01/04/2026
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Rockhill has always been a house with good bones and deep roots. Today, we discovered just how deep.
In 1937, a Donegal man named Mr James McFadden told a story that had been passed down through the generations. There was a tunnel, he said, stretching from Ballymacool all the way to Rockhill โ running beneath the River Swilly itself.
Wide enough, he insisted, for a whole army of men on horseback to pass through. It had belonged to the Danes (vikings!).
They used it to stable their horses and hide their treasure.
His account was faithfully recorded by a collector named Thomas Dobson and quietly filed away in the National Folklore Collection, where it has sat on page 124 of Volume 1084 for the better part of a century.
We found it.
And then, it seems, we found them... or rather, they found us.
Our new arrivals have wasted no time making themselves at home.
has gained a new senior therapist โ broad-shouldered, enthusiastic, an unexpected natural with our organic Atlantic seaweed facials.
welcomed several new patrons to lunch this week, who studied the menu with great seriousness and appear to have thoroughly enjoyed the pizza.
The welcome at the front door was everything we would hope for โ warm, spirited, and only slightly axe-adjacent.
We like to think Mr McFadden would be pleased to know he was right all along.
Have you heard this story before? We'd love to know. ๐
P.S. We should clarify โ the tunnel, the Danish vikings, and Mr James McFadden are entirely, genuinely real. His account, and a second independent account recorded the same year by a Mr Harry Russell, are both preserved in the National Folklore Collection at UCD and available to read at duchas.ie.
The Viking arrivals pictured, however, we created ourselves.
The east lawn remains undisturbed.
No treasures were harmed in the making of this post
P.P.S. If you'd like to visit us and experience our spirit of place for yourself โ tunnel or no tunnel, vikings or not โ you're very welcome... we extend a warm Donegal welcome to all ๐ฐ
