This week Donegal Daily’s motoring correspondent Brian McDaid talks about Donegal’s oldest road and asks Santa (early!) for a new VW Tiguan.
Is this Donegal’s oldest original road?
A view of the old section of roadway and ford in the hills near Muckish Mountain. The road was made long before the arrival of tar and chips, and looks the same as it did when it was built well over a hundred years ago. Photo Brian McDaid
If you didn’t know by now, this motoring page is like a sponge for looking at motoring and the transport system in Donegal of any kind , today tomorrow and especially in the past.
If you have travelled on a remote road in Donegal and looked at the mountains and remote scenery out through your windscreen, you are looking at the exact same view that everyone seen that travelled the road before you , be it only ten minutes ago or 100 years ago.
You may be travelling in the comfort of your car and know where you have to be in a half an hours time, but imagine people travelling the same journey by foot, hundreds of years ago not known what or where they were heading for in search of work or a better life.
Imagine if you could built a road in Donegal and never ever have to maintain it ever again. Panic stations for politicians when their public never needed their road sorted.
Are we getting a flyover, like that Harry Blaney Bridge thing? That was just one of the questions asked by a local when we visited what we think might be one of the oldest original roads in Donegal.
High in a remote part of Donegal, at the foot of Muckish Mountain it just looks like any other back road , most of the road section has never seen a coat of tar.
When we got back into broadband coverage in a small cafe in Cresslough we googled ourselves to see where we had being, when we dropped the pin on the satellite map of the old road section it said “Derryreel Upper, Co. Donegal.”
We first spotted this section of road when on a walk of the old railway line from Letterkenny to Burtonport,
We recently came across this old road while checking out the development of the old railway line which is now a breathtaking walkway in the Donegal wilderness along the side of Muckish Mountain.
Technology is a wonderful thing, the camera phone that we pictured this road with was able to track what time and were the photo was captured but thats where the technology ended.
We would love to know when this fine bit of roadworks was done, something google and the likes would know very little about.
Over the last couple of years the road did get a bit of patching by a community group in Cresslough so they could make there way onto the remotest part of Donegal’s Railway line.
Maybe this is why this section of road was so well made.
The road section was built so well out on a bog road it had to have something to do with the building of the railway line back around 1907, The line from Letterkenny to Burtonport was the hardest line to build in all of Co.Donegal. Its was a case of two extremes, either they were trying to cut through the side of a mountain or they were trying to get some sort of foundation going through the middle of a bog.
Up-side-down bridge
The old Road way heading in the direction of Muckish Mountian to link up with the old railway line Photo Brian McDaid
These river crossings were an inexpensive way of crossing a shallow river or burn, rather than carrying their traffic over the water, an upside down bridge or ‘ford” as it was known was built under the water and the traffic had to drive through the river or burn to make the river crossing.
Towns with ford and the end of their names like Wexford, Waterford or even or own Milford would suggest that they were named after a crossing like this.
What I love about this ford is because of it remoteness it is preserved perfectly, Its was very well made by hand , with beautiful local red and grey granite mixed in with lime stone and sandstone.
The stones had to be bigger than a cobblestone type street because they would be washed away in a flood but also had to be even as so the traffic would not get caught on them.This river has them well worn but that traffic over the years that crossed over them have also worn them smooth.
New VW Tiguan on the way
The New VW Tiguan which will go on sale shortly in Donegal.
Johnny Cash sang the song “A Boy Named Sue” in a prison in 1969, which went down a storm with the inmates that night and went on to be one of his biggest hits.
The song tells the story of a young man’s quest for revenge on a father for calling him Sue, it’s a bit like VW calling their SUV, “Tiguan”, apparently its the german for a Tiger and a Leguan, pronounced “Tee-gwan” Where some of these names for cars came from are beyond me but anyway, thats my rant over,
The New Tiguan steals the show.
I liked the VW Touareg when it was first introduced well over ten years ago and also drove the Audi Q7 when it was introduced, both share a lot in floor plans and engines, they were more comfortable than the out and out off roaders but still had a good bit of grip to offer.
VW are having open evenings around Ireland to introduce the second generation Tiguan ,(the Toureg’s smaller sister,) to the motoring public . Its hard to believe that the first Tiguan was introduce a decade ago.
Today there is probably more SUV’s floating about the roads than any other car sector, the motoring manufacturers were spot on and I was wrong, which is nothing new by the way.
So when the Tiguan appeared first on the roads in Ireland and with me a life long fan of the VW Golf, I thought the shape of cars were going to change for ever. Ten years on and the Tiguan , and even its name is starting to grow on me.
“Take the Tee-gwan with you.” That’s what Patsy said to me in JJ Reids VW dealership recently. I drove the last old version which was the top of the range model, pure white leather everywhere, some mess lifting someone from football training there – boots covered in muck.
All my giving out about this SUV I could not believe how quick I came to like it, 150 bhp diesel power on tap, great driving position especially for a man with a sore back, so easy to get in and out of.
The new Tiguan looks great as long as you are not the owner of an Audi Q3 which I think its getting more like everyday. Both are built on the same floor plan, I give out about VW but just love they way they are made. Love the finish, love the detail.
Maybe VW were right giving their small SUV a rare name like they did, The SUV market is very competitive, and a brand has to be able to stand up for it self. This new Tiguan has a lower stance and has a longer wheel base. I am now looking forward to getting a run in the second generation version.
Fuel Watch.
It’s good to see the price of fuel settling down a bit still a lot dearer than what it was but as out picture show from Creeslough this week it levelling out at 110.8 for diesel and 126.8 for petrol. Happy Motoring
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