Mamore Gap: The Steepest, Strangest Road in Inishowen

Most guides list Mamore Gap as a viewpoint. It is that, and the view is superb. But it is also the steepest road most visitors to Donegal will ever drive, a place of pilgrimage that predates the road entirely, and the front gate of a valley that once ran itself as an outlaw republic. It deserves more than a photo stop.

Working out where this sits against everything else on the peninsula? It is a pin on my map of Inishowen, alongside every other place worth stopping at on the Inishowen 100.

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Crossing the border? Two currencies, two sets of speed limits and a hire car insurance trap that catches people out. Here is everything that actually changes when you cross between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The story: one hard door into a valley

The Gap is a glacial notch in the Urris Hills, cut between Mamore Hill and the ridge opposite, and for most of recorded history it was the only practical way in and out of the Urris valley from the Buncrana side. A valley with a single hard door. That fact shapes everything that happened here.

At the crest, a few yards off the road among the rocks, is St Eigne’s Well. The Schools’ Folklore Collection of the 1930s records the practice precisely: pilgrims came between 15 August and 8 September, walked the turas around seven heaps of stones, adding a stone to each heap and praying as they went, drank from the well, and said a prayer for whoever made the well and another for whoever blessed it. A small altar, statues and a grotto to Our Lady stand there now, and an annual Mass is still held on 15 August, understood locally as a commemoration of Penal-era worship when Catholics practised in secret.

Who St Eigne actually was is honestly unresolved, and was already unresolved in the 1930s. The folklore collector’s informant offered two possibilities and noted that the dedicatee remains unidentified. There is also a lovely local tradition that St Columba killed a water-monster called Giollamach here. That one is pure folklore, and none the worse for it.

The Gap’s other history is wilder and better documented. In the early nineteenth century Urris was the centre of illicit poitin distilling on such a scale that the valley effectively governed itself, in what became known as the Poitin Republic of Urris. From 1812 the distillers posted lookouts and physically defended the two entrances, rolling and throwing rocks down on revenue officers trying to come up through Mamore Gap, and barricading the other approach at Crossconnell. It ended in May 1815 when General Dalziel led a military force into the valley. Afterwards the authorities gave up on raids and fell back on collective township fines.

Driving it: read this bit properly

The southern climb from the Buncrana side is the hard one. Cycling climb data gives it as 2.1 kilometres at an average of 11.6 per cent, with the steepest hundred metres at around 25 per cent and 247 metres of ascent. One tourism listing describes the southern approach as almost 30 per cent. Either way, it ranks among the steepest roads in Ireland, and there are two tight hairpins on the steep section with limited visibility.

Practical advice, plainly:

• Low gear both ways. First or second going down. Riding the brakes down a gradient like this will cook them.
• Come up from Clonmany if you are nervous. The northern approach is much gentler. You can drive up from Clonmany, take the view, and turn round at the top rather than committing to the southern descent.
• Campervans and towed caravans: there is no signed restriction, so this is advice rather than a rule. But a large motorhome will struggle for traction and turning circle, and a towed caravan risks jackknifing on the hairpins with no realistic way to reverse out if it meets oncoming traffic. Small vans with confident drivers manage it. Anything long, heavy or towed should take the coast road via Clonmany and Lenan instead.
• Winter: ice and lying snow on a 25 per cent grade at 250 metres, on a minor road that will not be a gritting priority. Fog is common and reduces the hairpins to guesswork. If it is icy or thick, do not go up.
• Sheep are on the road, unfenced, routinely.

One more thing. The Gap is promoted as a “magic road” where a car left in neutral appears to roll uphill. It is a gravity hill, an optical illusion created by the surrounding slopes hiding the true horizon. There is nothing magnetic and nothing supernatural about it, and trying it means stopping in neutral on a live road with blind bends. Enjoy the story, skip the experiment.

Getting there

• From Derry: around 35 to 40 miles, allow an hour and ten to an hour and twenty. Bridgend, then the R238 through Burnfoot, Fahan and Buncrana, then the Inishowen 100 signs north toward Urris.
• From Letterkenny: around 40 miles, roughly the same time, on the N13 then the R238.
• From Buncrana: about 13 to 14 km, 20 to 25 minutes, and this is the steep side.
• From Clonmany: 10 to 15 minutes, and this is the gentle side.

The Gap is a driving road first and foremost, and there is no bus. Compare car hire in Ireland here.

Parking and practicalities

• Admission: free. It is a public road and a Wild Atlantic Way Discovery Point, open at all hours.
• Parking: a small pull-in at the summit beside the well and grotto, and a larger area lower down. Both free, no marked bays. The summit one fills fast. Do not park on the road itself, because the sightlines are poor and cars arrive faster than drivers expect on that gradient.
• The walk to the well: a few yards over rough, rocky ground. Not a made path, uneven, and slick when wet.
• Accessibility: honestly, the well is not manageable for most wheelchair users. But the viewpoint from the summit car park gives you the whole panorama without leaving the tarmac, and it is worth the drive on its own.
• Toilets and food: none at all. Nearest are Clonmany or Buncrana.
• Phone signal: expect patchy at best. Download offline maps.
• Walking from here: the Gap is the trailhead for the Urris Lakes Loop and Butlers Glen Loop, both proper upland walks needing boots and time.

How long to allow, and when

Half an hour to an hour for the drive-through, the viewpoint and the shrine. Half a day or more if you are walking one of the loops.

Go early or late. Mid-afternoon in July and August the road can be nose to tail with nowhere to pass, which on this gradient is nobody’s idea of a holiday. Sunset from the western side, over Lenan and the Atlantic, is the picture.

Frequently asked questions

How steep is the Mamore Gap?

The southern climb from the Buncrana side is the hard one. Cycling climb data gives it as 2.1km at an average of 11.6 per cent, with the steepest hundred metres at around 25 per cent and 247 metres of ascent. It ranks among the steepest roads in Ireland, and there are two tight hairpins on the steep section with limited visibility.

Is the Mamore Gap free?

Yes. It is a public road and a Wild Atlantic Way Discovery Point, open at all hours, with free parking at the summit beside the well and grotto and a larger area lower down.

Can you drive the Mamore Gap in a campervan?

There is no signed restriction, so this is advice rather than a rule. A large motorhome will struggle for traction and turning circle, and a towed caravan has no business on it. If you are unsure, come up from Clonmany instead, because the northern approach is much gentler, and turn at the top rather than committing to the southern descent.

Which way should you drive the Mamore Gap?

Up from Clonmany if you are nervous, because the northern side is far gentler. Whichever way you go, stay in low gear both ways and use first or second going down. Riding the brakes on a gradient like that will cook them.

What is at the top of the Mamore Gap?

A holy well and grotto beside the summit pull-in, a few yards over rough and uneven ground that is slick when wet, and the panorama over the Urris Hills and down to Lenan Bay.

Are there toilets at the Mamore Gap?

None at all, and no food either. The nearest of both is back down in Clonmany or Buncrana.

Nearby

• Glenevin Waterfall, ten minutes down in Clonmany, and the easy walk to pair with the hard drive.
• Fort Dunree, just south on the same shore.
• Things to Do in Inishowen.
• Things to Do in Donegal.

Inishowen sits right on the border, and most people who come this far pair it with the north. Here is the full guide to things to do in Northern Ireland.

Getting here and where to stay

Mamore Gap is a road rather than a destination, so it belongs in a day that starts and ends somewhere else. There is no public transport worth the name on Inishowen, so a car is not a convenience here, it is the trip. If you are flying into Derry, Belfast or Dublin, compare hire prices before you land, because the airport desks are the dearest way to do it.

Derry is the practical base for most of the peninsula. It has the hotels, it has somewhere to eat after dark, and almost everywhere on Inishowen is inside an hour and a half of it. If you would rather be on the peninsula itself, Buncrana and Moville both have places to stay, but book early in summer because there are not many of them.

Every stop on the Inishowen 100

This guide is part of a series covering the peninsula stop by stop. Here is the rest of it:

• Malin Head, Ireland’s most northerly point.
• Five Finger Strand, the dunes and the sea stacks.
• Carrickabraghy Castle, the O’Doherty ruin on the rock.
• Doagh Famine Village, famine-era life, told on the spot.
• Kinnagoe Bay, where the Spanish Armada came ashore.
• Glenevin Waterfall, the easy walk near Clonmany.
• Grianán of Aileach, the ring fort above two loughs.
• Fort Dunree, the fort that guarded Lough Swilly.

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