- Interesting local heritage center housed in a gun battery.
- Provides insights into the "Flight of the Earls" and plantation history.
- Low on artifacts.
- Local museum housed in a 1810 gun battery built to thwart French invasion plans.
- Exhibition focuses on the "Flight of Earls", the end of the "Gaelic era" in 1607.
- Both the exbition and the views across Lough Swilly should be an essential part of a Donegal vacation.
The museum is located in a historic building - a gun battery built out of granite in 1810 to counter a possible french invasion via Lough Swilly. Considering the rebellion of 1798 and French General Humbert's successful landing in Ireland this was not as far-fetched as it sounds today. Lough Swilly would also have been an ideal place for the Spanish invasion of 1601. But the forces in support of the rebellious Irish were landed at Kinsale instead, the rest being history.
Hugh O'Neill and Rory O'Donnell at the time had their powerbase in the Northwest, and from here they finally fled in 1607 - an event known as the "Flight of the Earls" since. The museum at Rathmullan recreates this period with some panache - you get to meet the earls eye to eye (yes, they are waxworks, but still ...) and you can see near-by Derry in plantation times (a model, showing the still-standing city walls to perfection). There are no high-tech gimmicks but informative panels, detailing both the rebellion, the immediate aftermath and the rise of the "Wild Geese" (Irish mercenaries in Catholic Europe).
Personnel at the museum will gladly point you towards local areas of interest - but on a sunny day you should take time to look from the disused gun platforms over Lough Swilly!
