One of the most recognisable features of the Donegal landscape is the cone-shaped mountain of Errigal (762m high). Its peak of white quartzite looks over the Derryveagh Mountains, a very large complex of granites which connects with granites on the Bloody Foreland and on the Rosses. The granites of the Derryveagh Mountains vary from pink to white, grey and even black. Very large crystals can be found in places. If you like granites, or just collect pretty stones, here is the place to come!

In Donegal, granite is found mainly in the north. Further south, quartzites make up the sea cliffs of Slieve League - the highest in Europe. Donegal Bay is ringed by fossil-rich Carboniferous rocks which include large fossil corals - have you seen them in the slab of limestone from Streedagh Point at the entrance to the Ulster Museum in Belfast?

The coast of Donegal includes raised beaches, sand dunes and estuaries.

The sand dunes at Dooey, near the mouth of the Gweebarra River in west Donegal, are up to 65 m high. They have yielded 4000-year-old archaeological artefacts - showing the long record of human habitation of these dune environments. Layers of soil and peat buried within the dunes indicate periods of surface stability, while sandy layers characterise times of instability when the sand was freely moved about by winds, waves and tides.

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