Scott Barronton (00:00)
When travelers dream of Ireland, names like Dublin, Galway, and the Ring of Kerry often come Ireland's wild northwest edge lies a county that quietly outshines them all.
Donegal is rugged and soulful. Here the Atlantic crashes against the dramatic cliffs, glacial valleys wind between ancient peaks, and a living Gaelic culture fills the air with music and language. Yet it remains one of Ireland's least visited counties. An under-the-radar treasure where life moves at its own pace and visitors are still welcomed
with a Cade me La Falcha, 100,000 welcomes. On this episode of the Sunshine Travelers podcast, we slow down to savor Donegal's culture and people.
We'll meet Seamus Gallagher, a lifelong local who with his wife Nora runs Ireland by bike in the village of Carrick. Their self-guided cycling adventures are just one way to experience this region, but Seamus' stories reach far beyond biking. They open a window into Donegal's music, its language, and a way of life that most travelers never see.
So settle in as we explore an Ireland where the roads are one lane, the fiddles never sleep, and hospitality runs as deep as the Atlantic.
Speaker 2 (01:28)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (01:31)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
Speaker 2 (01:39)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
Speaker 1 (01:48)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
Scott Barronton (01:58)
So Melissa, before we even met Seamus this past week, We enjoyed the hospitality of the people of Letterkenny and from all over Donegal. And it kind of felt like we had slipped into a secret Ireland.
Absolutely. And what struck me is how unhurried it all felt. We weren't just passing through. We were invited to linger And everywhere we had stopped from Letterkenny's late night music to the tea room at Glencolumbkille people had a time to chat and they wanted to share their stories. And that welcome is real as Seamus told us.
Cade me La Falcha isn't just a phrase. It's actually how Donegal lives and Seamus himself is the perfect example. He and Nora have built Ireland by bike to help travelers discover Donegal slowly whether it's a single day e-bike ride to the towering Sleeve League Cliffs or a week-long coastal journey connecting villages and family run bed and breakfast.
But our conversation with him wasn't only about cycling. It was about the county's heart, its fiddle music, its Gaelic language, its quiet roads, and the people who call them home. So as you listen, imagine yourself pedaling along a one-lane road where sheep graze on dramatic hillsides.
and a neighbor might wave you over for tea. And this is Donegal at its best.
Speaker 1 (03:28)
hello. I'm Seamus Gallaher. I'm the owner or the joint owner with my wife here of Ireland by Bike. We're based in the village of Carrick in County Donegal in North West Ireland. We do cycling holidays, anything from three to 10 days. And we also do bike hire and we do one day bike tours around the Carrick area here. So that's just a very brief overall summary of what we do here.
Speaker 3 (03:53)
And we
had the opportunity today to do a brief ⁓ bike tour. We took the bikes and went and saw some cliffs that are nearby that I would say absolutely rival to the Cliffs of Moher.
Speaker 1 (04:08)
Sleeve League. If
you think of the pronunciation of a sleeve of a jacket and a league as in a football league or something like that that's the exact pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (04:17)
Tell us Seamus, what makes Donegal's culture unique within Ireland?
Speaker 1 (04:23)
I suppose it's a traditional Gaelic culture You you've got a unique dialect of the Irish language here, which I don't know if you've heard it being spoken. It's quite different even to the other dialects of Irish that's spoken further down along the coast. It's also got its own unique version of traditional Irish music.
in this area here in particular there's a very strong tradition of fiddle playing and people say officianados of traditional Irish music would know immediately that it's a Donegal fiddle player who's playing the tune. That was you know at one time it was said that in this area here the villages around here Kilcar, Carrick, Glen Collam, Kil there was a fiddle in every single house and there were something like 200 ⁓
Fiddler players in the parish of Glen Colm Kill which would include Carrick and Glen Colm Kill villages. So there's a very strong traditional music culture here as well as the Irish language culture and there's also unique dance that goes along with that. You know there are local dances that are unique to this area There do would be variations of those dances in other parts of the country but there are variations that are unique to this area. So there's very strong traditional Gaelic
culture in the area.
Speaker 3 (05:39)
And so we had the opportunity one night in Letterkenny to go to a pub and listen to some traditional music being played. And it was just a bunch of people who got together and kind of like a little jam session.
Speaker 1 (05:46)
Yeah.
Yeah,
that's sort of the, that is the way that it is, it's at its best when it works like that. You know, if you go up to the pub here, which is just up the road from us Evelyn's, you would have passed it by earlier in the day. On a Sunday afternoon, there's a session there and there are probably two or three musicians that are there every time. But.
you will go in one Sunday and there are 12 musicians and it's the people just come along and join in. And then another Sunday, it might be only the two or three that are there all the time. that, you know, we call them sessions and the sessions are, you know, when the music is at its best. People just walk in.
So there's most of the people who would come to sessions around here would have reasonably similar repertoire of tunes. But then if somebody is from a different part of the country, they'll have different tunes as well. So they'll swap tunes and so on, you know. So the sort of informal sessions are when the music is at its best, really.
Speaker 2 (06:45)
Yeah, so I would say if you can catch that somewhere, and a lot of the pubs will have signs that'll say traditional music session and what days and what times, if you can catch that when you're in the County of Donegal, absolutely fantastic just to experience.
Speaker 1 (06:59)
I
would say don't miss that. The one thing that we find a lot of visitors saying is, it happens so late at night that we're just exhausted by the time it even starts. Like we're going home, the musicians are coming in the door and we're falling asleep. But if you can stay up late one night, definitely, it would be definitely worth your while. Take a nap and then go.
Speaker 2 (07:17)
Yeah, take a nap.
Speaker 3 (07:20)
We
laughed because actually that night we closed down the pub. I don't know that we've ever closed down a pub or a bar or anything before in our lives. so, when they were like, okay, last call, we were like, what? How long have you been here?
Speaker 1 (07:25)
OK.
Yeah,
but you'll often find, I mean it's become a little less, but I don't know, many times I've left pubs at sort of all hours in the morning in my younger days. Decades ago.
Speaker 3 (07:47)
So you mentioned a little bit about the Gaelic language, is there anything, any specific saying or something like that where we can capture some of that?
Speaker 1 (07:55)
Well,
yeah, if you let's see. There are so many different things and so many obviously there's a full language. But I suppose if you meet somebody and you want to say hello, how are you? You would say in Donegal Irish, Coedh Máir Tá Thú. Now, if you say that to somebody, they will know immediately that you're speaking Donegal Irish. It's very it's unique to this area down the West Coast. would say Coedh Máir Tá Thú or further down the Coedh Máir Tá Thú. But as Coedh Máir Tá Thú is very much a unique Donegal saying.
I suppose something, just to use one word or two, you've probably heard it several times while you've been here. If you're having a drink, the Irish version of cheers is sláinte, which actually means health. So it's just sláinte, rather than saying cheers. I suppose anything else, there's just so many things that are unique to Donegal Irish.
To say hello would be Gia Guit, which actually means God, which reflects the very strong religious belief that people would have had in the past. That's just another. If you meet somebody, you would just say Gia Guit. And the reply would be Gia Ismuriguit, God and Mary be with you.
Speaker 3 (09:00)
And.
Speaker 2 (09:01)
One I'm curious about,
because we have heard it so much when we're here, is you're welcome or you're very welcome.
Speaker 1 (09:08)
Okay, Falchá Róit is your welcome. Falchá, you've probably seen Falchá Ireland, which is the Irish tourism body, which means welcome, Irish welcome or welcome to Ireland. But Cade Míle Falchá is probably what you're thinking about, which means a hundred thousand welcomes. So if you're saying to somebody, you're welcome here, Falchá Róit. If you're saying, if you really want to have a size of somebody's welcome there, you say Cade Míle Falchá Róit, which means 100,000 welcomes.
Speaker 2 (09:33)
And that's so interesting because in Ireland, but I think especially while we've been in Donegal, is we felt that welcome and that hundred thousand welcome. Like it comes through not just in the word, but then how everybody here has made us feel, which has been amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:49)
That's good because thankfully we still hear that from most people who visit. So it's good to hear that that sort of culture of being welcoming is still there in the modern world, even though Donegal has become quite modern. It's great to hear that that is still there.
Speaker 3 (10:05)
So Seamus, you grew up not far from here in the next county away. So tell us a little bit about growing up in this region and in this area.
Speaker 1 (10:14)
I would have had
a very similar background to people growing up in this area with one exception there's a big tradition of fishing in this area it would be fishing and farming in this area where I grew up it was farming only because it's not on the coast so it would have been very typical of people growing up in the 70s we lived on a small farm we you know we wouldn't have been
We would, through radio, have been exposed to a lot of world news. We'd be very aware of world events and so on. But it was just typical small farm life, going to a local school, mixing with people from the area. In the early years, all the songs we would have known would have been Irish folk songs. I was...
grew up in an English speaking area but Nora, my wife who runs the business along with me, she learned English at school so everything she would have learned would have been...
to Irish. So that's another slight difference between where I grew up and where here. But most of the people where I was from would have been small farmers with other jobs usually. My father actually worked on the forest as well as being a farmer. Nor's father would have been a fisherman and a farmer. So that would be very, very typical of the work that people would have done and the lifestyle that that would have led to as well.
Speaker 3 (12:34)
One of the things that is, I think, most notable about the area is the landscape. The most gorgeous landscape. And even driving here today, we came through this one valley. And you and Nora even had a discussion when we got here about which one of the valleys is the best or the most beautiful. But just a beautiful landscape. Can you talk more about that
and help us describe what this area is like.
Speaker 1 (13:04)
Yeah,
well, let's post.
I was blown away by the landscape when I came here myself. The first time I had ever been here was when I was probably in my early teens, maybe. On one day, family and a neighbouring family actually hired a minibus to travel around this area. And even as a teenager, I was absolutely blown away by the landscape. But to try and describe it, well, it's coastal, first of all. And then it's, I suppose, coastal would be the next description of it.
You get sort of a whole variation of beaches, headlands, cliffs, little inlets, the shore life.
The close up shore life is fantastic as well. But then you mentioned the valley, is, you came up today, which is called Lengesh. Obviously that's inland. It's a glacial valley. You climb up through the valley and you get a fantastic view back down then along the valley. Not as good as the one that I say is it. We have this discussion all the time and occasionally we get some of our customers to say who have done both. And usually they'll always, they'll always sit on the fence.
Speaker 2 (14:06)
And the one that you
say is called? that's right, great.
Speaker 1 (14:08)
It's called Granny. It doesn't have anything
to do with grandmothers. It's a translation of the Gravelly area. So that's where the name comes from. But if you come back to the area, make sure you go down Granny Valley.
Speaker 2 (14:20)
Yeah, we'll definitely have to. mean, just absolutely spectacular because I think a lot of times people think of Ireland besides maybe seeing pictures of the Cliffs of Moher or something like that, as it's just like rolling hills, rolling green hills, which you said is a lot of
Speaker 1 (14:35)
wouldn't
you get a bit of that in this area, but it's more sort of the rugged coastline in this area. I know a lot of our customers would comment as well on the variation. You know, they come from Donegal town where the coast isn't as sort of rugged and then they go further on around the coast and the coast varies a lot from place to place. And then you've got sort of the open bog lands as well where, you know, you've got these lovely headers and mosses and the various colors that are not like the
typical green fields, they're very very different. So yeah, so there's a lot of variation but I suppose Rugged Coast was probably the one thing that would sum up the landscape as best as I can describe it anyway.
Speaker 2 (15:14)
And two, when you think of farms, you'll see a lot of sheep, right? But these sheep have the most spectacular view, And they may be climbing straight up, The side of a very... So it's not, so when you say farms, you know, it's not like a lot of people think, okay, it's flat, it's farms, it's not, I mean, there is some of that, but then it might back up to a mountain and you'll see the sheep, so...
Speaker 1 (15:25)
Probably don't appreciate it, but they do have the views.
Hill farming
is sometimes the word that's used as well.
Speaker 2 (15:42)
hill farming, just
yeah, absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (15:45)
So you and your wife run Ireland by bike. And you have guests who come in and you rent out a bicycle to them for a day or for a trip. Talk a little bit about that and then maybe share like.
some of the comments that you've gotten back from guests who have done these trips about maybe how surprised they were in the landscape and the beauty and all of that on their trip.
Speaker 1 (16:13)
Yeah.
So I suppose, you know, what we just talked about about the landscape is kind of what we hear back from the various people who come here as well. I remember somebody saying to me quite recently, you know, I knew Ireland was famous for green fields, but I never realized that there were so many beaches in the place. And if the weather is even reasonable, you know, it's a fantastic if somebody does say four or five, six, seven night tour, there are opportunities for
swimming in so many different beaches. We had a group last year who I specifically remember saying to me, we swam at 10 beaches. And they did, I think, a five night tour. So, you know.
I think a lot of people comment on the variation in the landscape and they also do mention that, you know, they were expecting rolling green fields, ⁓ just as we talked about, and to get something that's quite different in terms of the dramatic cliffs and the beaches and the rocks and so on. That would be you mentioned sheep earlier. One of the words that comes up most often in terms of reviews is sheep. The sheep seem to be and if you actually go on to our website,
and see the number of photographs that I actually have sheep in.
Speaker 3 (17:17)
I think I might have gotten quite a few pictures of sheep today.
Speaker 1 (17:21)
Okay,
yeah. And the question that we get asked so often, and you've probably wondered about it as well, is why are there so many different colours on the sheep? And the answer we usually give is to produce different types of wool, which is obviously not true. It's actually just to identify them as being different, belonging to different farmers.
Speaker 3 (17:39)
Yeah, because
they have this layer on them and so branding yeah, like you would do cattle Yeah, it's not as easy but marking them with the paint and the colors now you can tell which farmer belongs
Speaker 1 (17:52)
Yeah and it's a sort of a waxy paste that washes out then when they use the wool.
Speaker 2 (17:55)
Yeah, so tell us a little bit about how, if you want to come to this area, it's like you mentioned you're located in Carrick, but so how do people find you and then how do they book a day trip or multi-day trips and then maybe a little bit about how that works.
Speaker 1 (18:10)
Yeah, so
if somebody's booking, well, either a day trip or a multi-day trip, our website is Irelandbybike.com. The vast majority of the people who book through our website. So if they go onto the website and they want to do a single day trip, they can book it through our website. They can also, it's bookable through Viator and get your guide for the one day trip also. If they wanted to book a holiday, like a seven night or five night,
cycling holiday. Again, it's just a matter of browsing our website, seeing which tour you like best. And then there's a book and form on the website, which people can book. Now, a lot of people will ask us various questions and possibly ask to tailor some of the tours if they want to, maybe if they can't.
afford the full time for the tour we're quite happy to reduce it for them or even if people want to have an extended trip we can do that as well but it's all the vast majority of our bookings actually come through our website we do sell through some third-party people as well bike tours.com the USA website is one of the ones that we sell through an Austrian one called Rad and Risen and various different ones throughout Europe as well so but the vast majority of our bookings do come through our own
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (19:23)
And so let's talk about those tours for just a minute because one of the services that you offer is that you'll move their bags from place to place.
Speaker 1 (19:32)
Yeah.
If
you could probably sum up what we offer, we provide the bicycles, we book the accommodation, we give people the routes to travel, which takes a bit of planning because we keep people on the quiet roads as much as possible. There are some, but there aren't very many dedicated bike paths. So we want to try and bring people from place to place on the quietest possible route, but still get them to all the places that they want to see. And then while they're actually
cycling from place to place will move their bags. So when I met you this morning I just arrived back from having met two people in Donegal. I their bags with me. They were cycling from Donegal town to Carrick here today and then after you left I dropped bags from Carrick down to Ardraath which you would have passed through earlier in the day as well. So that's you know that makes it very easy for people then to cycle. They know that their luggage is going to be at the next destination when they get there.
Speaker 3 (20:25)
And
so just a little bit about the bikes that would be part of the tour. It's an e-bike.
Speaker 1 (20:31)
Yeah,
we do actually offer normal bikes as well. The take up would be more than 75 % e-bikes. And we do actually say to people before they book, if they're inquiring, this is, as you've seen yourself, this is a very hilly area. is. And quite often we would have people who would have booked a normal bike. And after a day or two would say, well, okay, I'm on holidays. I'm not on a training camp. So let me, I'll go for an e-bike. You know, we found that the
bikes are absolutely the perfect way really to explore the area because it's ideal for exploring by bike but it is very hilly.
Speaker 3 (21:06)
And these are different e-bikes than what we see in the US because in the US it's almost like a little electric motorcycle to be honest. This is a pedal assist e-bike.
Speaker 1 (21:17)
Yes, the way that it works is you turn the pedals, the bike gives you assistance or the motor and the bike gives you assistance. If you don't pedal, the bike does nothing either. So it just makes it very, very easy to cycle up hills. It makes the hills feel like you're cycling on a flat. That's probably the best way of summing up what the e-bikes do or the pedal assist e-bikes do.
Speaker 3 (21:38)
Yeah, we see them on the beach all the time and people are riding them like a motorcycle. They're not pedaling at all. ⁓
Speaker 1 (21:45)
Well, they're actually
you do see them occasionally in Ireland. They're not well there if they're not registered as a vehicle, they're not legal on the roads in Ireland. Yeah. So if you see somebody doing that.
Speaker 2 (21:56)
And
so what I would say about these pedal assisted bikes, we had never, I had never done that before, but they're super, I mean, it's super easy to use. Like, orientation and you're off and it's easy.
Speaker 1 (22:06)
The
only thing you need to be able to do to cycle an e-bike is to be able to cycle a bike. There's nothing to switch it on. There's nothing you need to do. Great, yeah. Because if you want to get a little bit of exercise, you can put it on a lower level of assistance. If you want to make just life as easy as possible, you can put it on the highest level of assistance. So you can choose what you want.
Speaker 2 (22:14)
And then you can pick the level of assistance that you want.
Yeah, and the other thing I wanted to point out too is that you have waterproof bags so that if people wanted to take their camera gear or if they wanted to go swimming, there's plenty of room to be able to take along the stuff for the day, which is great.
Speaker 1 (22:42)
Yeah, you
know, we're moving obviously the vast majority of their stuff along, but there's a bag there to carry what you would typically need on a day while you're out on the bike as well.
Speaker 3 (22:53)
So when
we did the walking tour, everything that we needed to take went into a backpack on your back. So this is actually kind of nice because it hooks on like a saddle bag and you put your stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (23:05)
Yeah, and especially
if you're cycling an electric bike, you don't notice the extra drag that you would. You'd notice it a little bit on a normal bike, but when you're on an e-bike, that doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3 (23:15)
Seamus, why do you think so few international visitors know about Donegal in this region?
Speaker 1 (23:22)
I suppose there are a few reasons. One is that we're very close to the border with Northern Ireland here, which obviously is of no significance now in terms of the political situation. You know, you've seen yourselves, you've crossed the border, you don't even know you're crossing the border. It's perfectly peaceful on each side of the border. But you did have the troubles there up on, you know, up until relatively recently. So for that reason, people didn't travel anywhere close to the border and especially
Donegal because if you have travelled directly from Dublin to Donegal, say if you arrive at Dublin Airport and you're taking the bus here, you're going to travel through Northern Ireland. Now even in the time of the troubles people would have been perfectly safe to do that but there was just a perception that it was a dangerous area to go through. So for that reason for years and years very few visitors went to Donegal. So it didn't establish itself as a destination like say for example the Ring of Kerry.
did or Connemara did. So for that reason you you've had less people coming to Donegal in the past. I suppose the the Wild Atlantic Way has increased awareness of Donegal. More people are coming here now and the settled political situation in Northern Ireland has made it more attractive for people to come here as well. It's a mixed blessing. ⁓
because it retains that sort of wild, undiscovered feel, but it's kept its authenticity over the decades when other places have become really sort of probably a bit over commercialized, but you won't find that in Donegal
Speaker 3 (24:51)
Yeah, so we spent a couple of days in Northern Ireland. And like you said, actually, Melissa just happened to see the sign that said we were now in Northern Ireland. Other than that, we wouldn't have known that we had traveled into Northern Ireland. And Belfast was a beautiful city. so.
I agree. think that you really wouldn't know the difference between the two now other than a few little cultural differences.
Speaker 1 (25:19)
and of course a different currency as well. that's true.
Speaker 3 (25:21)
Different currency
as well as I'm appreciative that you use kilometers per hour because that's what the car that we have the speedometer is in kilometers per hour and when we were in Northern Ireland it was miles per hour and I had to do all the translation in my head so
Speaker 1 (25:40)
Yeah, we do. We actually do cycling holiday along the Causeway coast in Northern Ireland. It sort of emerged from people having done a cycling holiday here in Donegal and saying to us then we want to do a tour in Northern Ireland next year, taking in the Causeway coast. So we put it on for a few people as a sort of a custom tour. And then there was a demand for it. So we just put it on as a regular tour. But we find we give all directions in kilometres and then they go into Northern Ireland and
signposts are all in miles It's a kind of a small cultural difference but it causes a little bit of confusion but nothing that people can't get over.
Speaker 3 (26:16)
Yeah,
the currency being the euro here and the British pound in Northern Ireland.
Speaker 1 (26:21)
Yeah, yeah.
But again, you you're talking about you said when you drove from Dublin, like there was only a sign to say welcome to Northern Ireland on the cycling holiday we do. It starts in Derry City. It comes into Donegal and gets a ferry across from Greencastle to McGilligan. There's nothing to say on the ferry that you're passing from the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland. You just take the ferry from one to the other, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:47)
You don't need to have your
passport out.
Speaker 1 (26:48)
No, you don't.
They're not going to look for a passport there.
Speaker 3 (27:58)
You know, lot of places around the world we're hearing about, they just simply don't want visitors. And I think that's because of overtourism that you mentioned. But that's just not true here. And I guess it's because of the fact that historically, you haven't had a lot of visitors to this region, or it hasn't been marketed as a place to visit.
like some of these other places.
Speaker 1 (28:24)
Yeah,
and I suppose the fact that it's a rural area as well and that a lot of the visitors who come here, you know, they're contributing to the local economy in a very positive way. And they're also dispersed throughout the region. Like I know you're...
I'm hearing as well about places like Venice and Barcelona and it's perfectly understandable that when you get these massive influxes of tourists that the locals say well our lives are being controlled by tourism not by our what we want.
doesn't have that impact in this area. know, people who come here, especially people who come to cycle and walk, they're moving slowly through the area. They're staying one or two or three nights in an area. They're spending money in the area. You know, so they're very welcome. Like they're contributing to the local economy, because as you look around here, you see that there isn't much industry or there are no office blocks in the area. So like, you know, it contributes very positively to the area, the tourism in in County Dundas.
the call in general.
Speaker 2 (29:22)
And one thing I wanted to mention, you mentioned that when you're doing some of these cycling holidays or even the day trips, you try to keep people on not the busy roads and that kind of thing. And what people may not know is that a lot of your back roads, we would call them, are rural roads. They're one lane. so even, mean, cars can come both ways, but it's just sort of a culture that you wait and you watch and you make way and take turns. And so that would be kind of more of what you would
on is those kind of roads to where they're not going to be, you know, two lane highways, four lane highways, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (29:57)
We try and avoid
those, right? Mind you, you'd find it hard to find a four lane highway around here if you want to. But we've found as well that quite a few people would arrive. Most people who arrive here fly into Dublin and take a bus to Donegal because you can get a bus directly from the airport if they don't spend time in Dublin city. And quite a few people come here and they're...
ready to turn around again because they think all the roads are going to be like what the buses traveled on between Dublin and Donegal. And we have to reassure them and say, no, just once you're leaving Donegal town, you're going to be on really small roads. The traffic is going to be nothing like what you've seen on the major roads. And also then people are surprised at how considerate drivers are. You know, I don't know if you've noticed, drivers...
don't want to run you over here. I remember actually having two customers with me one time and I can't remember why I was bringing them from one place to the other. And I came up behind two cyclists and I waited till we could pass them. They said, ⁓ you you were really ⁓ considerate of those two cyclists. And I said, well, I don't really want to have to explain to anybody why I ran over two cyclists. But no, but people are surprised at how
Speaker 2 (31:02)
When I'm running a bike.
Speaker 1 (31:07)
Some people are surprised at how considerate drivers are for cyclists anyway. They will give you room.
Speaker 2 (31:13)
Yeah, and so just going back to that, like you said, it's local feel, the rural feel, and not feeling overcrowded and overtourist because just your infrastructure is these one way roads.
Speaker 1 (31:26)
If you
look at a map of Donegal, you'll see a really extensive network of tiny roads that go here, there and everywhere really. by following those little roads, you will get from the major centres and the major attractions to the others without having to come out on the major roads.
Speaker 2 (31:41)
and you'll have a much more scenic view, right?
Speaker 1 (31:44)
Yeah
and you'll be much more likely to have somebody who'll stop and talk to you as well.
Speaker 3 (31:49)
That
was one of the things that we talked about this morning when driving here to Carrick is you had recommended to Melissa a different path than what they came earlier in the week on a bus and said we would just have a much more scenic view, rather than being on a busy highway.
Speaker 1 (32:07)
Yeah, yeah
and that's you know I just thought I know Melissa that you had actually the bus would always come around through Donegal town and that way and I just thought it's just a nicer route to take you know and it would give you a chance to see a different part of the county as well. It's actually some of the what you came on would be some of the routes that we would use for the cycling holidays to go around the county as well.
Speaker 2 (32:30)
And you
come through the smaller towns that just have the, yeah, which are just phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (32:36)
Yeah, we
definitely appreciated that and going through those smaller towns. Yes, they were smaller roads and you you couldn't drive as fast, but that was okay. It actually gave the opportunity to see a little bit more along the way as well.
Speaker 1 (32:51)
Yeah, what we, you know, we find occasionally we talk to the people who are driving and you know, the thing that comes across to me a lot is that people miss out on so much. I suppose the extreme example of that was I remember somebody booking a one day tour and we would, most people we expect them to arrive around 10 or 11, you know, and this went on until lunchtime and afterwards and eventually they arrived and I said, oh, you know, you're here now.
take your time don't worry about being back by 5.30 you know where did you come from today and they said Galway and I said well okay you know I said have you got much time you know where you're going to this evening back to Galway and I thought you know for anybody who doesn't know Galway is probably three and a half four hours drive away from here you know you'd miss probably
a month's worth of exploring all the way up along the coast to get here to do this one thing. We were very glad to see them arriving to do the one thing. But so many drivers like that miss out on so much, even from Killy Begs, which is 15 minutes drive away, or 20 minutes drive.
There's so much to see along the coast between Kili Begs and here that if you take your time to hike or cycle, you know, you will see all these things and get a chance to stop and take the photographs and so on without, you know, feeling you have to rush and get to the next viewpoint and the next viewpoint, you know.
Speaker 3 (34:10)
Yeah, so when we were driving from, from Belfast, in that area, I think, it was a little over an hour to get here, but it took us all day because we wanted to spend the time. yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah. And when you saw something to pull over and to go explore and go for a little hike and just really enjoy the area.
Speaker 1 (34:30)
Yeah.
And even, you know, the time you've taken today to go up to the cliffs.
you walked up, you know, just to take the time to actually see that, you know, and you can imagine yourselves if you had sat on a bus and did that or sat in a car and did that, how much of those views you'd have missed out on. And, know, in the area here, Melissa, during the week, you did the cycle around by the Silver Strand and into Glen Columkill. And we didn't even take the time to explore everything that there is to explore. I'd been hoping to show you some of the archaeology in Glen Columkill, which is lovely. But we even, by going so slowly, we didn't
get the time to see all that we that I wanted to show you in that time so by getting on a bicycle or by hiking you'll just see so much more of that you know and it is you know I sort of keep preaching this to people slow down you know see what there is to see
Speaker 2 (35:19)
And
one of the things that you provide when people do either the day trip tour or the multi-day tours is you have guides along the way, right? Not only where, okay, you go from this place to this place, but here are some things that you need to be looking for along the way. And here is what it is that you're looking at.
Speaker 1 (35:39)
Yeah,
yeah. Are we trying just, you know, give people as much information as possible about what there is to see. And the tours we do, they're all self-guided, whether it's the one day tour or whether it's multi-day tours. If somebody is booking a multi-day tour, we actually give them a pretty significant booklet of the sites and.
attractions in the area and a little bit about the culture and the history and so on. And we actually email that to them before they arrive so that if they want to have a read through, they'll have a very good idea of what there is to see before they arrive. Very interesting how different people are, you know, some people...
I've never looked at it. Some people could quote it verbatim, word for word, from start to finish. But yeah, we give as much information as possible without trying to overload people with information. We try and strike a balance between how much we tell them and overloading them with information at the same time.
Speaker 3 (36:31)
We were having a good laugh earlier. Is there a good time of year for people to plan to come and visit Donegal?
Speaker 1 (36:37)
Well, to answer that question, the most frequent question that we get asked when people are inquiring about tours, if they don't book just directly, is what will the weather be like in this month or that month or some other month. And we have to answer honestly and say that's the one question we can't answer because we're here now in September and you can see, you know, right now it's quite pleasant, but we had heavy showers earlier in the day.
August just gone past, I don't think we had any rain at all. Wow. August last year, had a lot of rain in August last year. So any time in the window between March to mid October, know, you will very possibly see a lot of rain. You will possibly see no rain. You know, you might see a lot of wind. It might be perfectly calm.
The weather in Ireland is so unpredictable. But the only piece of advice that you really need is be prepared just to have rain gear with you. Today is an ideal day for exploring by bike.
but you could have got very wet if you didn't have the rain gear. If you've got fold-up rain gear that you can stop, just pull it on when it's raining, take it off if you feel like taking it off when the showers are over. That just allows you to explore and be dry and comfortable. So any time in the window from April to end of September, mid-October, it's an ideal time.
Speaker 2 (37:57)
Okay, and that's basically when you're booking tours,
Speaker 1 (38:00)
That's when our
season runs in that time as well. Yeah. But even having said that, occasionally the winter can be, now we don't run tours in the winter, but the winter can be very nice. The winter can be horrible. It can also be very nice. We can often get dry, settled weather in the winter. We also get very wet, stormy weather in the winter. So there is a bit of luck involved there. yeah, if you're here from April to mid-October,
the weather will be pretty good.
Speaker 2 (38:26)
And we laugh because, as our listeners know, we're the Sunshine Travelers and we have this joke that where we go, right, we almost always have sun, but we have had our fair share of rain this week. But it's actually been, we've called it refreshing and fresh if you have the right clothes. Like you're saying, the right rain jacket, the right shoes, the right, I think socks, right, to keep your feet warm.
Speaker 1 (38:48)
I think, you know, okay, leaving aside the heat, you know, I think you need three pieces of clothing or equipment to keep you fully dry. If you have a very good rain jacket, it's well worthwhile investing in one of those because it'll last you a lifetime if you do. And if you get a specific cycling one, you get one that will actually cover a helmet as well. So you don't need a head cover. If you have waterproof leggings and shoe covers, those three pieces of equipment will allow you to actually be bone dry no matter what the weather is like.
So they're a very good investment for anybody who's going to get on a bike, more or less, anywhere in the world, really.
Speaker 3 (39:23)
So Seamus, any advice for travelers who want to connect deeply with locals rather than just checking sites off of a list?
Speaker 1 (39:32)
Yeah,
I suppose to say it in a very simple way, slow down. You know, if you spend a little bit of time in an area, you'll almost certainly connect anyway.
Another thing I would say is to stay in local accommodations. If you stay in a hotel in one of the bigger towns, you're less likely to make that connection. I would also say, find out where the locals are socializing. We talked about the music sessions early on. If you get to a music session, you'll almost certainly connect very well. But by just slowing down when you're in an area,
walking, cycling, just stopping at local pubs, stopping at local cafes, staying in local accommodations. There's a very good network of small family-run bed and breakfasts right throughout Donegal and most of Ireland. They're a very good way of connecting with local people as well because the owners will be local. They'll almost certainly have lived there all their lives. They'll know all the...
places where the music is happening and what to see and who to talk to and so on. So stay local, slow down, walk and cycle in the area and socialise locally as well would be the best tips that I can give somebody.
Speaker 2 (40:40)
Yeah. And what
I would say is that you then remember those people forever. even from our trip to Ireland nine years ago, you know, we stayed in their like their like more. Yeah. Cowshed accommodations. OK. They're like, ⁓ come see our home like invited us into our home. Right. And and come see my kitchen. And let me sit down with you and show you, which way to go. And you you remember those people forever. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:44)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:04)
if you stay in the hotel okay it's the hotel clerk and you
Speaker 1 (41:07)
I
had this conversation while we were out on the bike with somebody during the week as well. They said some tours are organised to stay in this chain hotel near the airport. The takeaway from that was you could be in any hotel, in any airport in the world. So by staying with a family, you're automatically going to make a certain level of connection and much more so than one of the bigger hotels.
Speaker 2 (41:33)
And
so, and that is obviously then if somebody books that multi-day tour with you, that's exactly what.
Speaker 1 (41:41)
We'll
probably end up, for most tours, we'll end up with a mix of smaller hotels and family-run bed and breakfast. know, probably half and half. Yeah, yeah, obviously we have to book what accommodation is there. Unfortunately, the number of B &Bs in Ireland is dropping quite a lot. When we started the business force 15 years ago, we booked
Speaker 2 (41:49)
Okay, so just depending on location.
Speaker 1 (42:03)
all family-run B &Bs. Gradually over the years we've had to move more or so to hotels but some of the hotels are quite small and quite intimate as well. know there's very nice ones like the Tarot Hotel in Killy Begs or the Coshin Oire in Anagrae. know they're hotels where you will meet local people as well but we probably half and half you know small family-run B &Bs and hotels are what we use now.
Speaker 3 (42:26)
Well, Seamus, thank you for sitting down with us and sharing your culture. And we just invite people to come and visit this area. And while they're here,
They can find you at irelandbybike.com and look up some of these tours that you offer. Or if they just have a one day where they want to come and see some beautiful sites, come here to Carrick and there's plenty to see and do.
Speaker 2 (42:52)
Yes, and please tell Seamus that the Sunshine Travelers sent you.
Speaker 1 (42:56)
yeah. It was great to have you here and great that you got a chance to explore a little bit of the area.
Scott Barronton (43:01)
What an incredible conversation. I keep coming back to Seamus's simple advice, which was to just slow down. Yes, and it's really more than just a travel tip. It really is a way of life here. So from music sessions that start when most of us are usually heading to bed to those quiet back roads where even the sheep seem unhurried.
Everything about Donegal invites you to take your time. And Scott, we were lucky enough to get to spend five nights in Letterkenny, something that we don't often do when we're rushing to see this site and then see that site. And so for me, it was ordering a gin and tonic in the afternoon and having a suggestion from a local.
And then the next day saying, I want to have the same thing. And she recognized me and said, you liked my recommendation. so just little interactions that you have with people like that, when you have an opportunity to slow down. I love how he described the culture, how, you know, the Donegal fiddle style is so distinct that music lovers can recognize it almost instantly. They would know the difference. would say, ⁓
That's from Donegal.
or how a simple greeting like, Cade me la falcha carries centuries of warmth with it. And, you know, we had asked him just to give us a few sayings, but without knowing how we had felt during that week, he kind of picked that and shared that phrase with us. Yeah, because I really do think that that is just, ⁓
of feeling of welcome and the fact that they want for you to be there and for you to feel that welcome. And so that was neat because you and I had had that conversation even before the interview. And like you said, he had no way of knowing that.
It makes you realize that Donegal is definitely not just about scenery, although it is amazing. It's about a living culture.
Even the landscape shapes the people, those glacial valleys and rugged coast aren't just amazingly beautiful. They create communities that are strong, welcoming and deeply connected to the land. I think for me today, reinforce that exploring on foot or by bike isn't really about the exercise. It's really about an immersion. And we could have never appreciated the cliffs at Sleeve League.
or all of those little roadside views that we had, if we had just rushed in by car and then rushed back out, which many people do, but taking that time to just be there and be present was so special. Yeah, or the shuttle that they provide. And we even opted to park the bikes in the parking lot and walk the rest of the way.
And he actually, when I told him that that was what we did instead of riding up that very last steep hill, he said, you know, that's actually a really good way to do it. And I need to maybe suggest that to people because of how much you can slow down on that walk up there the rest of the way and really just enjoy that. I'm going to tell you, I think walking was the faster option for me because that was some some hill. Yes, it was.
So if you're thinking about a future trip, whether you bike with Seamus or simply wander from village to village, Donegal will reward every slow and curious moment.
Donegal is proof that Ireland still has wild places where tradition and community thrive. From impromptu fiddle sessions in a roadside pub to glacial valleys carved by time, this county offers travelers something rare, an authentic connection. Seamus reminded us that the best way to experience Donegal is to slow down, to cycle or hike, to stay in a family-run B &B,
to join in a music session and just let the evening unfold amongst the conversation. Whether you come for the culture, the landscapes, or the joy of exploring by bike, Donegal rewards those who linger. And if you'd like to see it through Seamus and Nora's eyes, visit irelandbybike.com to plan your own journey. The world is full of sunshine and surprises. Make 2025 the year that you explore beyond the familiar.
and let Dona Gal's quiet magic be part of your story.
Speaker 1 (47:36)
That's a wrap on this episode. We hope it gave you some inspiration for your next adventure.
Speaker 2 (47:42)
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Speaker 1 (47:50)
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Speaker 2 (47:54)
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Speaker 1 (48:00)
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