Dunfanaghy
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Dunfanaghy Dún Fionnachaidh
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_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1182764.jpg)
Main Street, Dunfanaghy
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 Dunfanaghy
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| Coordinates: 55°10′59″N 7°58′16″W / 55.183°N 7.971°WCoordinates: 55°10′59″N 7°58′16″W / 55.183°N 7.971°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Ulster |
| County | County Donegal |
| Elevation | 15 m (49 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 312 |
| Time zone | WET (UTC0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | C015372 |
Dunfanaghy (Irish: Dún Fionnachaidh, meaning "fort of the fair field") is a small town, former fishing port, and commercial centre in County Donegal, Ireland. It lies on Donegal's North West coast, specifically the west side of Sheephaven Bay, on the N56 road (the West Donegal Coastal Route).
Before the Plantation, Dunfanaghy was part of the territory of the McGinley clan (Irish: Mag Fhionnghaile), a clan of the Cineál Luidhdheach, a branch of the greater Cineál Chonaill. The McGinley clan held their territory here under the guardianship of the powerful McSweeney clan.
The centre of Dunfanaghy is a small square with a market house built in 1847 and a quay built in 1831 and formerly used to export corn. There are four churches: Clondehorky Old Church (now ruined), Dunfanaghy Presbyterian Church, Holy Cross (Roman Catholic) and Holy Trinity Church of Ireland. The village is also home to a golf club, several art galleries and craft shops, and a museum, situated in part of a former workhouse, which describes the effects of the Irish Potato Famine on Dunfanaghy. Dunfanaghy is also home to C.L.G. Naomh Mícheál, a Gaelic football club.
Just outside the village is a three-mile-long sandy beach known as Killahoey Strand. On 16 June 1942, a Royal Air Force, Ferry Command aircraft landed on a beach near Dunfanaghy, Irish Army archive reports call this 'Hill Strand'. The aircraft was refuelled and the crew of four accommodated nearby overnight. They departed the next day to continue their delivery flight of the aircraft. This event became confused with another aircraft landing in 1943 when, in the early 1990s, an American veteran Harry X Ford made an effort to find the town in which he crashed landed on 10 May 1943. Having visited the town in 1993 it was finally discovered he had not actually landed there but had been on a B-17 Flying Fortress which force landed on a beach at Bundoran on 10 May 1943. Irish Army Archive reports confirm Harry X Ford's presence in Bundoran and not anywhere near Dunfanaghy or Portnablagh. Some sources published around 1993 attribute a landing on 2 May 1943 to have taken place on Killahoey Strand but this is an error confirmed by Irish Army Archives and the archives of the United States Air Force.
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