page_title: Dunfanaghy
section_title: Local area
hierarchical_section_title: Dunfanaghy / Local area
caption_attribution_description: English: Dunfanaghy - Small park across from Arnold's Hotel This small park is between N56 and Sheephaven Bay.
context_page_description: Dunfanaghy is a small town, former fishing port, and commercial centre on the north coast of County Donegal, Ireland. It lies on Donegal's North West coast, specifically the west side of Sheephaven Bay, on the N56 road. The town has its own dedicated website, which gives information about the town and the surrounding area.
context_section_description: Just outside the village is a three-mile-long sandy beach known as Killahoey Strand.  On 16 June 1942, a RAF Ferry Command Hudson aircraft  (42-66130) was forced to land on a beach near Dunfanaghy. (Irish Army archive reports call this 'Hill Strand'.)  It was feared the rising tides would swallow the plane, but 200 locals came out to pull it to safety. 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 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.  
  West of Dunfanaghy are New Lake and Tramore Strand, a two-mile-long beach.  New Lake was formerly a salt water marsh, but during the First World War, over-cutting of the grass on the surrounding sand dunes led to their destabilisation and the movement of the sand to block up the river.  As a result, the marsh filled with fresh water and became a lake.  The sand also silted up Dunfanaghy harbour.  The New Lake became a haven for seabirds and is now a Special Protection Area.  Also nearby is Sessiagh Lough, a small lough with a crannog in the middle.
  Across the bay from Dunfanaghy is Horn Head, which shelters Dunfanaghy from the Atlantic Ocean and is an Irish Natural Heritage Area.
  Dunfanaghy is close to Portnablagh and Marble Hill, both of which also have popular beaches.  Other sights in the vicinity include: Ards Forest Park, Ards (Capuchin) Friary, Glenveagh National Park, Doe Castle and the Derryveagh Mountains, the most prominent being Muckish Mountain and Errigal.
caption: A disused anchor on display in the centre of the village
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