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Everyone goes to Grianán of Aileach. Nobody sees the wells.

Thousands of people climb up to the stone fort at Grianán of Aileach every year. Right beside it are wells people once walked a very long way to, just to wash their faces in the water. Almost nobody knows they're there.

By Rickie · Discover Alone

Grianán of Aileach from the air, with the outer rings of the old hillfort around it. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

The fort on the hill

The stone fort at Grianán of Aileach — The stone fort at Grianán of Aileach. Picture: geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

Grianán of Aileach is one of the best things in the country. A great stone ring on top of a hill in Inishowen, looking down over Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle.

People drive up, walk round the wall, take the photo and drive back down.

The bit they miss

Below the fort there are holy wells. St Patrick's Well. A holy well in Toulett. The burial cairn site. The outer rings of a hillfort much older than the stone walls.

No signs pointing you to them. Most of the people at the top have no idea they exist.

People came a long way for that water

The story is that people came from a long way off, some from far beyond Donegal, just to wash their faces in the water of those wells.

Think about that. Walking for days to a well, and now people park beside it and never know it's there.

See it as one place

The fort, the wells, the cairn, the old rings in the grass: it's all one story. A royal seat, a holy place, a gathering place for thousands of years.

Look at the fort alone and you get a photo. See the wells beside it and you start to understand why people came here at all.

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