Islands of Ireland: Clear as a bell in heavenly Donegal

The history of a forested island once connected to a Donegal Orangeman

Bell’s Isle, Co Donegal, was formerly called Foster's Island, named after Donegal man Arthur H Foster, a prodigious farmer and strong advocate of land reclamation. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

The lovely tour on the Donegal Bay waterbus meanders around several humpbacked islands in the bay of the same name and is a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon beneath the Bluestack Mountains in this heavenly part of this heavenly county. If that sounds like an overstatement, it isn’t.

Off to the west is the long finger of St John’s Point and its lighthouse, which guides boats safely in to harbour. The water bus, which can carry 160 passengers, idles past the causewayed St Ernan’s Island, the grassy Rooney’s Island and the rustic Inishpat, before swinging past the forested Bell’s Isle.