After wrapping up our day 3 itinerary in Northern Ireland we moved on to destinations in the Republic of Ireland in the Northwest. Our first stop in County Donegal was Glenveagh Castle in Glenveagh National Park. As you can see from the photos below, the landscape was very drab, desolate and mostly brown. It was still very beautiful; I image the Summer brings more color.
Glenveagh (from Irish Gleann Bheatha, meaning “glen of the birches”) is the second largest national park in Ireland. The park covers 170 square kilometres of hillside above Glenveagh Castle on the shore of Lough Veagh (Loch Ghleann Bheatha), 20 km from Gweedore in County Donegal.
The park is home to the largest herd of red deer in Ireland and the formerly extinct golden eagle were reintroduced into the park in 2000.
Glenveagh National Park
The site occupied by the Castle and Gardens was wild mountain moorland. In 1869 the first part of the Castle was constructed. However it was not until the mid 1880’s that the Gardens were started. The two major elements of the Garden, the Pleasure Gardens and the Walled Garden were constructed in the late 1880’s. The original Victorian Garden layout remains intact. It was for Mrs. Cornelia Adair that the gardens were constructed. Mrs. Adair employed a Kew trained gardener to lay out the gardens. Some of the planting in the Pleasure Grounds such as the purple maples and the Scots pine trees were planted at this time. – wikipedia
Glenveagh Castle
Glenveagh Castle and Gardens is very nice place – an oasis seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We finally met a good number of people out seeing the sites. It still wasn’t crowded at all. It was amazing to see different varieties of flora here. If your travels takes you in this direction plan of spending a few hours here. There are several walking paths to explore in addition to the gardens. There is a shuttle from the main parking area to the castle – we elected to take advantage of that as it looked as though it could downpour at any moment.
See more of Republic of Ireland 
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