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Donegal
County Donegal · Ulster

About Ardara

Ardara, Ard an Rátha in Irish, is a town in County Donegal, 171 km north of Galway. It stands on the N56 and R261. The map gives it 2,128 buildings and 16 named streets, with 82 places named on them in 43 kinds, and 159 things to see in and around it. By the number of buildings on the map it is the 16th largest of the 86 settlements this site covers in County Donegal.

Where
171 km north of Galway, 211 km from Dublin
Position
54.7636° N, 8.4106° W, 45 m above sea level
Roads
N56 and R261
Governed
Donegal County Council, in the province of Ulster
On the model
2,128 buildings, 16 streets, 82 named places in 43 kinds
Front Street in Ardara, looking south-west.
Front Street in Ardara, looking south-west.·Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Owentocker river in Ardara, County Donegal, Ireland
Owentocker river in Ardara, County Donegal, Ireland·Cqui, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

County Donegal since 1841

Every census of the county, which is the only way to see what happened to rural Ireland: the fall from the Famine runs for a century, and the recovery is recent.

296,448108,344167,08418412022

Source: Central Statistics Office, table F1001 'Population at Each Census', read through the PxStat API, read 2026-09-20.

What to see

Closest to the centre first, with how far each one is.

All 159 things to see

Getting around

By road

The map records the N56 and R261 running through Ardara.

By bus or train

4 lines call at 4 stops here. Plan a journey for the day and time you are going.

Schools and services

2 school or colleges on the map: St Mary's National School and Ardara Mixed National School.

Questions people ask

Where is Ardara?
In County Donegal, in the province of Ulster, 171 km north of Galway and 211 km from Dublin, on the N56 and R261.
How big is Ardara?
No census figure is on record for it here. On the map it is 2,128 buildings, 16 named streets and 82 named places, which by building count makes it the 16th largest of the 86 settlements this site covers in County Donegal.
What is there to see in Ardara?
159 things the map records in and around it, the closest being Ardara Heritage Centre, John Doherty and Ardara Fort.
How do you get to Ardara?
4 bus and train lines call at 4 stops here in the published timetable, run by Bus Feda, Bus Éireann and McGeehan Coaches.
Has County Donegal grown or shrunk?
The census counted 296,448 people in the county in 1841 and 167,084 in 2022.
2,128
buildings on the model
16
named streets
82
named places
43
kinds of place

Buildings, streets, places, roads and position are OpenStreetMap, counted by this site rather than quoted from anywhere. Population, elevation, area and twinning are structured claims on Wikidata (item Q638551). County population is the Central Statistics Office. Journeys are the National Transport Authority’s published timetable. Every sentence on this page is written from those numbers; none of it is copied from a description of the place.

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