Donegal
Ancestral home to the once powerful O’Donnell Clan, County Donegal is the most northerly county in Ireland – sharing a border with Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland and Leitrim in the Republic – and its topography is the most rugged in Ulster, lying as it does between the Derryveagh Mountains in the north and the Bluestack mountains in the south.
Organised golf has been played in Donegal for well over a hundred years and two of the county clubs, Portsalon and Buncrana, were part of the nine-club committee that founded the Golfing Union of Ireland in 1891. More recently, the North West club won its first ever Senior Cup at Rosslare in 2005, the year after two of its members, Brian McElhinney and Michael McGeedy, faced each other in the Final of the Irish Close Amateur at Murvagh.
The 36-hole facilities at Ballyliffin and Rosapenna are amongst the very best in Great Britain & Ireland and they are ably supported by fine 18-hole links layouts at Donegal, Portsalon and Narin & Portnoo. Throw into the mix the grand old courses at North West and Bundoran, plus the charming little 9-holer at Cruit Island, and you have a week’s worth of reasonably priced, top class golf that will be hard to match anywhere else in Ireland.
