Great Irish Roads - a series by Bob Montgomery: Through Donegal - the R255 & R251 from Termon to Money Mor
The N56 runs from bustling Letterkenny to sleepy Dunfanaghy on the Atlantic coast. About three kilometres beyond the village of Kilmacrenan is the turn-off (R255) for Gweedore.
This spectacular road takes you through the very heartland of Donegal as it runs around the southern edges of Donegal's highest mountain.
The 752m Errigal, a quartzite cone with white scree slopes dominates this drive.
At first, the most noteworthy features are the peaks of Drumfin Hill, Stragaddy Mountain, Crockmore and Loughsalt Mountain, the highest of the group at 469 m.
Before long - about 5 kms - the landscape takes on a much more mountainous aspect - boggy grassland with rocky ground breaking through.
We've now joined the R251 and the road has changed from merely good to excellent, a condition it maintains to the end of our journey.
Our transport on this occasion is an Alfa Romeo 159 which is proving a very able conveyance well-suited to the many changes of terrain that the Donegal landscape presents to it. A turnoff to our left marks the entrance to Glenveigh National Park at the northern head of Lough Beagh.
Tempting as a long diversion into Glenveigh is, our purpose is to explore the R251 so we continue to point the nose of our Alfa Romeo toward the looming bulk of Mount Errigal which now dominates the road ahead of us.
This is a landscape of tremendous natural grandeur with the slopes of the Derryveagh Mountains to the south of the R251 and Errigal to the north while further north can be seen the peak of Muckish Mountain (670m) - it's true Donegal heartland with all of the elements that make the landscape here so very special.
As the road rounds the southern slopes of Errigal a magnificent view opens out to the south.
This is the breathtaking Poisoned Glen with its wild horseshoe shape fringed by steep precipices reaching into the very heart of the Derryveagh Mountains.
The glen takes its name from a legend that God dropped poison there and as a consequence no birds are ever heard within its confines. One shudders to imagine its extreme bleakness in the cold of winter but this is summer and the view is now across the valley of Dunlewy and its lake, Lough Nacung, which winds down the valley for around six kilometres.
Looking across Dunlewy valley towards Slieve Snaght you are struck by the roofless white marble church at the centre of the valley with its walled graveyard and single gravestone. The church, which dates back to the 1840s has long been abandoned but stands like an eerie sentinel watching over this beautiful valley. We end our journey at the village of Money More having followed the R251 around to the west of Errigal.
From here the road leads on to Gweedore and The Rosses with much more of Donegal to explore but for this traveller it's enough to linger longer under the spell of mighty Errigal and the landscape over which it holds sway and through which we have journeyed.