Bunbeg harbour Old Pier

Old Pier

Early in the 19 th century two Gallagher brothers(Neidi Mor and Seimi) came to Bunbeg from Arranmore Island . Both were Boatbuilders. They prospered well enough to buy 60 acres of land from Seamus Dubh O Donaill, and the fishing rights to the Clady River from the landlord Stewart. Here they established a Port from where their fleet of ships sailed to Glasgow and Liverpool and even to the Continent of Europe with cargoes of salmon, kelpetc.

When Lord Hill came to Gweedore in 1838 the Gallaghers agreed to sell him the mouth of the River where he could build a Pier, a large store, a shop and mills, for he appreciated its importance as a Port. (Scéal Ghaoth Dobhair. Seán 'Ac Fhionnlaoich 1983)

In a book called Highways and Byways in Donegal and Antrim written by Stephen Gwynn published in 1899 he described Bunbeg Harbour as follows:

" The Harbour of Bunbeg is singularly pictuesque; a little lake of salt water shut in by high rocks on all sides, and entered by the narrowest cleft that it would seem possible to get a good size vessel through. Over the Harbour Masters Office you will trace Lord George Hills hand in the inscription from proverbs, set up there in Irish," A just weight is a pleasure to the Lord, but an unequal balance is an abomination in his sight." ......Plenty of the yawls which the fishermen of these parts use lie by the quay, but no bigger boats; and the local opinion is that fishing in these waters must be confined closely to the shore, for nothing except a really large vessel can hope to ride out all weathers, and there is a plentiful lack of shelter to run to."

Around 1900 large Luggers were introduced from Scotland to the Port and were used first of all in the herring fishing and later on for fishing salmon. In the 1950's small steam coasters called regularly with poles for the E.S.B. for the Rural Electrification Scheme.

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