THERE is still time to get out and enjoy Heritage Week in County Donegal which runs until this Sunday. National Heritage Week is co-ordinated by The Heritage Council and local authority Heritage Officers with support from Fáilte Ireland.
Events include family open days, guided walks, built heritage open houses, heritage site visits, field trips, exhibitions, illustrated presentations, photographic competition, children’s activities, genealogical research, storytelling sessions, traditional music, craft fairs and traditional skills demonstrations.
Glenveagh National Park has a full programme of events over the weekend. There are also heritage walks in Fahan and Buncrana.
Today (Friday), there’s an opportunity to visit the restoration of stone-slated cottages at Roshin, Dunfanaghy with Caroline Dickson Architects from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm.
The Burtonport Heritage Group has organised a walk through the built heritage and history of Burtonport today starting at 3 pm. At 8:30 pm this evening, there’s a celebration of the music, storytelling and folklore of the Bluestacks/Na Cruacha Gorma in St Connell’s Museum in Glenties.
Tomorrow at 11 am, local historian Helen Meehan will lead a guided tour of local heritage sites in the Inver area organised by the Inver Community Centre History Group and the Rosses Anglers’ Association will host a ‘Fun with Fly Fishing’ event from 12 noon to 4 pm.
A fieldtrip of local heritage sites with Cary Meehan leaves from Dunfanaghy Workhouse at 2 pm on Saturday too while the McGlinchey Association hosts a guided walk in Clonmany at 2:30 pm.
On the final day of Heritage Week, Donegal Castle has a medieval weaponry display from 12 noon to 5 pm. At Oakfield Park in Raphoe, it’s ‘Steam Sunday’ with working model exhibits by the Donegal Railway Heritage Centre from 12 noon to 6 pm.
Newmills Corn and Flax Mills near Letterkenny has a demonstration of stone-ground corn milling from 1 pm to 5 pm. There are presentations on World War II plane crashes in the Inishowen Maritime Museum in Greencastle at 1 pm and 2:30 pm.
There are fieldtrips in Carrowmenagh at 2 pm organised by the Tremone Historical Society and at Bulaba Mountain at 2:30 pm organised by the McGlinchey Association in Inishowen.
There is the annual mass in the thirteenth century Tullaghbegley historic graveyard near Falcarragh at 3 pm while the Donegal Historical Society host one of its annual field days in Bundoran also at 3 pm.
The County Donegal Heritage Office, Cultural Services, Donegal County Council has produced the highly-popular, pocket-size ‘Heritage Week Event Guide for County Donegal’ again this year and it is available free-of-charge from libraries, public service centres, museums, heritage centres and tourist offices and on-line at the County Donegal Heritage Office website www.donegalcoco.ie/heritage