Donegal Beach Ride in Ireland

Donegal, Ireland is blessed with some of the widest and most enticing beaches for horse riding in the world.

by Darley Newman

The beaches of northwestern Ireland, in County Donegal, are great for horseback riding and surfing. I'm doing both from the beach town of Bundoran, a top European surf spot. We started our trek through a series of large sand dunes.

If you want to do some galloping and cantering along wide Irish beaches, backed by high cliffs and tall dunes, Donegal is a great place to venture.

I rode Jade, a 15-year-old Irish Cob, for my beach ride. Jade liked to run and was pretty strong, but levelheaded–– great for beach riding.

Our small group took off through the high dunes onto the beach. We had a couple of locals with us, as well as a Australian tourist, who was, like me, looking to beach ride while in the area.

There were a number of surfers in the water, as we galloped down to the sea, but other than that, the beaches were deserted. The sun popped in and out of the clouds, but we were lucky because it didn't rain. Ah, another great day riding in Ireland!

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