I mapped out some places I wanted to visit that weren’t too far from my AirBnB last night, so I set off on another adventure this morning! My first stop was, of course, another ruin. This time it was the Creevlea Friary in Dromahair. This was another beautiful place to visit and was actually the last Franciscan Friary to be built before the suppression of the monasteries by King Henry VIII.

After Creevlea Friary I went to Parke’s Castle, a plantation-era castle situated on the northeast shore of Lough Gill in the north of County Leitrim in the northern part of Connacht, the western province in Ireland. The castle is built on the site of an earlier fifteenth-century O’Rourke tower house. The castle was one of the few that have been restored and is lovely. There was a preserved portion of the moat, and an old timey sauna (or sweat house).

Next I made my way up to Donegal. I decided to check out the Donegal Castle and then the Abbey of Donegal. Donegal Castle was small but very cool and nicely decorated for spooky season. After the castle I wandered around the downtown area for a bit and grabbed some lunch. Downtown Donegal is super cute and I would definitely spend some more time there, all the people were super nice and down to earth. I headed to the Abbey, apparently Google didn’t get the memo that there is no parking lot or real roads in the Abbey grounds, so it led me down a road and I ended up having to turn around in the cemetery (thankfully I avoided hitting any tombstones). I drove down the street to a Supervalu and parked there and walked over. When I got back to the Abbey there was another car that had done the same thing I did, they just parked for a minute after asking me if I was there to yell at them , I told them I had done the same thing.

It was getting late so I headed back to Sligo for my last night in the AirBnB. Heading back to Dublin tomorrow, kind of bittersweet because it means my trip is almost over, but I’m super excited for my two night stay in a castle.