Portnablagh

Portnablagh Port na Bláiche
Town
Portnablagh Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 55°10′41″N 7°55′57″W / 55.17813°N 7.93263°WCoordinates: 55°10′41″N 7°55′57″W / 55.17813°N 7.93263°W
Country	Ireland
Province	Ulster
County	County Donegal
Time zone	WET (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Irish Grid Reference	C055307

View across Sheephaven Bay from Port-na-blagh with Horn Head in the background

A view of Portnablagh beach at dusk.

Portnablagh (Irish: Port na Bláiche, meaning, depending on translation, either 'port of the flowers' or 'harbour of the buttermilk',^[1] possibly from the rough seas in the area) is a small village in County Donegal, Ireland. Portnablagh (also written in English as Port-na-Blagh) is located on Donegal's North West coast, specifically the west side of Sheephaven Bay. It is on the N56 road.^[2]

Portnablagh, along with neighbouring Dunfanaghy, is well known for its beaches and picturesque harbour. It attracts many tourists, mostly from Northern Ireland, every summer.

The small harbour is well protected on 3 sides and has a relatively short slipway which gets frequent use by fishing and pleasure boat owners, particularly during summer months. It provides access for boat owners to a large number of beaches in Sheephaven Bay, many of which are only accessible on foot or by sea.

Faugher House

On the south-eastern edge of Portnablagh, between Ards Forest Park and Portnablagh itself, lie the ruins of Faugher House, also known as O'Boyle's Castle or Wray's Castle.^[3] This small fortified house and its surrounding bawn were built during the Plantation of Ulster, and may have been built in stages throughout the seventeenth-century.^[4] The original 'castle' or fortified house on this site was probably built for Turlough Roe O'Boyle about 1611.^[5][6] The surviving bawn on the site probably dates from this time, very early in the Plantation of Ulster.^[7]

However, the surviving 'Plantation-era' fortified house (now ruined) may have been built in the second-half of the seventeenth-century, possibly for the Wray family.^[8][9] The building was probably abandoned by the mid-eighteenth-century.^[10] The rather 'Scottish-style' ruin is beside 'the Middle Road', a sideroad leading to Breaghy Head, just off the N56, the main Letterkenny to Dunfanaghy road. The site is privately owned and is not open to the public.

See also

• List of towns and villages in the Republic of Ireland
• List of towns in Northern Ireland

References

1. Patrick McKay, A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names, p. 121. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, 1999.
2. Untitled Page
3. Brian Lacy (Editor), Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, pp. 367-369. Donegal County Council, Lifford, 1983.
4. Brian Lacy (Editor), Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, p. 369. Donegal County Council, Lifford, 1983.
5. Brian Lacy (Editor), Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, pp. 367-369. Donegal County Council, Lifford, 1983.
6. Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (popularly known as the Pevsner Guide to North West Ulster), p. 124. Yale, London, 2003 (originally published by Penguin, London, 1979).
7. Brian Lacy (Editor), Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, p. 369. Donegal County Council, Lifford, 1983.
8. Brian Lacy (Editor), Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, p. 369. Donegal County Council, Lifford, 1983.
9. Willie Cumming, Duncan McLaren and T.J. O'Meara, An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Donegal, pp. 20-21. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (N.I.A.H.), Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin, 2014.
10. Willie Cumming, Duncan McLaren and T.J. O'Meara, An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Donegal, pp. 20-21. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (N.I.A.H.), Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin, 2014.