The old green An Post box set into a Carrigart stone wall, ivy alongside — letters and communication.
Davey John’s Forge · Journal

From the forge.

Notes on restoring the place: what we’ve built, and why. Two stories to start: the sauna in the old peat shed, and the games room in the old forge building.

The finished cottage from the gravel courtyard — white render, slate roof and the red door.
March 2024 · The cottage

Renovating the cottage

Before any of this began, the cottage was much as it had been left. The good room, the bedroom that became the kitchen, the surprise window behind the plaster: how the old rooms became one.
The finished sauna terrace in Donegal Quartz crazy paving, looking down to Mulroy Bay.
5 July 2025 · The sauna

Renovating the sauna

The hot tubs proved how much guests wanted to slow down, so the old peat shed became a hot-stone sauna: dry-stone walls, Donegal Quartz paving, and a copper shower with the bay in front of you.
The finished games room — burnt-pine walls, a pale tongue-and-groove ceiling and a light oak floor.
19 July 2025 · The games room

Building the games room

Three stays needed one shared room. We built it in the forge, opened up to the bay, walled in burnt pine around a preserved dry-stone feature wall. Free, and open whenever the weather turns.
The workshop with its new dark roof, beside the white games room, in evening light.
Underway · The workshop

Restoring the workshop

No building here is more his: the heavy work was done in it, and the steel over it is his own. We’re putting it back, carefully, as a place to gather.
Lobster and crab creels on the pier, moored boats and green hills across the bay beyond.
11 June 2026 · Mulroy Bay

Lobster off the boat

We got talking to Oisin, who fishes Mulroy Bay for lobster and brown crab. His boat, his trade, and how to have the same catch landed for your own kitchen.
The Carrigart One 8 restaurant front on Main Street at dusk, warm lights on and an ivy arch around the open door.
16 July 2026 · The village

Dinner at the Carrigart One 8

Friends staying with us came home from Main Street calling it one of the best meals of their trip. A chef home from the Caribbean, a house of family businesses, and horseshoes once made in the cellar.
Alpacas in a field near Downings, Donegal
17 July 2026 · Things to do

A morning with the alpacas in Downings

Our friend Thomas took his young family to Gráinne Mór Alpacas in Downings, just down the road from us. Feeding, wool, a village shop and colouring sheets — it went down very well.
Interior of the old blacksmith's forge during clearance work, showing the stone hearth and chimney arch, rusted ironwork machinery on the back wall, exposed timber roof trusses blackened with age, two wheelbarrows in the foreground, and rubble on the earthen floor.
28 July 2026 · Renovation

Work begins on the old forge

The old blacksmith's forge is being brought back to life. New doors, new windows, a fresh floor, and a stove going in where DJ's furnace once stood.
Two fish tacos at Fisk in Downings: battered fish in soft tortillas with slaw, salsa and spiced mayonnaise.
28 July 2026 · Downings

Five o’clock at Fisk

Half an hour of queueing before the doors opened, and still a third of the way back. Oysters, mussels, the famous fish tacos, and a door with a knack to it.
The bright blue exterior of the Old Sea Dog shop in Downings, with cartoon characters painted on the walls, a dark wooden sign above the arched entrance, and a yellow door open wide to the street.
2 August 2026 · Day out

The Old Sea Dog, Downings

We took the family to the Old Sea Dog sea shop and gallery in Downings. Shells, local craft, knitwear, a very convincing fake crab, and Inis oils that smell like the sea.
A full Irish breakfast plate with bacon, a poached egg, sausage slices, mushrooms, grilled tomato, baked beans in a ramekin, a potato cake, and brown and white toast triangles on a wooden café table.
9 August 2026 · Local food

Breakfast at The Galley

We made it in just before the breakfast menu ended on a Sunday — four of us, full plates, empty plates. The Galley in Downings is worth the queue.
The navy-and-cream bow of the fishing vessel Heather Jane II, registration D 674, moored at a pier with green rope lines, smaller boats visible on calm water behind it and a village on the far shore.
9 August 2026 · Downings

A crabber at Downings Pier

Shane stops at the pier in Downings to photograph the Heather Jane II loading crab pots, and has a quick word with skipper Kieran McGee about where they're headed next.