Trawbreaga Bay - An Introduction

Trawbreaga Bay

Inishowen, Co Donegal Ireland - An Introduction

Tra Bhreige in the gaelic Irish means the strand of falsehood or treachery which, knowing these waters for a year now I've come to understand that meaning; whilst these waters appear inviting for bathing, they have been known through the ages to be dangerous.  The Anglicisation of the gaelic place-names in Ireland disguises their original name appropriation which mostly refer to landscape descriptors; we had this in Britain too before the Romans, Saxons, Jute's and Norman invasions came and swerved language and a claiming of territories; the British did this to the Irish language and land.

I've banged on about place-names in landscape archaeology lectures for some time, they are clues to the past and along with knowing the basic geology and being armed with an ordnance survey map, place-names are the perfect starting point to understanding the land and how we as humans have shaped it.

Trawbreaga Bay - Twitchers hut at Malin

The tidal waters of Trawbreaga are seen from the immediate landscape of where I now live in Ireland; A short walk down the farmland lanes from the house will give commanding views back to this watery notch in the West of Ireland's most northerly peninsula.  There are four rivers that spill into Trawbreaga forming channels: The Ballyboe, Straid, Glannagannon and the Donagh.  Within several miles the coastal landscape here shifts from estuary mudflats, saltmarsh, lofty cliffs and sand dunes that are considered to be the greatest of their kind in Europe.

Winter sunset at Lagg with views to the Urris hills

In the midst of Trawbreaga Bay sits the Isle of Doagh.  Doagh is provocative of the prehistoric with one of the highest concentrations of petrogliths (prehistoric rock art carvings) in Ireland; many may still lie undiscovered beneath top-soils with, discoveries having been made only in recent years.  Doagh is not strictly an isle any longer since silting up on its South/Western shores to join the Inishowen mainland aeons ago but, like many place-names it's 'Isle' name has travelled linguistically in local tongue across the centuries.  Doagh and its mainland vicinity is littered with prehistoric megaliths; the region OS map illustrates clusters of megalithic tombs, singular standing stones and stone rows.

I suspect there is much more to be understood regarding the histories of Doagh and Trawbreaga.  Just this last Spring at times of low tides I discovered regimented rows of similar shaped stones projecting into the waters at Lagacurry strand on Doagh; some of these had clear regulated concave markings (cup marks) that seem to be human rather than natural infiltration; a Geologist museum colleague agreed that they did not appear to be of a natural incidence.  Doagh also has a long established history across time with a romantic Medieval ruined castle being battered by the wildest that the Atlantic can offer.  I will write separately on the archeological and broader history of  Doagh as this blog progresses.

Oyster farming at Glassagh Point, Trawbreaga Bay

Carrickobraghy Castle faces the crash of the Atlantic

                 

 Photographs by John E Mitchell & Monty Lowe ©2018

Contact: michaeliainlowe@gmail.com

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