Qualla: Glencolmcille https://qualla.com/glencolmcille en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/z/glencolmcille-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Glencolmcille https://qualla.com/glencolmcille Glencolmcille: Introduction https://qualla.com/glencolmcille/ Photo credit Brian Herrity, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 9 June every year, in a tiny village on the northwest coast of Donegal, the locals walk five kilometres around fifteen holy sites in the order Saint Colm Cille is said to have walked them. Traditionally, the procession starts at midnight. Traditionally, it is done barefoot. The route winds past court tombs constructed three and a half thousand years before Christianity reached Ireland, past holy wells, past stones inscribed with crosses, past a Church of Ireland chapel built in 1828. Queen Anne tried to outlaw this kind of pilgrimage in 1703, declaring such assemblies to be 'Riots and unlawful.' The proclamation has not particularly stuck.

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Image: Brian Herrity | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/z/glencolmcille-wk/gc9z-glencolmcille-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Glencolmcille: The Valley of Colm Cille https://qualla.com/glencolmcille/ Photo credit Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0. Glencolmcille means 'the valley of Colm Cille,' the sixth-century Irish saint better known abroad as Columba. Born in Donegal around 521, he studied on the east coast, got mixed up in the dispute that produced the Battle of Cul Dreimhne, and exiled himself to Iona in Scotland, wh...

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Image: Ardfern | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/z/glencolmcille-wk/gc9z-glencolmcille-the-valley-of-colm-cille.mp3 0:06 2 full Glencolmcille: Stones Older Than the Saint https://qualla.com/glencolmcille/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. The pilgrimage walks through landscape that was already sacred long before Colm Cille's name attached to it. The court tomb at Cloghanmore, reached up a lane branching inland from Malinmore, was constructed around 3500 BC. It is aligned east-west so that the midwinter sun peaks o...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/z/glencolmcille-wk/gc9z-glencolmcille-stones-older-than-the-saint.mp3 0:06 3 full Glencolmcille: Silver Strand and Slieve League https://qualla.com/glencolmcille/ Photo credit Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Just outside Malin Beg, a long flight of steps descends to Silver Strand, also called An Tra Bhan, a horseshoe cove of pale sand walled by cliffs. There is no boat ramp; the only way in is the steps. A sea stack at the western end of the cove draws rock climbers. The next inlet w...

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Image: Gerd Eichmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/z/glencolmcille-wk/gc9z-glencolmcille-silver-strand-and-slieve-league.mp3 0:06 4 full Glencolmcille: An Irish-Speaking Place https://qualla.com/glencolmcille/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Glencolmcille is in the Gaeltacht, the area where Irish remains the daily language for a significant portion of the population. The percentage of daily Irish speakers has been declining for decades, but the language is still here, in the pubs, the shop, the school, the festivals....

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/z/glencolmcille-wk/gc9z-glencolmcille-an-irish-speaking-place.mp3 0:06 5 full Glencolmcille: The Road In https://qualla.com/glencolmcille/ Photo credit Nigel Callaghan, CC BY-SA 2.0. From Donegal Town, you take the N56 west to Killybegs, then the R263 over the hills. The lane twists and rises, sheep ambling out of the way at their own pace, and eventually delivers you to the glen. Local Link bus 293 makes the trip from Donegal Town five times a day. Buses out...

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Image: Nigel Callaghan | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/z/glencolmcille-wk/gc9z-glencolmcille-the-road-in.mp3 0:06 6 full