Churches & Holy Wells

The Parish of Termon and Gartan

Our parish here includes the areas of Churchill, Gartan, Glendowan and Termon which has two churches - one at either side of the parish. The Patron Saint of our Parish is St.Colmcille, who was born in Gartan. There are many historical sites around the area associated with him.

St Columba’s church is situated on the main Letterkenny to Falcarragh road. This is the Parish Church for the Parish and the Parish Priest Fr Patrick McHugh lives here.

The Church is dedicated to St Columba and a very impressive statue of the Saint stands at the front of the Church casting his protecting eye over the whole parish.

The Church celebrated its 150 anniversary last October (2007) with Mass broadcast on Highland Radio.

You can contact Fr McHugh on 074-9139016
or by E-mail: frmchugh@eircom.net
www.gartantermon.net

Holy Wells & Rocks

Several sites around Termon are significant to the Roman Catholic faith in Donegal:

• Doon Well
  
• Mass Rocks
  
• Doon Rock
  
• Ethne’s Well
  
• St Glassan

Tobar an Duin, Donegal’s most celebrated Holy Well, has been a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of thousand of people in the past century. But its origin and the traditions associated with it go back much further still. From all parts of the county they have come; devout, humble, prayerful and hopeful; lifting and using the blessed water as means to spiritual and bodily betterment. Each year many people travel to Doon well on May eve and New Year eve where the priest says the rosary and blesses the holy water. This year Bishop Philip Boyce visited Doon Well.

Up to four decades ago, whole train-loads of pilgrims for Doon Well were there every Sunday throughout the summer months, from places as far apart as Derry and Burtonport, and all points in between. To be there on such an occasion, with hundreds of all ages, engaged devoutly in the turas, was to see an impressive and devotional spectacle.