McCafferty’s

Explorer Tom Gates in Letterkenny mark the former corn market: their plaque reads 'Letterkenny Market 1852.' Later directories record Friday trading there in 1881 and 1894, plus the eighth of each month except Sundays. The wall needs a calendar for all those market days; even a stone memory has its limits.

Explorer Tom The Yellow Pepper in Letterkenny sounds spicy, but it’s just a restaurant on Lower Main Street. Grab a chilli if you’re brave, I’ll wait here shivering.

Explorer Tom This former shopfront in Letterkenny is part of an attached pair, built around 1864 with a later insertion.

Explorer Tom The Bagel Bar is definitely not about bagels, it’s about the drama behind them. Ask if they have anything with extra cheese, obviously.

Explorer Tom PoleStar Monument shines in Letterkenny, a heritage beacon guiding spirits through County Donegal’s night skies.

Explorer Tom Dry Arch Monument is a stainless steel and stone tribute to the workers. It sits at The Dry Arch Roundabout, which means the shiny metal probably gets quite a lot of traffic glare.

Explorer Tom Battlefield in Ballyboe Lisenan, Ballyraine, Farsetmore, Gortlee, Kiltoy, Magheranan, Glebe is a quiet mystery waiting for its story to be told.

Explorer Tom Conwal Wheeled Cross Slab is a tiny, battered fragment that survived the mess of a 1968 tidy-up. It’s just the top half of a wheeled cross, weathered smooth on the cairn. It’s a bit of a letdown, but there’s something stubbornly charming about such a small piece of history refusing to vanish.

Explorer Tom Godfrey O'Donnell Graveslab claims to be the final resting spot of a guy who died in 1258. It’s got a wheeled-cross with some fancy interlace that looks like Celtic knotting meets a bicycle wheel. The corner is broken, but the carving is still sharp enough to make you wonder if Godfrey was actually into cycling.

Explorer Tom Gregory Hill stands in County Donegal, keeping its access details firmly unknown. The name sounds like a word you’d mumble into your breakfast cereal, yet it sits there as a solid geological fact without offering a single helpful footpath.

Explorer Tom Meet this ancient European Yew in Donegal, where permission might be the key to its mysterious charm.