♪♪ -It's one of the most beloved nations to visit, and yet few travelers make it this far.
[ Celtic music playing ] To an untamed and breathtaking corner of the world where the landscape is more than beautiful -- it's powerful.
-[ Whistles ] -And the people?
[ Clacking ] Oh, the people!
It's at the edge of country and a continent.
This is the Northwest Coast of Ireland.
I'm Samantha Brown, and I've traveled all over this world.
And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.
That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.
Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -Europe is a treasure trove of fascinating history, rich culture, and renowned cities.
AmaWaterways River Cruises offers a way to see all this wonder in person.
You can discover more at AmaWaterways.com.
♪♪ -"Away"... ...is the smell of fresh pine.
It's a place where giants still live.
"Away" is where the farther down the road you go, the closer you get to the ones you love.
Find your "away."
GoRVing.com.
♪♪ -The Republic of Ireland has one of the most epic drives in the world -- the Wild Atlantic Way.
It follows the country's western coastline 1,500 miles from stem to stern.
I'm following its curves along its untamed northern half, starting in Sligo.
We all know and take for granted how beautiful all of Ireland is, but one man in particular wrote about it in a way that makes us all long for it.
-This is the quintessential Yeatsian landscape, to use big words.
We're looking out on Lough Gill, and there are four of the early poems in this very view itself.
There's "The Fiddler of Dooney."
There's "The Stolen Child."
And then, just behind, where the mountain tips down, is "The Lake Isle of Innisfree."
And then, the whole area, everything that we see in this landscape, was part of the Hazelwood estate.
"I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout."
My name is Damien Brennan.
I'm chair of the Yeats International Summer School, now in its 58th year, and I'm a council member of the Yeats Society.
I'm passionate about all things to do with our national poet laureate, William Butler Yeats.
-What would you think his most popular poem was, or his most important?
-Nice question.
It's not the most important, but the most famous poem is "The Lake Isle of Innisfree."
It's off there in the distance on the lake.
It is -- "Innis" is the Gaelic word of an island.
"Free" -- "fraoch" -- is the Gaelic word for "heather."
So it's really Heather Island.
-It's remarkable to me that, looking out at the landscape, it looks like it hasn't changed much from what he would have seen.
-No, no.
-I don't see any buildup.
It's so perfectly preserved.
-Yeah.
Well, we're very fortunate that the Celtic Tiger didn't actually do any damage to the Yeatsian landscape.
And indeed, the houses that he's associated with here in Sligo are all still here in the landscape.
And so, 152 years after his birth, we still have, really, the Yeatsian Sligo intact.
We're very fortunate.
-So, Yeats was one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, but how was he instrumental in helping the Irish understand and be proud of their own national identity?
-Through the 1890s and the early 1900s was a great nationalist movement.
But he was absolutely determined that it should be an artistic movement as well, and so that there should be a revival of the Celtic traditions and the Celtic history and an appreciation of that.
He believed, if Ireland was to become a nation -- which it did by 1922 -- it should have an art and a culture and a theater and a drama and a poetry to match any commercial or agrarian success.
-And he was a part of all of those things.
-He was absolutely at the forefront of that.
He won the Nobel Prize in 1923.
He was the leader of the pack.
-Damien's maternal ancestors have owned this land overlooking the Yeatsian landscape since 1824.
And now he and his wife give Yeats dinners in their modern farmhouse.
-I introduced them to Yeats and to the beauty of poetry.
And if you do that in the landscape that inspires it, it gives them such courage to go out and buy a book of Yeats and to enjoy it and say, "I was there, and now I understand 'Under bare Ben Bulben's head In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid,' or 'The wind has bundled up the clouds high over Knocknarea,' or -- 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' -- 'I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.'"
-Mm-hmm.
And so, Yeats -- This was where his happiness sort of lied and where his poems were constructed -- the ones that we know so well.
Where is he now?
-Where is he now?
Well, he's buried at Drumcliff.
But on September the 4th of 1938, he finishes what we think of as the last poem, and it's called "Under Ben Bulben."
Ben Bulben is the great prow mountain gouged out by the ice melting of Europe about 12,000 years ago.
And it stands proud over Sligo and down to Knocknarea.
And he takes himself back there.
"Under bare Ben Bulben's head In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid, An ancestor was rector there Long years ago; a church stands near."
And he goes on then to give his epitaph -- "Cast a cold eye On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!"
♪♪ -Just right over to our right is Mullaghmore.
And right ahead of us are the Donegal mountains, the wonderful Slieve League.
And then, right behind us, we have the iconic Ben Bulben.
-Oh, yes!
My God!
-Like a tabletop mountain, they say.
I'm Prannie Rhatigan.
I'm a doctor of family medicine.
And I have been enjoying seaweeds and the health benefits of seaweed since I was a child.
Well, I've been actually coming here -- probably in a pram with my parents, because that's where they used to come to harvest.
And then, of course, now look at me.
I'm doing it myself voluntarily.
-Well, look at you.
And you're gonna teach me?
-Yes.
Yes, I am.
-Wonderful.
Excellent.
So, what seaweed will we be foraging today?
-I'd love you to see the sea spaghetti, but we may just be a little late.
I organize Sligo Seaweed Days, which is a really fun day where we go out and we harvest seaweeds, bring them back, and I show people how to cook with them, and then we sit down and we enjoy a really nice meal.
So, we're so lucky 'cause this is the subtidal level on this peninsula.
We're so lucky to see this.
-And I love just seeing it swirl in the water like that.
I mean, it's just gorgeous -- the patterns that it makes.
-Yes, it is.
It's wonderful.
I mean, it tastes so good, it looks so good, and it is so good.
-Can you eat it right now?
-Yes, you can eat it just right away.
Will I cut you a little snip?
-Oh, please.
Thank you.
So, I've never seen this before.
Is this just, like, deeper in the waters?
-Well, you know, I'm not sure -- Do you have it in the United States?
-I've never seen it.
-I think it might be a European seaweed.
And, you know, really, I -- -Oh!
That is fantastic!
-Good.
I'm so glad you like it.
-That's like an al dente pasta.
It really is.
-It is, it is.
And it has the crunch like carrots.
-Mm-hmm.
That's the wonderful thing about foraging, is that nature just keeps replenishing and you're never going to just deplete a source.
-So long as you harvest sustainably.
We just take a little bit from here and a little bit from there.
-A little haircut.
-Yeah, a little haircut.
Exactly.
Now, of course, you can cook it half and half with ordinary spaghetti and have a wonderful sauce, then, over it, and you have just a real amazing dish.
-That is wonderful.
-So, it's so good.
This is a deep-water kelp.
-Oh, my gosh!
Oh, that is so neat!
-So, it's so beautiful.
It's just -- Yeah.
-I didn't even see that.
You just pulled that out of your hat.
That was like a magic trick.
-Yeah, isn't it so beautiful?
So, that's like the kombu that the Asians would use for their soups and so on.
And, again, we just give it a little haircut.
Just...yep.
And we can take that and make some chips with it or something like that.
Our Irish moss is here at this level.
-Right.
Okay.
-Will I harvest you a little bit of that so you can have a look at it?
-Oh, sure.
So, just in this little tidal pool here, how many different types of seaweed can we forage?
-Oh, my goodness.
There are about 10 in this area here.
-10 different kinds.
But, really, I mean, I grew up on the sea coast of New Hampshire, so I'm very aware of some of the other seaweed that I saw, and it was always that seaweed -- you were like, "Ew," and just kinda squishy, and you stepped in it and tried to get to the beach, and you didn't really like it.
But this gives me a newfound respect for a wonderful food source.
-Yes!
-So, even though we're foraging, there's a bit of a farm culture here of when you can harvest, when certain seaweeds come into season.
-This is like a garden all of its own.
So things come into season and things go out of season.
-And this, to me, looks like lettuce.
-You're absolutely spot on.
This is one of the types of sea lettuce.
You can actually just snip it like this into your salad.
It adds not just flavor but nutrients.
In fact, they've been described as the most nutritious form of vegetation on the planet.
-Seaweed is sort of having a moment now.
-It is having a moment.
-And it's been in your life for many years.
So, does that mean that people here in this area have been eating seaweed all along, and we're just kind of catching on to this?
-Seaweed didn't enjoy huge popularity when we were children.
-Oh, sure.
I mean, you look at it.
It's a visual thing.
[ Both laugh ] This is what I grew up on.
-Oh, really?
-Yeah.
This is what I remember.
-Okay.
The fucus vesiculosus.
The bladder wrack.
-Well, I didn't know the Latin word, Prannie.
-What did you call it when you were kids?
-Seaweed!
-Oh, okay.
[ Whistle blowing ] -Good!
[ Shouting indistinctly ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Shouting indistinctly ] Yeah!
Clint!
Lie down!
Lie down!
Lie down!
Lie!
There!
-I'm gonna lie down.
[ Both chuckle ] [ Whistle blows ] Okay.
So, how long does it take to train Clint to do that?
-It took Clint about a year to a year and a half, yes.
-And what type of dogs do you use?
-Border Collies is the only dog that's suitable for herding sheep.
-So, he's just on alert, essentially.
-On alert.
He knows what's -- -He's a hardworking dog.
-He is a good working dog.
The night before last night, it was getting dark, and I caught a sheep on one of the hills.
-What's a hull?
-Hill.
-Oh, a hill!
-A mountain.
-[ Laughs ] Sorry.
-What do you see now if I said -- if I say... Clint!
Look!
Look!
-Wow.
-Stay there.
They know.
But that takes a while for it to get them.
-So, to be a great sheepman, what do you have to be?
-You have to know your sheep, you have to know your stock, and you know the difference between a good sheep and not too good a sheep.
-Well, what is that?
-One that's -- Well, you know, like people.
There's somebody not too good, and there's some, you know, to look at.
-Yes.
-So, sheep are the same.
-Oh, oh, oh!
Good-looking, like in appearance.
-Yes, and they have to stand properly, believe it or not, and they have to have a nice length with them, et cetera, et cetera, and all that.
-Why does it matter what a sheep looks like?
-There you go.
-But why does it matter?
-Well, I couldn't look at a bad one.
-[ Laughs ] ♪♪ When you're out driving around Donegal, it just feels like you're in this remote, unpopulated corner of the world.
But then, it's not long before you come across a busy town center, like the town of Donegal itself, or a stunning beach.
And, of course, there's just enjoying the road along the way.
There's a lot of just trusting the road will be there kind of thing right now.
I've got sheep to the left of me and sheep to the right.
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
But let there be no doubt -- When in Ireland, all roads lead to a good pub.
And in my case, the road led to one of the best, most remote gastro pubs in the country.
[ Celtic music playing ] ♪♪ This seafood chowder that I'm eating right now, this is what you're known for, right?
-Yeah.
-Beautiful.
This is Chef Enda McDonagh and his wife and manager of the restaurant, Maresa, and when they say local ingredients, they mean just down the road.
-We try and get all our seafood locally, so we use Greencastle Pier.
So, our local fish merchant, he will go twice a week, and he will go to the market, and he will buy our fish.
-Right here from these waters.
-Yeah.
Because we're such a small country pub, we like to involve all our local suppliers and local produce.
-We're so lucky that, just out the road, they actually have oyster beds, and they also export a lot of stuff, so we need to try and use less exporting and more using what we have.
And one of our chefs in the kitchen, their brothers have a fishing boat, so they've grown up around fish.
I go to the pier, I take it off the boat.
You know, you've such close contacts that they'll ring their sisters and say, "We've just pulled in.
We have 'X,' 'Y,' and 'Z.'"
So I'll just drive down and get it.
-So it's that local and it's that immediate when it comes right to the menu.
-Yeah, for sure.
I have a guy who has lobster pots, and he just nips out and gets me a couple of lobsters.
-He will jump in the boats and just go out, take a pot out.
-Weather-permitting, yes.
-That goes for our meat, as well.
Like, our local butcher in Carndonagh, it's all -- all of his animals are reared in Donegal.
-Why did you choose to stay here rather than go to where, you know, in Kinsale or Kenmare or just where there are huge tourist hubs where you're always gonna get people?
-Well, we've traveled around Ireland, and we've worked around Ireland.
-Yeah.
-And we made a decision to come back home because we have the experience and the skills, so we wanted to come and settle in Inishowen.
-My dad also offered us a field to build a house on, so that sometimes -- I'm the only daughter, so, yeah, that doesn't hurt.
[ Laughter ] -That was a little incentive.
[ Celtic music playing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Clacking ] ♪♪ -So, just watching you, I've been trying to figure out all the moving parts and how it all comes together to create this incredible fabric, and I haven't got a clue.
This is -- It is an amazing mechanism.
-Your whole body moves with it.
I am Eddie Doherty, and I be one of the last hand-weavers of Donegal handwoven tweed.
-So, Donegal has always been an epicenter for Irish tweed, and especially the town we're in now, Ardara.
-Yeah, the town, yeah.
-At the height, how many weavers were here?
-Well, Magee's had about 140 in my time.
-140 weavers?
-About 140 weavers, all -- -You said at your time.
-I've been hand-weaving tweed since 1956 -- 61 years.
-And who taught you?
-You would be coming home from school, and every second person in this village is weaving, and even in the front rooms of the houses in this village here, now in the Front Street.
-They'd put you to work?
-Yeah, and you would -- There were -- I would say there was about -- at least about 180 there.
-180?
-180 weavers.
-How many now are here?
-None.
All are gone.
-Well, you are here.
-[ Chuckles ] One.
-But you're gonna have to -- One.
-One left now.
-Are there different patterns to tweed?
Here's the herringbone.
-Oh, there's -- You can do a hundred patterns on that -- on those machines.
They're all different.
There's so many different things, you wouldn't believe it.
There are fish bones, and there are plains, and there are straight twill, broken twill, and that kind of stuff.
And there's -- The herringbones are popular.
-How long are your days?
-In the wintertime, I could weave maybe 10 -- at least 10 hours a day.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
-You weave 10 hours a day?
-That's the time you're building up your stock and -- yeah.
-Yes, okay.
You build it up for winter.
-For winter, and then we go to craft fairs and that kind of thing, as well, in the wintertime.
-And in the summer, what is it -- seven, eight?
-Well, you're -- There's a lot of talk in the summertime, you know?
You don't call it all work.
-People are coming in.
Yes.
-Yeah.
-But when they come through your shop, people are looking for something special.
-They're shopping, looking -- They're looking for special, yeah, they are.
-When you are here 10 hours, give me an idea of what you can make in 10 hours, because this is so labor-intensive.
Is it enough fabric for a jacket?
-Well, it might've -- it might've been 100 meters.
I would do about at least 14 throws, 15 throws a day.
-Like blanket throws?
-Yeah, blanket throws.
Yeah.
-15 in a day?
-Yeah.
Oh, at least.
-Oh, my gosh.
You could go up against a machine, couldn't you?
-No, no.
-What do you love most about Donegal?
It's very -- It's very different than, say, Galway and Kinsale and Dublin, where most travelers go to.
It's a special -- -Well, as they say, it's more rugged -- the scenery and all that kind of stuff -- and very coastal, as well.
And it's -- I don't think you'd get anything nicer.
-There's a nice pace here, as well.
-There's plenty peace, yeah.
Yeah, you never -- We never look for the time or anything else.
Whenever you come home -- Whenever you come home, it is all right.
-We're on a sacred mountain, you know.
The whole of Slieve League, this is a sacred mountain.
There's a pilgrimage here going back thousands of years -- pre-Christian times.
Donegal is very unknown, and Slieve League -- We, even within Donegal, is unknown.
We're very modest, you see.
We don't boast about things.
-What does Slieve League mean?
-"Slieve" is one of the Irish words for "a mountain."
"League" is an Irish word for a flagstone, or a flat stone.
-So, this whole expanse is Slieve League?
-This is all Slieve League.
The very summit is way over there.
-So that's the highest point?
-Yeah, it's just under 2,000 feet high.
-Wow!
Oh, my gosh.
I'm not scared of heights, but, uh, think I'm just gonna lean on this rock, if you don't mind.
-No, lean away.
Even rocks need a hug now and then, you know?
-I'm looking for a seat belt.
If I could, I'd just snap myself in.
-And hold on tight.
-Just to be really safe.
How high are we?
-Oh, we're up high enough now, Sam.
-[ Laughs ] Is that a scientific term in Ireland?
-That's a scientific term, yes -- "high," "high enough," and "higher," yeah.
-Are we at the -- We're not at the highest point, though, of Slieve League?
-No, we're not.
We're -- We're below 1,000 feet here.
-The Cliffs of Moher are -- are what?
-Cliffs of Moher are just over 700, I think.
Yeah, we're over 2 1/2 times higher.
-Oh, my gosh.
-Yeah.
-And yet you get just a-a trickle of the tourists that they get.
-Ah, very few, very few.
You've seen that yourself today.
There's hardly anyone here.
We're in the height of the season here.
-What an amazing little corner of the world we're at.
I feel like I'm at the top of the world and at the end of one at the same time.
-You're on the end of Ireland here, in ways, yeah, yeah.
And "the top of the world" is right.
Slieve League actually is a lot closer to your home than you think, because Slieve League is part of the Appalachian chain.
This is the start of the international leg of the Appalachian Trail.
-So, this was a part of the whole -- the same sort of geological happening that created the Appalachias?
-The same land mass.
Bit before our time -- 200 million years ago.
-I love a man who thinks I'm younger than I am.
-Oh, you're a lot younger than that, don't kid.
So, way down south of the equator.
And as the land mass moved up north, it's divided apart.
We came over here, and you went over there.
-How would you describe the difference between the people of Donegal to the rest of -- of your island?
Because you really are cut off.
This is a-a much more remote, fantastic landscape.
How do you feel that affects you?
-Well, Donegal, you see, is a county that's -- It feels, at times, it's not in the north of Ireland, and it doesn't feel it's in the south, at times.
So it's kind of in a conundrum.
So, Donegal kind of has gone on on its own in lots of ways, you know, which is probably very good in the tourist end of things, because it's very untouched.
-Yes.
-It's very, very as it was hundreds -- if not thousands -- of years ago.
[ Women singing in Gaelic ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Speaking Gaelic ] -So, I am in a part of Ireland that speaks Irish.
-It's Gaelic, yeah.
-Gaelic.
-Her first language.
-It's called a Gaeltacht, and our first language is Gaelic.
I started singing with my father, Leo, here in Leo's Tavern, and this is where Clannad also started.
-The whole west coast of Ireland has three different Gaeltachts, which is three different dialects of Irish, as well.
So, we have a particular Gaelic to Donegal, which is Ulster Gaelic.
-Did it always embrace the Irish language?
-There were times when it was regarded as a poor man's language, so people were kind of nearly ashamed to speak it in the cities.
When we started to sing, we were singing in Gaelic, which was kind of unheard of at the time, and you're talking about the late '60s, early '70s, when my father opened this pub.
And, you know -- And people would say to us in Dublin, they said, "You know, you have a grand sound there, but, you know, sing it in English, because nobody's going to listen to you," you know?
-Yeah, you were very brave.
You were very brave.
-Yeah.
And we didn't listen.
We continued to sing in Irish.
-Clannad made the Irish tunes and songs very trendy.
You know, there's 30- and 40-year-olds now, and they're saying, you know, "You inspired me, because we were listening to you and you were on 'Top of the Pops,'" you know, which was a big -- -English music charts.
-The English music charts with an Irish/Gaelic song, like, was unheard of, and it was just like, everybody was like, "Wow.
It's so cool."
Like, and all all of a sudden, "Yeah, we know that song."
And it's, like -- You know, it's really, really -- it's quite good.
-So, before I'd been to Donegal, I would have described your music as fantasy, otherworldly.
-Mm.
-And now that I'm here... -You can see it.
-Like, "Ohh."
-This is where it comes from.
-This is absolutely correct, because, when people have asked me when I play abroad, wherever, whether it's, you know, in Europe or America or Australia or whatever, they often would've asked the question, "You know, where did you get the sound?"
And I said, "If you ever go to Ireland, go to Donegal, because there is an earthiness here."
-And it's not -- Now I know it's not Irish music, it's Donegal music.
-Mm!
-It's Donegal.
It's part of the -- Yeah, it's part of the landscape.
-It's this landscape.
-And the atmosphere here, and, as I said, the earthiness, yeah.
Very, very much so.
-So, part of what you wanted to accomplish with Clannad, it was to introduce your language?
-It wasn't deliberate.
You know, my father, um, like, he grew up with his parents playing music onstage and traveling around the country.
And then he took over the show band that my grandparents from my father's side started.
Entertainment was the only thing that he ever knew.
-And there was all the young children, of course -- us growing up.
-Nine of us.
-Nine of us.
-I'm the eldest of nine.
-Yeah.
-And I'm the youngest.
-Wait.
You're the oldest of nine?
-Yeah.
-And you're in the middle?
And you're -- -I'm the youngest.
-Oh.
Oh.
-Yeah.
-Five girls and four boys.
-Wow.
That'll age a man.
-So, my mum thought, "How can I keep him at home more often?"
-Well, exactly.
-He wanted a place where there was a stage to bring families in, get people up singing with him.
He said every entertainer in Ireland with a name has been on the stage with him, including all of us.
[ Women singing in Gaelic ] ♪♪ A traveler that comes to Donegal will experience the atmosphere of the music, the arts, and the culture that comes from this area.
-They'll be well-catered for, well-looked after.
-You're discovering the most unspoilt part of Ireland in County Sligo and County Donegal, and you're discovering the landscape that emerged after the last ice age in its pristine condition.
[ Women singing in Gaelic ] -A traveler coming to the] Northwest of Ireland, I suppose, is, in a sense, traveling back in time.
-When you feel the exhilaration of standing on top of the world and then the joy of being shown the kindness, hospitality, and humor of people who bring us down to earth, that is when we share a love of travel.
And that's why the Northwest Coast of Ireland is a place to love.
[ Women singing in Gaelic ] For more information about this and other episodes, extra scenes, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.
"Samantha Brown's Places to Love" was made possible by... ♪♪ -"Away"... ...is the smell of fresh pine.
It's a place where giants still live.
"Away" is where the farther down the road you go, the closer you get to the ones you love.
Find your "away."
GoRVing.com.
-Europe is a treasure trove of fascinating history, rich culture, and renowned cities.
AmaWaterways River Cruises offers a way to see all this wonder in person.
You can discover more at AmaWaterways.com.
♪♪ ♪♪
