Donegal - The Craic Was Ninety

July 17, 2023

The drive from Portrush to Ardara should have taken about two hours, but we ran into a lot of traffic between Derry and Letterkenny, which really stressed me out because our next stop was at the Sliabh Liag Distillery and I had been looking forward to tasting their gin for months.  Even with about a 30-minute buffer, we found ourselves running late for our 4:00 pm tour by about 20 minutes.  I called the distillery at about 3:45 to let them know what was going on and see what our options were.  Unfortunately, they said that they couldn’t hold the tour up for us because by the time we showed up they would have gone through all of the safety information and the tour would be half over.  The could, however, do a tasting for us with one of their distillers.  Between the four of us, we’ve been to dozens of distilleries and we were all floored and confused by the fact that there was a safety briefing.  Oh well.  I’ve been to enough distilleries that what I really cared about was not getting a tour, but tasting their products, so everything probably worked out for the best.  The folks at the distillery were wonderful, though the lady at the front desk (whom I spoke to on the phone) was shocked that we ran into traffic in Donegal and made multiple comments about it during the 45 minutes or so that we were there.  Her confusion made sense because there really wasn't any traffic in Donegal, but it did have some of the most quintessential and stereotypical Irish scenes.  For example, while we were driving, we passed by an old man in a full, black suit and hat shoveling gravel on the road outside of a church, not to mention all of the sheep walking in and along the roads!

Our tasting guide was Declan, the son of the distillery’s owners, and he was a delight. He was born in England, spent a while living in Hong Kong, and then moved to Ireland.  His parents distill Silkie Irish Whiskey, and Declan helps his mom distill what I sought them out for - An Dúlamán Gin.  They use a 500-liter, hand-hammered copper still and five types of Donegal seaweed; one of which can only be harvested during a full moon, when the tides are right.  It turns out that Declan was actually the person who harvested that seaweed!  The An Dúlamán totally lived up to expectations!  We also tried another gin that Declan helped develop and three Silkie Irish Whiskeys.  The whiskeys are named after the mythological silkies - women who can shift their shape between human and seal.  The whiskey tasting was fascinating because Declan taught us all about peat and smokiness.  I don't typically like peated whiskeys, but it was very interesting to taste the differences between slightly peated whiskey and heavily peated whiskey.  They were actually pretty good!  After the tasting, Declan and everyone else then had a good time making fun of me as I grabbed more and more gin off of the shelves to buy.  Declan also felt so bad that about us missing our tour that he offered to take us into the back and show us around, but we declined to get on our way to the Sliabh Liag (“sleeve league”).

Though the Cliffs of Moher get more publicity, the cliffs of Sliabh Liag are higher.  In fact, they are the highest sea cliffs in Europe, plunging over 1,800 feet into the churning sea.  The hike up to the cliffs was pretty steep and followed a gravel road with dozens of sheep roaming free throughout the area.  Kati desperately wanted to pet one and tried, but it did not go well and the irritated sheep clip-clopped away.  There aren’t words to describe the sublimity of the cliffs, and the higher we climbed, the more unbelievable it got.  Kati and Tyler were both having some knee pains but couldn’t turn down climbing higher and higher.  By the time we reached the pinnacle of our climb (but not the highest point on the cliffs), it was about 7:00 pm and we were getting hungry so we started our trek down.

We were holding up for the night at the Rusty Mackerel, which is the closest inn to the Sliabh Liag and, surprisingly for a pub in the middle of nowhere, named the Best Gastro Pub in Ireland in 2022.  When I opened the door to the pub, I was met with a slew of old Irish guys loudly carrying on in Irish in a dark wooden room that had been decorated with random signs and pictures over the course of decades.  It was exactly what I had expected Donegal to be!  We also lucked out because we rolled in right at 8:00 and the kitchen closed at 8:00, but they promised to squeeze us in.  Tyler and I both went with the prawns and monkfish.  It was kind of like shrimp scampi, if you replaced all of the pasta with cheese!  Definitely good, but also way too much food.

The rooms left something to be desired.  They appeared to be rapidly built permanent trailers behind the pub, but they got the job done and we were only going to be in them for a matter of hours.  At 9:30, the live music started and the pub rapidly to fill up with locals.  Morgan headed off to bed and Kati followed after her a little while later, leaving Tyler and me to our own devices.  The guitarist was great and played a nice mix of traditional Irish songs and modern music.  

Tyler - no surprise to anyone - managed to befriend some of the locals.  When getting us drinks at the bar, he was talking to one guy about how we had hiked up the Sliabh Liag earlier in the evening and how many sheep there were just roaming around.  They guy said, "Oh those are Martin's sheep!" and pointed over to a guy across the bar who raised his glass in acknowledgement that he was, in fact, Martin.  There was also another rowdy group of locals right behind us, clearly speaking Irish.  The were having a grand time and we couldn't understand a word they were saying.  That is, until one of them switched from Irish to English and very clearly said over the quieted bar, "And that's when I said once you go black you never go back!"

I headed back to the room around 10:30 pm so that Kati and I could call the kids together, but Tyler stuck around for a bit longer and said it got a bit rowdy.  It was John's birthday and, at some point, the local bus driver brought his bus to pick John up and take him home.  Apparently his wife and daughter we already there at the bar celebrating, and instead of quietly heading out, when he showed up, he was whisked onto the dance floor and passed around square dance style.  The Rusty Mackerel was everything I expected from Donegal and so much more!