Rathmullan - Flight of the Earls Heritage Centre

The R247 leads past Portsalon and the Otway golf course (nine holes) to Rathmullan, an attractive seaside resort with a sandy beach. At Rathmullan are the ruins of a Carmelite friary (15th C.: National Monument), with a church which a 17th C. bishop converted into his residence, and a gun position, the Battery, which has been made into a Visitor Center (opening times given). From here in 1607 the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell sailed away to France with their friends and supporters: the "Flight of the Earls," which was followed by the confiscation of great tracts of Irish land and the bringing in of large numbers of English and Scottish settlers.