Glenveagh

Glenveagh National Park was established in 1984 in County Donegal, in north-western Ireland, and protects some 170 km² in the Derryveagh mountains. It is the country's second largest national park by area.

The landscape is one of deep glacial valleys, long lakes, blanket bog, crags and heath, with Lough Veagh occupying the floor of the main valley and Mount Errigal, the highest point in Donegal, rising on its edge. The blanket bog, formed by the accumulation of organic matter under a permanently wet climate, covers much of the territory and is one of the characteristic habitats of western Ireland.

The park preserves Glenveagh Castle, built in the nineteenth century by a landowner who evicted dozens of tenant families to create the estate, an episode remembered in local memory, along with its gardens. In 2001 the programme to reintroduce the golden eagle, extinct in Ireland by the early twentieth century, began here with birds from Scotland; the species has bred in the wild again, although its recovery remains fragile. The park is also home to the largest red deer herd in Ireland.