Fanad

Fanad Head Lighthouse

Fanad Lighthouse County Donegal Lough Swilly and Mulroy Bay
Ireland
Location	County Donegal, Ireland
Coordinates	55°16′34.6″N 7°37′54.2″W / 55.276278°N 7.631722°W / 55.276278; -7.631722Coordinates: 55°16′34.6″N 7°37′54.2″W / 55.276278°N 7.631722°W / 55.276278; -7.631722
Year first constructed	1817 (first)
Year first lit	1886 (current)
Construction	masonry tower
Tower shape	cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern
Markings / pattern	white tower and lantern, red rail
Height	22 metres (72 ft)
Focal height	39 metres (128 ft)
Original lens	300 mm
Range	18 nautical miles (33 km; 21 mi)
Characteristic	Fl (5) WR 20s.
Admiralty number	A6168
NGA number	7240
ARLHS number	IRE-085
Ireland number	CIL-1580
Managing agent	Fanad Head Lighthouse

Fanad (official name: Fánaid) is a peninsula that lies between Lough Swilly and Mulroy Bay on the north coast of County Donegal in Ireland. The origins of the name Fanad are lost in time though there is some speculation that the name derives from an old Gaelic word Fana for "sloping ground". It is also referred to as Fannet or Fannett in older records. There are an estimated 700 people living in Fanad and 30% Irish speakers.

Fanad encompasses the parishes of Clondavaddog, Killygarvan and parts of Tullyfern and Aughinish. It measures approximately 25 km north-south measured from Fanad Head to the town of Ramelton and approximately 12 km east-west measured between the townlands of Doaghbeg and Glinsk. The southern boundary of Fanad has been the subject of some dispute over the centuries. In the 16th century, during the time of the MacSuibhnes as rulers of Fanad, it was stated that the territory of Fanaid stretched as far south as the River Lennon between Kilmacrennan and Ramelton. In 1835, the surveyor John O'Donovan referred to Rathmullan as the capital of Fanad, and he also refers to Clondavaddog as “the most northern parish of Fanaid", suggesting that Fanad included parishes other than Clondavaddog. O'Donovan also noted that “The inhabitants of Inishowen state that Fanaid extends from Rathmeltan to Mulroy Lough, but the natives of the Parishes of Killygarvan, Tully and Aughnish, who considered themselves civilised, deny that they themselves are of the men of Fanaid". It consists of small villages such as Tamney, Rossnakill and has a bordering village called Kerrykeel.

Family names commonly recorded in Fanad since the mid-19th century include Callaghan, Cannon/Canning, Carr/Kerr, Coll, Coyle, Deeney, Doherty, Friel, Fealty, Gallagher, Martin, McAteer/McIntyre, McConigley/McGonigle, McGinley/McKinley, Shiels/Shields and Sweeney/McSwyne.

Geological maps of County Donegal show rock alignments running south-west to north east across the Fanad peninsula. The underlying rock in the peninsula is mostly of Dalradian meta-sedimentary rocks, which have been exposed by weathering and erosion over the millennia There are areas of Granodiorite igneous rocks across the northern end of the peninsula from Ballywhoriskey to Fanad Head, but the greater part of Fanad consist of Middle-Dalradian Quartzite and some Pellite rocks with local occurrences of Schists and Tillites – the latter mostly concentrated around the northern inlet of Mulroy Bay.