Tullaghan, An Tulachán, Co. Leitrim

An Tulachán · Co. Leitrim

Leitrim's only seaside village, sitting on the shortest county coastline in Ireland - and an ancient high cross fished out of the storm.

Tullaghan is the answer to a pub-quiz question - which county has the shortest coastline in Ireland - and the village that sits on it. Leitrim meets the sea for just 4.7 kilometres, hemmed in by the River Drowes on the Donegal side and the River Duff on the Sligo side, and Tullaghan is the only village in that thin coastal strip. It is the most northerly village in the county, on the N15 three kilometres south of Bundoran.

There is not a great deal here, and the village does not pretend otherwise. A church, a handful of houses, the beach, and the cross on its hillock in the middle. The 2016 census counted 253 people. In 1925 the place was nineteen houses, five of them licensed to sell drink, which tells you it was once a busier crossroads than it looks now.

The one thing you should stop for is the high cross. Local tradition says it was washed up on the strand after a storm, the last relic of a monastery the sea had already taken, and that the landlord Major Thomas Dickson raised it on a mound in 1778 to pull trade to his Tullaghan market. Whether the cross is genuinely early-medieval or a weathered fragment given a good story, it has stood at the heart of the village for two and a half centuries, which is its own kind of fact.

Come for the geography and the cross, and the fact that you can stand on Leitrim's only beach and look north into Donegal Bay. Do not come expecting a town. Bundoran has the chip shops, the surf and the amusements three kilometres up the road, and most of what passes through Tullaghan is headed there.

Population

253 (2016 census)

Founded

Market cross erected 1778; St Patrick's Church 1842

Coords

54.4783° N, 8.2486° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The coast

Leitrim's entire seaboard is 4.7 kilometres long, and Tullaghan sits on it.

The county touches the Atlantic for less than five kilometres, bounded by the River Drowes to the north (the Donegal line) and the River Duff to the south (the Sligo line). Tullaghan is the village squeezed into that gap. The most northerly village in Leitrim, three kilometres short of Bundoran.

Walks & outings → 02 The cross

An old high cross on a hillock in the middle of the village.

The story is that it was found washed up on the shore after a storm, the survivor of a monastery long since lost to the sea. Major Thomas Dickson set it on a mound in 1778 to draw trade to his market, in competition with Ballyshannon. It still stands at the centre of the village.

Stories & lore → 03 The road

On the N15, the Sligo to Donegal coast road.

Thirty-five kilometres from Sligo town, three from Bundoran. The R280 turns inland here and climbs into the rest of Leitrim. Most people who pass through are on their way to the Donegal beaches and never stop. That is the whole character of the place.

Getting there →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Washed up, then raised, 1778

The cross from the sea

The high cross that gives Tullaghan its identity is wrapped in a story rather than a record. The tradition is that it was found on the shore after a storm, the survivor of a monastic settlement near the seashore that had long since vanished - the kind of small coastal foundation that the Atlantic has quietly eaten all along this coast. In 1778 the local landlord, Major Thomas Dickson, set the cross on a small hillock in the middle of the village. His practical reason, the story goes, was commercial: he wanted to draw attention to the market at Tullaghan, which was struggling against the bigger market at Ballyshannon across the Drowes in Donegal. The cross is still where he put it. Stand at it and you are at the symbolic centre of Leitrim's tiny seaboard.

Built 1842, a well on the coast road

St Patrick's Church and the holy well

Tullaghan sits in the Catholic parish of Kinlough and Glenade, in the Manorhamilton end of the county. St Patrick's Church in the village was built in 1842, a few years before the Famine. There is also a St Patrick's Well about three kilometres west of the village on the coast road - one of the countless Patrician wells scattered along the western seaboard, marking the saint's supposed passage and still visited. The dedication, the church and the well together are the ordinary devotional furniture of a small Irish coastal parish, and they predate almost everything else still standing here.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Tullaghan beach Leitrim's only beach, a modest stretch of sand and stone on the county's 4.7 km of coast. Face north and you are looking across Donegal Bay. It is not Bundoran's strand and it does not try to be - quieter, smaller, the kind of place locals walk a dog rather than the kind tour buses stop at.

Short strand walkdistance

30 minutes to 1 hourtime

The high cross and village On foot it is a few minutes to the cross on its hillock at the centre of the village and on to St Patrick's Church. Park sensibly off the N15 - it is a fast road - and walk the short distance rather than pulling in at speed.

Short loopdistance

20 minutestime

St Patrick's Well About three kilometres west along the coast road toward the Duff. A small holy well of the kind found right along the seaboard. Worth the short detour if you are already stopped for the cross.

Roadside, 3 km westdistance

Short stoptime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The coast road is quiet before the Bundoran summer crowds build. Bright clear days give the best view north across Donegal Bay.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The N15 is busy with traffic heading to the Donegal beaches, so the village sees passing trade. The beach is usable on a warm day, though it is no Bundoran for facilities.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Storms off the Atlantic give the coast some drama - fitting for a cross said to have arrived on one. Crowds thin out.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and weather coming straight off the bay. There is little shelter and few services in the village itself. Bundoran, three kilometres on, has more open.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a town

Tullaghan is a village of a couple of hundred people on a fast main road. There is a church, a beach and a cross. For shops, food, pubs and amusements, Bundoran is three kilometres north and has all of it.

Pulling in at speed on the N15

The cross sits right by a busy national road. Find somewhere safe to stop and walk to it - do not slow to a crawl on the carriageway to photograph it from the car.

Treating it as a destination rather than a stop

Almost everyone here is passing between Sligo and Donegal. That is the honest use of the place: a ten-minute stop for the cross and the view, not an afternoon out.

Getting there.

By car

On the N15 coast road, 35 km north of Sligo town and 3 km south of Bundoran in Co. Donegal. The R280 turns inland at Tullaghan and climbs into the rest of Leitrim toward Kinlough and Manorhamilton.

By bus

Bus Eireann route 480 (Sligo to Donegal, Letterkenny and Derry) stops at Tullaghan Cross on the N15, between Cliffony and Bundoran. It is a request-style roadside stop, not a station.

By train

No railway. The nearest mainline station is Sligo (35 km), on the Dublin Connolly line.

By air

Ireland West Airport Knock (IWK) is about 1 hr 30 min by road via Sligo. Donegal Airport (CFN) at Carrickfinn is further up the coast.

Next on the tour

Co. Donegal

Bundoran

Three kilometres north across the Drowes. The seaside resort proper - surf, strand, amusements, chip shops. Where almost everyone passing Tullaghan is actually headed.

Co. Donegal

Ballyshannon

Up the N15 past Bundoran. The old market town whose market Major Dickson was competing with when he raised the Tullaghan cross in 1778.

Co. Leitrim

Kinlough

Inland on the R280 toward Lough Melvin, with its three rare trout. The next Leitrim village along, still close to the Donegal border.

Co. Sligo

Cliffony

South on the N15 across the River Duff into Sligo, toward Mullaghmore and the Yeats country.