Carrowhugh

Carrowhugh is a quiet townland situated above the popular fishing village of Greencastle.

Enjoying fine views over Lough Foyle, the area in recent years has become one of Donegal’s favourite holiday hotspots with a high level of holiday homes in existence. The sleepy village offers a modest range of shops, pubs and restaurants as well as the popular ferry service from Greencastle to Magilligan Point, which transfers a high level of additional visitors to the area on a daily basis. Derry City Centre can also be accessed within a 30 minute drive.

Looking across the bay into Northern Ireland, this is the narrowest point across the Foyle before it broadens into a wide expanse of water that only narrows again as it approaches Derry and turns into the River Foyle. Greencastle, the nearest town, is a commercial fishing port and has the National Fisheries College. It has a picturesque harbour area, and there is a ferry service crossing the Foyle on a regular basis: - convenient for car trips to the Giants Causeway, Bushmills, Dunluce Castle, and other attractions along the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland. (...and saving an additional 78km by avoiding the drive around the Foyle!)

The town almost certainly got its name from the old castle, which in turn may have got its name from the green freestone with which it was built. The castle, which is now a ruin, was known as the De Burgo Castle, and was built in 1305 as a base to provide a stronghold for Norman power in the North West. It was named "Northburg" and was built on the site of a much older fortress. There is a more modern Martello Fort beside the ruin, built by the British during the Napoleonic Wars to stop a possible French Fleet from invading.