Moving to Donegal??

POB128

We are considering moving to Donegal from the UK in the near future and have found a house we like very much. My mother was born and brought up in Donegal and now rests in Bruckless Chapel along with my father and five generation of my ancestors. We have our Irish passports, have finished working and look forward to pottering around our allotment, keeping bees and getting to know the locals. Are there any issues we need to be concerned about?

muffler

Nothing much to worry about as such but you will find a different infrastructure here (as in rural areas) compared to the UK.

For example we dont have any trains in the county and bus services are very restrictive/non existent especially in more remote areas. So a car is a must.

Currency is Euro obviously so that will take a wee bit of getting used to especially when shopping and trying to make the comparison with prices you would have paid in the UK for the same items.

Broadband is available in and around all the towns but rural areas are lagging behind although there are plans to upgrade remote areas over the coming weeks. Imagine.ie for example should launch in a few weeks and will cover parts of rural Donegal initially and hopefully will expand. The Government have a rural broadband scheme but then again this is politics so I wouldnt hold out much hope for their offerings.

Weather wise you could probably compare to North England. A lot of rain at times but generally the winters aren't as bad as they used to be a few decades ago apart from the bad spell we had in 2010/2011

Have a look at this thread and click on any links you see in it especially the one titled "links to things to do in Donegal". This is also worth a read.

Oh, what part of the county do you intend to reside, Bruckless?

alchemist33

Muffler's covered most there. In Bruckless, you're over an hour away from your nearest general hospital which might be a consideration if you're around retirement age. Another fly in the ointment might be whatever Brexit does, in terms of exchange rates, British pension money etc, but it would probably work out okay. If you've any concerns about how locals would see you, don't worry. Donegal is full of Irish people born abroad and even if you weren't Irish, people are generally warmly welcomed.

POB128

Thanks for the responses which are really helpful and mention issues which we have thought of ourselves.

We are happy with the position of the property in Bruckless just about 2 minutes drive up to the main road into Killybegs and about 15 mins to Donegal Town. I suppose wherever we go we will be getting older and should be thinking about hospitals etc but don't want to loose out on the next 10 - 15 years before then of living a happy life in a great area and dealing with such matters as we meet them later on.

Not too worried about Brexit and FX rates as we will use an exchange company to convert funds we need on an annual basis.