It was sad saying goodbye to Mary at Cuan Na Long B&B; she made our stay very comfortable and she was full of good advice. Leaving Downings, we passed by the 3 golf courses and headed towards the "new" bridge that we saw last night as we rode around Rosguill Peninsula. The Harry Blaney bridge was opened in 2009 and it connects Rosguill and Fanad Peninsulas and spans 20 meters above Mulroy Bay. Later in the day another cyclists asked if we had crossed over the new bridge, so we had to check out just how new it was.
Cuan Na Long is Irish for ship haven. The British spelled it Sheep Haven and that English spelling still exists. Downings is on Sheephaven Bay.
That's Island Roy in Mulroy Bay with the outskirts of Downings in the background. School kids and the priest used to walk from Island Roy to the mainland on stilts when the tide was in.
This must be a fish farm. The rings are netted to keep the birds out and we could see fish jumping inside the rings. We've seen several of these on our tour.
We came across a ruin of a pier. Visible were pillars and a concrete caps. We guessed it had been a pier at one time and further down the road there was a historical sign indicating a pier.
Eventually we wound our way to Fanad Head and the Fanad Lighthouse. The lighthouse has been voted on of the most beautiful lighthouses in the world. We could only visit via a tour and we didn't think we should spend that much time here as we have a somewhat long day with a bit of elevation gain ahead. We walked around the areas that were open to get an idea of what the coastline looked like, and we read up on the history of the allied naval forces in Lough Swilly and the role Fanad Lighthouse played.
We continued on to Portsalon which is the village at the base of today's grand climb. Our Ride with GPS maps indicate about 500 meters of steepness (17%). We opened Google Maps last night and did the street view and we are hoping that Ride with GPS was taking its points from the cliffs above the road and that it wasn't that steep. Our Garmins today say the climb is a kilometer averaging 10%. We could see the climb in the distance and didn't think it looked too bad. After a quick stop at the beach below we headed up the mountainside. We stopped at the first turn to take photos and chat with a couple of guys who were scouting the road for next weekend's rally that will be held in this area. We stopped at the top, too, for more photos. The climb was not as hard as some others we've already done on this trip.
Sanna PhinneyTo Mo SchwartzThe beaches here are mostly small. I still want to jump in but it’s been too cold and mostly too windy to get out and continue riding. Reply to this comment 5 months ago
Note to ourselves: It was a difficult day to dress for. We wore arms, knees, vest, and wind jackets most of the day. We'd take off the wind jacket for a while and then put it back on. Finally we discarded the vests and kept the jacket. It was a cold wind once again.
Accommodation: Ardlee B&B in Letterkenny. It's perfectly fine, but not as nice as many others and better than some. Elizabeth is very friendly and the tandem is stored securely, but not covered. This stay is just fine.
Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles) Total: 2,323 km (1,443 miles)
