 The Jive Time Show with Shania Black on Highland Radio. Very welcome back to the programme. Now here on Highland with our good partners, the Donegal County Council. We are celebrating Love Donegal Day. It is a day where everybody takes to social medias to proclaim their love for Donegal. And we are indeed taken to our social media. We're gonna check in now with our good friend, Kevin Fury, who is out and about around Donegal today. So let's see where he is. Kevin, how are you? I'm not too bad, Shania. How are you? I'm not too bad. Now, you got the better job today. You're out and about in the sunshine around Donegal. Tell me where you are. We're out and about, surely. We're actually live here at Fort Donery. So we are today. We are... Earlier in the morning, we were at Dunlosa, we were. And then we made our way over to Fanad. We were over at Fanad Lighthouse earlier on. And then we made the trip then to Rathmoreland. We jumped on the ferry. We just about made the ferry. The ferry was a 20-passed one. We made it there at 19 minutes past one. So we have to thank the Lough Sully ferry for waiting for us. This is... If you aren't here, wait a minute. I feel so proud of them for that. We're out and about today, of course. So thanks to our friends at Donegal County Council. And it's about celebrating all things Donegal and what's good about Donegal. And it may be cold today, but it is dry. And there's nowhere like Donegal when the sun shines. You can see the Donegal flag there in the distance. And we're here at Fort Dunray today. And I'm glad to say I'm joined now by John Carter, who works here at Fort Dunray. John, thank you very much for joining us. Not at all. Delighted to have you here. We're always welcome Highland Radio any time they care to call. And we've been lucky. We've been blessed. We may be in September, but so far the weather's been good enough. Yeah. I mean, we've just had a lovely sort of unusual week here in the last few days of very, very good weather. It may be coming to an end, but it's been very pleasant here. We'll keep the fingers crossed. Well, indeed, yeah. I was here a number of years ago as a child, as well as the guts of 10 years ago at the stage. So it's great to be back. But tell us what all Fort Dunray has an offer for people? Well, Fort Dunray has an awful lot to offer for people here and will have a lot more in the future, indeed. But really, we have a 70-something, 73-acre site here. And it's perched here right at the mouth of Locke's willy. And it's like a sentinel guarding the locke, which is why it became a military establishment. But it has all of that military history. It takes it right through its years of being British and being Irish and all that went with that. And that's all the whole story is told in our museum here. But as I said, the site is 73 acres. So there's about five or six kilometers of walks all around the headlands celebrating the flora and fauna of the area here with amazing views over the swilly and over the Atlantic Ocean. Great for people who like to watch whales and dolphins if you can see them. But it does have a great play area for dolphins. But here on the land, as I say, then there's all of the architecture of the military establishment plus plenty of access to the shore here. And we have our own harbor where we have kayaking and whatnot and orientating out of there. So there's plenty for people to do. We have a beautiful cafe here, probably the most scenic cafe in all of Donegal and everybody will claim that anyway. But it has fantastic views and a great range of food and people who just want to come somewhere beautiful to experience nature at its best and have a nice cup of coffee or tea and a snack when they're here, brush up on their military history if they want to do that or lots of just leisure time for everybody. And there's lots of history, but briefly look into the future. The future for Fort Donegry is very exciting. It certainly is because we've been successful in partnering with Faultier Ireland and Donegal County Council and I think the Faultier Ireland programs for our platform for growth program which was bringing an investment here of about 12 and a half million euro to enhance the site even more, to connect the sea, the area we're standing here on and the upper fort which is at the top of Donegry Hill here and connect those all together and again celebrate all the story and the history throughout the site but also add lots more enhancements to enable people to appreciate the nature of the place itself and to say things to do on the site and from elevated walkways and the 1930s village that'll appear here showing what it was like as a military establishment and lots of other stuff on the site to do and again enhanced facilities for catering and that as we go. So really exciting times ahead. It is, it is really, yeah. And are yous open all year round? We are, we're open all year round say if I think Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Well, we'll give yous that. We'll give yous that. But essentially, at that time of year when everybody's couched up in houses and overfed and over watered and dying for a bit of a good exercise to work off some of the Christmas cheer. This is a superb place to come to do that because you're right on the Atlantic coast here and plenty of hills and walkways to work off all the excesses of Christmas. And would there be, would you find it would be busy? I know probably not as busy as it would be during the summer but even the months of say September, October, 9 to November, some would be people. Yeah, it is because the real bright sunshine is not the sort of time that people like us that much because we're not a beach as such. But when the weather's like it is today and we get a lot of this kind of like, people, this is the sort of place people love as opposed to, it's not for sunbathers as such. But it certainly is, it's a great place for appreciating nature in a raw state. Yeah, and you were telling me earlier you've been here the guts of, was it 35 years or so? Well, not just as long as I had about, almost 30. Right, almost 30, right. And you love it. I do indeed, I mean, it's been a passion of my life since I came to it back nearly 30 years ago. And we've always thought that Fort Don Reed deserved a place on nearly an international stage. And this present investment and development, I believe will put it on that footing and make it a very substantial tourist facility on the island of Ireland and right on a worldwide basis as well. Yeah, and if people are looking to find more information or if they say we never visited Fort Don Reed, maybe we like to visit in the future, where can they find information? You can look us up on a website or on Facebook, on Instagram, we're on them all just Fort Don Reed or www.donreed. We'll pick us up there, no problem at all. Very good, and open all year round as well. Open all year round essentially, yeah. Very good, so if you're looking for a nice walk in the month of October or something like that, you can call it Fort Don Reed. Lots to do all the time, all year round. Look at John Carter, thank you very much. Of course, we're inviting us up here today and thank you very much as well for joining us on the program. Not at all, the light and the help out. So there you have it, Sinead. We've seen lots today here, right across County Donegal from Dunlowe this morning and this is it up to Fort Don Reed and also to Phanod at Ernie, Iran today. So don't forget too, maybe you're not in County Donegal, maybe you're away somewhere else. We've been in Australia over in the UK. Get Love Donegal trending on Facebook. Use the hashtag Love Donegal or Dunlowe as well too. And also we have to say again, a massive thank you to Dunlowe County Council who came on board with us to help us get out and about today. But we, this is our last location today. We've really enjoyed it. As I was saying earlier, I've seen roads that I probably have never been on in my life. Some of the scenery is absolutely fantastic. I was tempted to slow down a couple of times to look on your side for a little time. Keep going. But we've had a brilliant day right across Dunlowe. Remember, keep Dunlowe trying to use those hashtags. Love Donegal or Dunlowe. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Kevin Fury and Anya indeed who are out around the Northwest, out and around celebrating our Donegal, our Let it County and rightly. So I was just saying, Kevin, you would need more than a day. Well, we're actually, we're saying that there earlier. You would actually need to need two days because you know, you could go all their part. You know, someone asked us. I know when you're going to do it, you may do it right. We'll take a week. We'll take a week. Exactly. I was just going to say we'll take the week. Make it Donegal, Love Donegal a week. We'll have to get that trend the next year. That's it. Thank you very much, Kevin Fury. Take care and thank you for bringing us along today. That is our very own Kevin Fury there, joined with John Carter from Fort Dunray. And as he mentioned himself, he has been out and around all of our lovely county today, celebrating Love Donegal Day in association with our partners, Donegal County Council. It's been a huge success previous years and indeed this year is no other. Don't forget if you want to get involved, you can do so by simply uploading and sharing some beautiful parts of our county, some landscapes, some people, some music, and anything that has a connection to our little county. You can use the hashtag, Love Donegal, or hashtag Dinnanallaboo. So we encourage you very much so here at Highland to get in touch to get involved in our little campaign. Thank you very much to Kevin Fury and to Anya now to celebrate Love Donegal. 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