the dunree walk

Dunree Hill is largely composed of flaggy quartzite rock and when you reach Dunree Bay or Portbane, you can see rock beds of schistose at the waters edge, weathered by frost and sea. The Bay and surrounding low land is full of blown sand. It seems that two hundred years ago the sand banks all along the north coast of Donegal broke up and the 1820’s were a particularly severe period for drifting. Beneath the sands lie the remains of the village of Killard which was covered by the sands in an ancient time. When you begin the ascent of the Urris Hill on the northern shore, you walk either on the beach or on the rocks above to the open valley between Stuocan Rock and headland of Ronna Ruadh. Once on the summit ridge you get panoramic views of the coastline across to the dark shoulder of Horn Head to the west. As you walk down along "The Hillside" the glacier nature of the Owenirk valley is striking for the sliding glacier left boulder drifts which are exposed along the river. Soon you arrive back at the bridge at the Milltown and are back at Dunree.