Port Salon

On the Sunday of our  little trip Into the West, we decided to head further north along the Fanad peninsula in Donegal to Port Salon. Being a traveller of an incidental nature, I hadn’t really looked at the route. After checking out of our hotel, we just got into our car and followed the road signs. It was only when we started to notice that the coastal road was winding further and further up the side of Knockalla mountain, that we realised it was rather precarious in some places as we looked down at the steep drop to the sea on one side! Working on the basis that what goes up must come down, we carried on (we had no choice in any case) and soon the road started to descend, rewarding us with the most beautiful views of Port Salon beach.

Once voted the second most beautiful beach in the word by The Observer newspaper, it is a long and broad stretch of golden sand with panoramic views to the sea beyond. It was just after 11am when we got there, to find that we had the beach all to ourselves. With the bracing wind in our faces, we walked along just trying to take it all in. To be honest, we felt rather lucky to be there. It felt like we had reached the edge of the world.

However, as we turned round to walk back to the car a while later, it was the view then that truly captivated me.  This was the Donegal I had envisioned in my mind…mist rolling in over the hills, rain sweeping across the mossy green fields, a landscape raw and beautiful, enchanting and unforgiving in equal measure. It didn’t matter about the rain, I just wanted to capture the scene and remember the moment.

We returned to our car, wet and windswept, but so thankful that we had made the effort to visit this beautiful place.  And although we are home now, I think I left a little bit of my heart there and I can’t wait to return.

”I stopped on a lonely bog road one winter’s afternoon to ask the way of a man who was stacking turf at the road’s edge. ‘Where will this road take me ?’ I asked.  ‘This road’ he said, will take you wherever you want to go.   Mike Harding, Footloose in the West of Ireland.

Have a lovely Wednesday and stay safe in the snow !