Ards Beg

494 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Ards Beg, from 6 m² to 3,006,588 m² (300.66 ha, 742.94 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 64 neighbouring parcels touch it.

Download the townland: DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its boundary, parcels and buildings; GeoJSON or KML.

No zone of a development plan covers Ards Beg in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply to each application.

Source: Tailte Éireann and the Department of Housing (MyPlan), national zoning, CC BY 4.0.

• 10 Sept 2026N/a

  (1) RENOVATION, EXTENSION AND INCREASE IN HEIGHT OF EXISTING DERELICT COTTAGE AND (2) INSTALLATION OF SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM, AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2650111

• 1 Jul 2026N/a

  ERECTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE WITH SEPTIC TANK AND DOMESTIC GARAGE AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2661223

• 25 Jun 2026N/a

  CHANGE OF USE OF EXISTING DETACHED DWELLING HOUSE TO PERMIT OCCASIONAL SHORT-TERM LETTING USE WITH NO PROPOSED EXTERNAL ALTERATIONS OR EXTENSIONS, WHILE RETAINING USE AS A PRIVATE FAMILY DWELLING, TOGETHER WITH ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS AND SERVICES

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2661175

• 28 May 2026Conditional

  (1) RETENTION OF DEVELOPMENT OF ATTIC SPACE IN EXISTING HOUSE AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS AND (2) RETENTION AND COMPLETION OF DOMESTIC GARAGE WITH CONNECTION TO EXISTING WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2660980

• 18 Dec 2025N/a

  ERECTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE WITH WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND ALL OTHER ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2562285

• 9 Dec 2025Conditional

  (1) CONSTRUCTION OF EXTENSION AND ALTERATIONS TO EXISTING DWELLING AND (2) DECOMMISSIONING OF EXISTING SEPTIC TANK AND PERCOLATION AREA AND CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND ALL ASSOCIATED EXTERNAL SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2550176

• 3 Dec 2025Conditional

  (1) ERECTION OF AN EXTENSION AND REFURBISHMENT OF EXISTING DWELLING HOUSE, (2) DEMOLITION OF EXISTING OUTHOUSE AND ERECTION OF A DOMESTIC GARAGE AND (3) INSTALLATION OF A NEW WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WITH ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2562134

• 3 Nov 2025N/a

  ERECTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE WITH WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND ALL OTHER ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2561906

• 14 Oct 2025N/a

  ERECTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE WITH A WASTE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND ALL OTHER ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2561798

• 2 Jul 2025Conditional

  ERECTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE WITH WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND DOMESTIC GARAGE AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2561113

• 23 May 2025Conditional

  ERECTION OF A NEW DWELLING HOUSE WITH WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM, AND ALL OTHER ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2560831

• 17 Jan 2025Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL SLATTED SHED, VEHICULAR ENTRANCE AND ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2560040

• 13 Sept 2024Refused

  CONSTRUCTION OF AN AGRICULTURAL SLATTED SHED AND ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2461437

• 12 Sept 2024Conditional

  ERECTION OF EXTENSION AND REFURBISHMENT OF EXISTING DWELLING HOUSE AND CONNECTION TO APPROVED WASTE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WITH ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2461430

• 28 Aug 2024N/a

  EXTENSION AND REFURBISHMENT OF EXISTING DWELLING HOUSE AND CONNECTION TO APPROVED WASTE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WITH ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2461307

• 30 Apr 2024Conditional

  (1) CONSTRUCTION OF AN EXTENSION TO EXISTING HOUSE, (2) ALTERATIONS TO THE ELEVATIONS OF THE EXISTING HOUSE, (3) INSTALLATION OF A NEW WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND PERCOLATION AREA TOGETHER WITH ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2460617

• 3 Apr 2024N/a

  (1) EXTENSION OF EXISTING HOUSE, (2) ALTERATIONS TO THE ELEVATIONS OF EXISTING HOUSE, (3) INSTALLATION OF NEW WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND PERCOLATION AREA TOGETHER WITH ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2460439

• 17 Jan 2024Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF DWELLING HOUSE, DETACHED DOMESTIC GARAGE, SEPTIC TANK/SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2460011

• 11 Sept 2023Conditional

  CHANGE OF HOUSE DESIGN FROM THAT PREVIOUSLY GRANTED UNDER PLANNING APPLICATION REF. NO. 04/2215

  Retention, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2351352

• 31 Aug 2023Conditional

  EXTENSION AND REFURBISHMENT OF EXISTING DWELLING HOUSE AND INSTALLATION OF A NEW SEPTIC TANK SYSTEM WITH ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2351302

• 14 Aug 2023Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE, TREATMENT SYSTEM AND POLISHING FILTER AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Donegal County Council, 2351196

• 12 Apr 2023Conditional

  EXTENSION AND REFURBISHMENT OF EXISTING DWELLING HOUSE AND INSTALLATION OF A NEW WASTE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WITH ALL ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2350481

• 27 Jan 2023Conditional

  ERECTION OF A DWELLING HOUSE WITH DOMESTIC GARAGE AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM INCLUDING ALL OTHER ASSOCIATED SITE DEVELOPMENT WORKS AND TEMPORARY PERMISSION FOR ERECTION OF A MOBILE HOME

  Permission, 2 homes · Donegal County Council, 2350077

• 13 May 2022Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF 1 NO. GARDEN SHED AND 1 NO. POLYTUNNEL

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2250830

• 6 Apr 2022Conditional

  (1) DEMOLITION OF AN OLD STONE SHED (2) CONSTRUCTION OF AN EXTENSION TO THE REAR OF EXISTING DWELLING HOUSE AND SMALL ENTRANCE PORCH TO FRONT ELEVATION (3) INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ALTERATIONS AND MODIFICATIONS TO ELEVATIONS

  Permission · Donegal County Council, 2250593

The 25 most recent of 43 applications.

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

• Special Area of Conservation: Ballyness Bay SAC 001090
• Natural Heritage Area: Corveen Bog NHA 001108
• Proposed Natural Heritage Area: Ballyness Bay 001090

Recorded monuments

• DG024-006 Megalithic tomb - portal tomb
  Description

  This tomb, now in the garden of a house, stands on a slight ridge c. 1.6km W of Gortahork and c. 250m S of the inner reaches of Ballyness Bay. It is the westernmost of a number of tombs spread along a narrow, generally low-lying coastal strip stretching eastward to Horn Head. To the S the skyline is formed by an arc of mountain ranges stretching south-westward from Muckish to Errigal and from there northward to Bloody Foreland. To the N is a view across Ballyness Bay to Inishbofin and Tory Island. The locality provides fair pasture broken by outcropping rock. The tomb is a partly collapsed chamber facing ENE. Behind it was another, smaller chamber that appears to have been demolished in the late 1830s or early 1840s. Some large stones in a field wall at the site may have formed part of the demolished chamber. The extant chamber is c. 3m long. Its front was formed by two portal-stones, the southern one of which has fallen, with a doorstone, now leaning inward, between them. When upright, the doorstone would have stood to two-thirds of the height of the portal-stones. Two stones form the N side of the chamber. These are not shown on the sectional profile of the tomb. A single stone, now fallen inward and broken in two at mid-length, formed the S side. A displaced roofstone overlies the greater part of the chamber. This is now supported at the E by the doorstone and at the W by a prostrate stone of uncertain origin. Just beyond the back of the chamber and incorporated in a stone wall built along the main axis of the structure is a westward-leaning stone. It is 1.1m in sloping height. The northern portal-stone, set longitudinally, is 2m high when measured at its outer face. The doorstone, set toward the inner end of this, would stand 1.2m high if upright. The southern portal-stone lies prostrate in front of the doorstone. It measures 2m by 0.9m by 0.6m thick. The eastern one of the two sidestones on the N side of the chamber overlaps the adjacent portal-stone and is 0.4m high. The western stone here is 1.2m high. This stone leans inward slightly. The fallen sidestone on the S side, when intact, would have been 3.2m long, 0.3m thick and c. 0.9m high at the front, declining to c. 0.5m at the back. The displaced stone supporting the W end of the roofstone measures 1.25m by 0.65m and is 0.35m thick. The roofstone is 3.8m long (E-W) and up to 0.5m thick. It narrows from a maximum width of 1.8m near its front (E) end to c. 1.2m close to the back end. Thomas Fagan (1845-8) recorded a local claim that the roofstone shifted to its present position above the S side of the chamber during a storm in around 1800. He also reported that locals digging for treasure found that the floor of the chamber was 'paved' in the centre and that several great flagstones lay at either end. Cinders, ashes, shells and burnt slates were allegedly found. Two photographs of the tomb among the Lawrence photograph collection (c. 1880-1910) show that the now fallen southern portal-stone was then standing. The top of this stone sloped sharply downward from a pointed top toward the back of the chamber, in contrast to its flat-topped counterpart. One of these photographs shows a leaning stone just beyond the back of the chamber. This stone is also shown on a sketch of the monument, apparently made in 1836, in the OS Memorandums (1838-42). This may be the stone (mentioned above) now incorporated in the stone wall built along the main axis of the structure. Fagan (1845-8) noted two stones, their average measurements 41/2 feet (c. 1.4m) high and 11/2 feet (c. 0.45m) wide, at the W end of the structure. One of these stones was prostrate when he saw them. The sketch in the OS Memorandums (1838-42), reproduced below, shows that the second and smaller chamber stood a short distance behind the extant chamber. This small chamber then consisted of two opposed orthostats, one at the N and the other at the S, with a gabled orthostat at the W, apparently the backstone of the structure. It appears that it was removed before 1845, as it was not noted by Thomas Fagan (1845-8), who visited the site in that year, or by other OS personnel (OS Revision Name Book, 1845-52). Fagan has referred to the destruction of 'several large and enclosed graves' that stood 'a few yards' to the W of the portal tomb. It is uncertain what weight should be attached to this claim, based as it is on second-hand information. The gabled stone shown forming the rear of the destroyed chamber may be the second from the S of a line of four large stones incorporated in the W face of a stone wall c. 4m W of the extant chamber. It is 0.8m high and may be in situ. The stone adjoining this at the S is 1m high. Immediately N of the gabled stone is a flat-topped stone 0.9m high, possibly the stone that stood on the N side of the chamber. The northernmost of the four stones in the wall is 0.7m high. The original nature of the arrangement here is uncertain, but it may have been similar to that at Kilclooney More (Dg. 70), where a small portal tomb chamber stands behind a larger one, the two sharing, more or less, the same orientation. OS Memorandums 1838-42, 149-51, 583; Fagan 1845-8, book 4, 29-30; OS Revision Name Book, sheet 24 (1845-52), 40; Lawrence photograph collection, nos. 9415 and 9416 (c. 1880-1910); Swan 1955, 70; Ó Nualláin 1968a, 292-3 (plan); Ó Nualláin 1983a, 29, no. 46 (plan); Ó Nualláin 1983b, 93, Donegal no. 5; SMR 1987, 24:6; Ó Nualláin 1989, 124; RMP 1995, 24:6. The above description was published in the 'Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI, County Donegal.' Compiled by: Eamon Cody (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). Date of upload: 22 September 2008 See linked document with details from Eamon Cody, Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland. Volume VI. County Donegal. (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002).

• DG024-007 Ritual site - holy well
  Description

  This holy well is a stone-lined trough, rectangular in plan and measuring 1.25m by .5m and 0.75m deep. Behind it is a rough heap of stones at one end of which is a rough stone “altar”. Sited on sloping ground just above marshy land close to a stream to the S, which runs to the sea at Binanea Strand. Described by Ó Muirgheasa in 1936 as 'St. Colmcille's Holy Well at Arda beaga, near Gortahork. Stations used to be made on the 9th June. A half-perforated stone-hammer among the stones at the well is regarded with so much respect on account of its association with the well that no one would take it away' (Ó Muirgheasa 1936, 153). (Ó Muirgheasa No. 55). The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Compiled by Caimin O'Brien Date of upload/revision: 02 November 2011

Architectural heritage

• Outbuilding, 1900–1920 · Regional interest
  Description

  Detached two-bay two-storey outbuilding, built c. 1910, having single-storey addition to the rear (west). Pitched natural slate roof (Roshine slate) having raised rendered verges to the gable ends (north and south). Coursed and roughly squared rubble stone walls. Square-headed openings with battened timber fittings. Set back from road in rural countryside to the west of Gort an Choirce [Gortahork]. Rubble stone boundary wall to the east. Single-storey rubble stone outbuilding to the north. Detached three-bay single-storey vernacular house adjacent to the south having modern brick porch to centre, pitched artificial slate roof with raised rendered verges and chimneystacks to the gable ends, rendered walls, square-headed window openings with two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows, and square-headed doorway to porch with modern fittings. Rubble stone boundary wall to the east of house.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Radon

About 1 in 20 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility high, moderately high, moderately low, low, low (inferred), on the 1:50,000 map; parts are water.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of the townland of Ards Beg.

Flooding

The flood maps of the Office of Public Works: floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency; Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland; both CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

No address of the register names Ards Beg with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Donegal.

Name

Ards Beg · An Ardaidh Bheag

Area

6,542,623 m² (654.26 ha, 1,616.72 acres)

Civil parish

Tullaghobegly, and its townlands

Barony

Kilmacrenan

Electoral division

Gortahork, the unit of the census

Census 2022

Gortahork electoral division: 1,693 people in 667 households; 83% of households own their home; 32% of homes were built since 2001; 14% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 21% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Ards More, Ardsmore Mountain, Ballynacraig, Derryconor, Keeldrum Lower, Magheraroarty Mountain

Gaeltacht

In an Irish-speaking area

Placenames

Ards Beg on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. Census 2022, Small Area Population Statistics by electoral division, Central Statistics Office, CC BY 4.0. A townland is the smallest land division of Ireland, and the unit of a rural address; old registers such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses file it under its civil parish and barony.