Shrove (; pronounced as 'Shroove' to rhyme with 'prove'; or, originally,
[ ]) is a coastal
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
and
townland
A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...
in
Inishowen in the north of
County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...
in
Ulster
Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...
, the northern
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
in Ireland.
The hamlet is located a short distance to the north of
Greencastle in the north-east of Inishowen, a peninsula on the north coast of Ireland.
The name of both the hamlet and the townland is also sometimes written as Shroove, and is sometimes written as Stroove by some government bodies.
The hamlet of Shrove (pronounced as 'Shroove'
) is located beside White Bay, also known as Big White Bay, at the southern end of the townland of Shrove.
Shrove Strand, also known as Shrove Beach, runs along the western edge of White Bay, the bay being slightly to the north of the entrance into
Lough Foyle
Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle ( or "loch of the lip"), is the estuary of the River Foyle, on the north coast of Ireland. It lies between County Londonderry in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. Sovereignty over t ...
.
Shrove lies immediately north of
Magilligan Point, a hamlet a short distance away on the opposite shore in
County Londonderry
County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...
.
All of the townland of Shrove, including the entire hamlet of Shrove, is part of the
Civil Parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of Moville Lower.
Shrove is at the northern end of the
Wild Atlantic Way, the hamlet being on the eastern coastline of Inishowen.
Name

Shrove is known in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
by several different names.
All but one of these names (that being the erroneous 'Inishowen Head') are derived from its earliest-recorded
Irish language
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...
place-name, which was , later written as , meaning either 'point / beak of the raven' or 'Bran's point'.
was originally the name for the
headland
A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Jo ...
that later became known, in the English language, as Inishowen Head, a headland also known as Inishowen Heid (
Ulster-Scots), Shrove Point, Shrove Head, or Shrove Heid (Ulster-Scots).
still remains the official Irish language name for Inishowen Head, the headland at Shrove that juts out into the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
.
Over the centuries, the name of the coastal settlement and
townland
A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...
beside White Bay also became known as , later being shortened to , which simply means 'the point' or 'the beak'.
It is from the word , from which most of the English language names for the hamlet derive, these names being Shrove, Shroove and Stroove.
However, locally, the name of both the hamlet and the townland has been written in English as Shrove for centuries, with that spelling always being pronounced locally as 'Shroove' (to rhyme with 'prove').
The local pronunciation of the place-name Shrove is very similar to how is pronounced in the
County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...
dialect of
Ulster Irish
Ulster Irish ( or , ) is the variety of Irish language, Irish spoken in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. It "occupies a central position in the Goidelic languages, Gaelic world made up of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man". Uls ...
.
In recent years, the hamlet of Shrove has often erroneously been called 'Inishowen Head' or 'Stroove' by certain tourism bodies and some tourist companies in
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
(
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
and
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
).
This has not been popular locally, where locals insist that their hamlet is called Shrove.
In addition, in recent years, there has been a growing tendency by some tourism bodies and some private companies to try and change the Irish language name for Inishowen Head itself, trying to rebrand it in Irish as ,
when both the historic and official Irish language name for that headland is .
Shrove is usually written as Stroove on official documents and publications, such as maps, issued by the authorities in either
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
or
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
.
However, this version of the place-name is never used locally.
Locals consider 'Stroove' to be a completely incorrect version of the place-name.
Inishowen Head
Inishowen Head is a prominent headland in the townland of Shrove that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean.
The headland is the most easterly place on the County Donegal mainland,
and is located just to the north of Big White Bay.
The original name for the headland was , which remains the official Irish language name for Inishowen Head.
It is from that the hamlet and townland of Shrove derive their English language names.
Shrove lighthouses
The two
lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Ligh ...
s at Shrove, both located at Dunagree Point, were designed by
George Halpin and were built in the 1830s.
[ Alistair Rowan, ''The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster'', p. 319. ]Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
, London, 2003 (originally published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
, London, 1979). The lighthouses were built at the suggestion of the
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
Ballast Office.
The light in the East Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1961, while the West Lighthouse remains in use.
The structures are sometimes referred to as the Inishowen Head Lighthouses, and both are owned and operated by the
Commissioners of Irish Lights (C.I.L.).
History
Saint Columba and Portkill
Portkill (; probably a shortened version of , meaning 'Colum Cille's port' or 'Colum Cille's landing place') is a small bay just north of Shrove; the bay is located just north-west of Inishowen Head.
[ ] According to local tradition, Portkill is the point from which
Saint Columba
Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Gaelic Ireland, Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the ...
(also known as Colum Cille) left Ireland when he sailed into exile in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in the mid-sixth-century.
[ ] Local tradition says that Columba and his followers, having sailed up Lough Foyle from
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
, landed on the small beach at Portkill in order to take on some drinking water from a spring there.
While at Portkill, Columba allegedly scrambled to the top of the steep hillside overlooking the beach in order to take one last, mournful look at his homeland.
Columba and his companions then re-boarded their boat and sailed off into exile, making Portkill, according to local tradition, the last place in Ireland where Columba set foot.
However, modern historians have been unable to verify if any of these Columban associations with Portkill are historically accurate. A rock with an ancient inscribed cross upon it is still located beside the small beach at Portkill. Local tradition says that Columba himself cut this cross into the rock using his finger.
A
holy well
A holy well or sacred spring is a well, Spring (hydrosphere), spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christianity, Christian or Paganism, pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualitie ...
is also located beside the beach.
Mercedes Gleitze
In August 1929,
Mercedes Gleitze, the professional British sea swimmer, swam from Shrove in
Inishowen across to
Portstewart
Portstewart () is a small seaside town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 7,854 people in the 2021 United Kingdom census. It is a seaside resort, neighbouring both Coleraine in County Londonderry and Portrush in Cou ...
, a small town on the coast of
County Londonderry
County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...
.
'
As the crow flies', this is a distance of around 11
miles (slightly over 17.7
kilometres), Portstewart being to the south-east of Shrove.
This involved swimming in the open sea, just north of the entrance into
Lough Foyle
Lough Foyle, sometimes Loch Foyle ( or "loch of the lip"), is the estuary of the River Foyle, on the north coast of Ireland. It lies between County Londonderry in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. Sovereignty over t ...
. Gleitze had become internationally famous in October 1927 for completing the first known swim across the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
by a British woman.
As far as is known, she was only the third woman in history to
swim across the English Channel.
Gleitze initially attempted to swim from Portstewart across to Inishowen, making this attempt on 15 August 1929.
However, she had to abandon this attempt half-way through, being brought the rest of the way by a motor boat to
Moville on the Inishowen side.
Unperturbed by this upset, she decided to try again, this time swimming from Inishowen across to Portstewart.
At 3am on the morning of Saturday, 17 August 1929, Gleitze left her lodgings at McConnell's Hotel (now The Foyle Hotel) on The Square in Moville.
She was conveyed by motor car to the Pilot's Station at Inishowen Head in Shrove, where, at exactly 4:05am, she entered the water.
From Shrove, she swam directly across to Portstewart. This swim took just over eight hours, which she successfully completed, becoming the first known person to complete this feat. She emerged from the sea at Bearnville Port in Portstewart at 12 noon later the same day.
Gleitze made the 'return swim' a few days later, on 20 August 1929. On this occasion, she swam from Portstewart to Black Rock Bay, between Moville and
Greencastle.
References
{{County Donegal
Towns and villages in County Donegal