County Donegal, Ireland

Donegal, in Gaelic Dun na nGall or ‘fort of the foreigners’ (i.e. the Vikings), is an ancient and dramatically beautiful area. It is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the Province of Ulster and is part of the Republic of Ireland.

Uniquely, County Donegal shares a border with only one other county in the Republic of Ireland, County Leitrim. The majority of its land border is shared with Northern Ireland (the counties of Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh). This apparent economic isolation has led to Donegal people maintaining a distinct cultural identity and has been used to market the county with the slogan Up here it's different. Much of the county is seen as being a bastion of Gaelic culture and the Irish language holding the second-largest Gaeltacht area in the country with a population of 24,504. Despite Lifford being the County Town, the largest town is Letterkenny.