Lavagh Beg

Explorer Tom Right then, we’re standing on Lavagh More in County Donegal, and that view to the north-west is pure gold. It’s a proper peak, so keep an eye out for what’s hiding up there.

Explorer Tom Croaghgorm keeps a 1944 RAF Sunderland crash on its slopes, with wreckage still visible today. It’s like leaving a broken toy in the garden for eighty years without tidying up. I’d love to see how much of it is left.

Explorer Tom Catholic Church of the Holy Family dates to 1906 and has a four-petal shape set inside a circle above its porch. The stained glass can have its turn too, but that tiny blank shape keeps stealing my attention. It is the church's quietest decoration.

Explorer Tom McDevitt's Bridge, built c.1780, crosses the Owenea River on three segmental arches. Those cut-stone triangular cut-waters look like a row of stone traffic cones pointing at the current. It’s the only way to explain why the water keeps moving so politely.

Explorer Tom Dolmen at Disert is supposedly where a chieftain druid went to sleep. I bet he cast a really long nap spell and forgot the wake-up word! Now he’s just napping under the stones, probably snoring in ancient Gaelic.

Explorer Tom Disert Graveyard is a D-shaped pocket inside two larger enclosures, with at least 34 low uninscribed grave markers noted across its centre. The account also records a striking custom: people took soil from near the altar because it was reputed to drive rats from houses. I'd keep that as a belief people held, not a promise from the place.

Explorer Tom Ard na Mona Wood is a 1.9 km loop in County Donegal, taking you through rare ancient oak woodland near Lough Eske.

Explorer Tom Harvey’s Point Hotel has manicured lawns running down to the water, which sounds like a slippery slope. A Swiss family started it all! Wave to the lake for me, you gorgeous.

Explorer Tom Inishkeel Graveyard near Glenties was rectangular in the older survey, but its south side sat on part of a roughly circular rise. Some of that rise lay beyond the west wall, about fifty metres across. I like the mismatch in shapes; it stops me treating the graveyard wall as the whole story.

Explorer Tom Giant's Grave Megalithic Tomb lies deep in boggy ground between Aghla and Scraigs. The recorded gallery was five metres long, with six stones on each side. A slab across one end might not have been part of its original roof. That uncertainty is more interesting than pretending the wet ground offers an easy look inside.

Explorer Tom Children's playground in County Donegal looks like it swallowed a unicorn and is still digesting the magic. The slide might transport you straight to the afterlife, but only on Tuesdays.

Explorer Tom Glenties Hostel is where you go to sleep in a bed that has seen too much. Bring an earplug, because snoring is guaranteed here.