Right. The cutoff to Letterkenny and Rosapenna is about 15 minutes before Derry. I usually was headed to the Inishowen Peninsula and I came to dislike driving through Derry. The Monaghan/Omagh/Strabane/Sion Mills route is about the fastest.
I have often driven to Sligo to play Rosses Point and Donegal to play Murvagh on the way up into the remote area of Donegal.
The route north of Dublin up close to Belfast that cuts over toward Derry had some nice scenery and open space, but did not save time.
Flying into Belfast, arriving by ferry from Scotland, or playing Royal County Down or Royal Portrush is about the best justification for that route.
I started going to Donegal and Rosapenna in 2009, bleak times but great hospitality during my stays. Happy to see the plans for the St. Patrick course area. They made a good decision at what hopefully is a good time.
Also have heard good reviews of the Doak redesign at The National with the new Gunnamata course. I headed home before it opened and hope to get in a few rounds in November when I am back and again in March and April.
Charles Lund
By the way, I have driven to Derry from Dublin in under three hours, so the drive to Rosapenna directly is not overwhelming. But it does take about another hour to Rosapenna.
The drive from Dublin airport is a shade undee four hours - I've made it several times in recent years. You don't go theough Derry, but you do cut through the corner of Northern Ireland at Omagh, which was also a troubled spot back in the 1980's when I first visited Ireland. We all hope to God that the falloit from Brexit does not ruin the peace at the border that has existed for 20+ years now.