One of Ireland’s most stunning coastal forts

Dunree Fort is located on a rocky promontory strategically located near the entrance to Lough Swilly. It gets its name from ‘dun fhraoigh’ which translates to mean ‘the fort of the heather’. This would suggest there has always been some sort of fort here and records show it has been attacked by nearly everyone trying to get a foothold into Ireland including the Vikings, the Normans, the Gallowglass, the English, the Germans, and the French. In 1798 Wolf Tone was intercepted here by the English navy on a French vessel which sparked the British to start building Martello fortifications along the entire Irish and British coastlines. During the First World War,  the British moved their entire North Atlantic Fleet from Scapa Flow in Scotland into Lough Swilly as they feared German U-Boat attacks. Dunree was also one of the 3 last ports that the British retained until 1938 after the Irish Free State was established in 1921. This impressive fort is now a military museum that can be accessed by a small bridge over the natural fissure in the rocks.