Portnoo Market Garden Tour

What to Expect

Portnoo Market Garden opens its growing spaces for a guided tour on Thursday 20 August 2026, running 11am to 12:30pm with doors from 10:40am. The ninety minutes walk the beds and polytunnels and set out how the garden is planned and managed from soil to harvest, covering the practical side of growing food commercially on the west Donegal coast rather than a general stroll through the plot.

The garden describes itself as one of Ireland’s most recognised market gardens, and the tour is built around its own story: how the site was established, what it grows, and the seasonal pattern of work that keeps a small-scale commercial operation supplying through the year. Visitors get practical cultivation advice they can take home, which makes it as useful for anyone growing at home as for those curious about where local produce actually comes from.

Late August is a good point in the season to see it, with the summer crops at full stretch and the autumn planting already going in. Portnoo sits on the Wild Atlantic Way between Ardara and Glenties, on a stretch of coast where thin soil and Atlantic weather make commercial growing genuinely difficult, so the methods on show here are adapted rather than textbook.

Good to Know

• Date: Thursday 20 August 2026, 11am to 12:30pm. Doors open 10:40am.
• Venue: Portnoo Market Garden, Portnoo, Co. Donegal, F94 F5P7.
• Booking is through Eventbrite. The ticket price is not published on the listing, so check the booking page.
• Children under 14 are welcome when accompanied by a parent or guardian.
• Free parking on site.
• The tour is outdoors on working ground. Wear boots and dress for the weather.

Getting There

Portnoo is on the R261 on the west Donegal coast, next to Narin, about fifteen minutes from Ardara and Glenties and roughly an hour from both Letterkenny and Donegal Town. There is no rail service and bus cover on this stretch is limited to Local Link, so a car is the practical way to get here. Free parking is provided at the garden. Narin strand and the tidal causeway to Inishkeel island are a couple of minutes away, and the Kilclooney Dolmen is signposted on the road back towards Ardara.