The Steeple or Mullaghagarry Tower

Great countryside forest walk, suitable for all ages

A short walk in a gorgeous forest with a great finale, The Steeple or Mullaghagarry Tower offers a fascinating view from the top.

It is a 5 km loop walk across the forest to get up to the Mullaghagarry Tower. It starts from small parking just beside the N13 Kilross-Ballybofey road. The trail is well maintained and suitable for all ages. When you get to the tower, you can climb the steps to go all the way up to the top. You have a 360-degree view of the surroundings from the top of the tower. There is a picnic area too just next to the tower.

This walk is very close to Letterkenny, Ballybofey, Donegal Town, and Derry, I would go there again with my children. I can only imagine what the forest would look like in Autumn😊.

Pictures by Velin Georgiev

History of the Tower

The true story of The Steeple, or Mullaghagarry Tower, is even more exotic than the rumors of black magic and mysterious rites that often do the rounds. The Stewarts of Tircallen were one of the first and most important Plantation families to arrive in Donegal after the Flight of the Earls. The surname is still locally common. But of the great Tircallen Estate, nothing remains intact except the Steeple itself. It is a square tower, some six meters high, with a winding staircase leading to a flattened top. There is no exotic decoration, but it is solidly built of stone and lime and has stood here since 1810. So what is it? To answer that question, we must go back to the Dark Ages, when Irish monks taught a range of subjects, including astronomy, across Britain and Europe. The Irish were the great European astronomers of the day. As far back as the first millennium AD, we had Irish monks predicting eclipses and teaching that the Earth was round. This astronomical tradition did not falter with the Ulster Plantation, and Ireland was considered advanced in astronomy right through the 19" Century. One such astronomer was Sir Henry Stewart of Tircallen. In 1810, he built the Steeple, as an observatory, on the highest point of the Tircallen Estate. Unfortunately, we do not know what kind of telescopes he used, and he does not seem to have kept notes. If he did, he might have played a part in the various discoveries attributed to the giant Rosse telescope, built at Birr in the 1840s. The demise of the Stewart dynasty was sudden. A descendant of Sir Henry lost the entire estate to the Marquis of Coyningham, on the turn of a single card, at a London club. Coyningham had no interest in his new property and left the running of it to a land agent, who mismanaged it badly and eventually absconded, along with the money. Today, like Drumboe Woods, what remains of the fallen Estate is the property of Collite. It makes a pleasant walk and the Steeple itself is well worth a look

written by Pat Holland. Source: The sign on the parking.