Ireland day 1379. Tuesday 08 July 2025- Tory Island 1

Today’s summary	Spent much of the day recovering from an upset stomach so didn’t see as much of Tory Island as I had hoped. But Val looked after me very well and we managed a short, rather windswept and cold, walk round West Town in the late afternoon. Hopefully I’ll be feeling a little better in a day or two.
Today’s weather	Blowy, grey and cold with some drizzle. Strong south westerly wind. Appx 14c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Tory Island West Town

Commentary

Well that didn’t work out exactly as planned!

I felt surprisingly exhausted when I went to bed last night, and my head was swimming slightly. I just put it down to the after effects of the stormy sea crossing earlier that afternoon, and thought no more of it.

But at about 2am, I woke up feeling distinctly under the weather and seem to have spent much of the rest of the day either in bed or in the bathroom. Ugh!

Anyway, Val has done a brilliant job in looking after me, bringing me cups of tea and glasses of water at regular intervals during the day. She also managed to get out and go on a short walk to the shop and towards the lighthouse (before being forced back by incoming rain).

By late afternoon I was feeling a little better, and decided to risk leaving the safely net of the hotel. So Val and I donned down jackets, waterproof overcoats, long sleeves and warm trousers, and headed out to enjoy the delights of a mid-July evening off the coast of Donegal.

We only walked a few hundred meters, over the island to the sea-cliffs, and then down to the harbour to watch the ferries coming and going. Aside from the weather, this is a lovely island. The air is so fresh, it almost smells sweet, and the landscape is spectacular. There are rare birds in abundance, and fields of wild flowers I’d never seen before.

Anyway, we’re back in the relative luxury of the hotel now, and Val has gone off for dinner (I don’t feel quite up to it yet). Perhaps time to fire up the tv and to concentrate on getting better, so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to get out and see a little more of this unforgiving, but beautiful, place.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The Wild Atlantic Way even makes it out to Tory Island. It’s a fantastic innovation and the branding – with the rusted steel posts and “WAW” logo are a stroke of genius. Don Draper would be proud	The island shop-cum-post office. Sells most of life’s essentials, though I think you would struggle to get fresh fruit and veg here

Unusual Umbellifers like this one were growing in profusion in the fields and roadside verges. I need to ask Val what it is – she has done some research, apparently	The Island Hotel, where we are staying for three nights



Precipitous sea-cliffs on the north-east coast. The whole island is quite narrow (400m), so it doesn’t take long to walk out there to have a look.