. The first occupants were admitted in June 1845,[2] at the beginning of the Great Famine. Parts of the original building have recently been restored and now function as an interpretive centre of the Famine and its impact on the local inhabitants.
Near the workhouse, on the Falcarragh road, is the former Union fever hospital. Closed in 1922, it was reopened as a national school in the 1930s and fulfilled this role until the 1960s. Since 1968 it has been used as an artists studio and gallery.[3]
Transport
Dunfanaghy Road was previously a stop on the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway although the station was in fact six miles from Dunfanaghy itself. Dunfanaghy Road railway station opened on 9 March 1903, closed for passenger traffic on 3 June 1940 and finally closed altogether on 6 January 1947.[4]
About he village
Just outside the village is a three-mile-long sandy beach known as Killahoey Strand.
To the west of Dunfanaghy are New Lake and Tramore Strand, a two-mile-long beach. New Lake was formerly a salt water marsh, but during the First World War, over-cutting of the grass on the surrounding sand dunes led to their destabilisation and the movement of the sand to block up the river. As a result, the marsh filled with fresh water and became a lake. The sand also silted up Dunfanaghy harbour. The New Lake became a haven for seabirds and is now a Special Protection Area.
Also nearby is Sessiagh Lough, a small lough with a crannog in the middle.
Across the bay from Dunfanaghy is Horn Head, which shelters Dunfanaghy from the Atlantic Ocean and is an Irish Natural Heritage Area.
Dunfanaghy is close to Portnablagh and Marble Hill, both of which also have popular beaches. Other sights in the vicinity include: Ards Forest Park, Ards Capuchin Friary, Glenveagh National Park, Doe Castle and the Derryveagh Mountains, the most prominent being Muckish Mountain and Errigal.
Sport and recreation
- Gaelic sports: St Michael's GAA (Gaelic football)
References
- ↑ Kennedy, Michael J. (2008) (in en). Guarding Neutral Ireland: The Coast Watching Service and Military Intelligence, 1939-1945. Four Courts Press. p. 210. ISBN 9781846820977. https://books.google.com/books?id=NAkiAQAAIAAJ&q=On+16+June+1942++landed+on+a+beach+near+Dunfanaghy. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
- ↑ Dudley Edwards, Robert (1976). Robert Dudley Edwards &Thomas Desmond Williams. ed. The great famine: studies in Irish history, 1845–52. Russell & Russell. pp. 311. ISBN 978-0-8462-1793-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=BJDtAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Dunfanaghy+workhouse+%22.
- ↑ "The Gallery". discoverireland.ie. 2009. http://www.discoverireland.ie/Search-Results/Details.aspx?touristItemID=1308.
- ↑ "Dunfanaghy Road station". Railscot – Irish Railways. http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf.
- Alistair Rowan (1979). The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09667-4.
- USAAF Crash report Crash file 43-5-18-501, Air Force Historical Support Office
- Irish Military Archives files, Files G2/X/1174 & ACF-S-166 (1943) and MA Files G2-X/1016 (1942)