Qualla: Doon Hill

Doon Hill: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Patrice78500, CC BY-SA 3.0. Doon Hill is what is left after the rest of a volcano erodes away. The throat of the vent, where molten rock once cooled into a denser plug than the surrounding country, stood up to glaciers and centuries of Atlantic weather while the cone around it wore down to nothing. Sixty-seven metres is not tall by mountain standards, but on the flat western fingers of the Errismore peninsula it dominates everything. From its summit you can see the islands of Slyne Head trailing south into the Atlantic, the long white scallop of Bunowen Strand, and on a clear morning, the green smudges of Inishbofin and Inishshark on the horizon.

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Image: Patrice78500 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Doon Hill: The Throat of an Old Fire

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Patrice78500, CC BY-SA 3.0. Volcanic plugs are the geological equivalent of leftovers. When a volcano falls silent, the conduit through which lava once travelled cools more slowly than the surrounding country rock. Over millions of years, weather strips away everything softer until only the resistant plug r...

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Image: Patrice78500 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Doon Hill: Bunowen Castle and the O'Flahertys

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Patrice78500, CC BY-SA 3.0. At the foot of Doon Hill stand the ruins of Bunowen Castle, and the story of the castle is the story of how Irish land changed hands. The original castle on the site belonged to the O'Flaherty family - the same fierce western clan whose chiefs ruled most of the country north of G...

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Image: Patrice78500 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Doon Hill: Standing on Old Volcanoes

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Patrice78500, CC BY-SA 3.0. The story of Doon Hill is partly the story of how much time a landscape can hold. The hill itself goes back to a volcano that has been dead longer than the human species has existed. The castle at its foot goes back to a clan whose name is older than any English-language map of I...

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Image: Patrice78500 | CC BY-SA 3.0