1867 – Lough Swilly Hotel, Buncrana, Co. Donegal

In 1867, one of Co. Donegal’s first hotels, the Lough Swilly Hotel, was built at Salt Pan Point, Buncrana at a cost of about £3,000. It opened three years after the opening of the narrow-gauge Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company (L&LSR) between Buncrana and Derry. The Lough Swilly Hotel continued for over a century to attract domestic and overseas tourists to the Inishowen town, which also boasted a popular bathing house on the shore. Extended in the 1890s.

In 1903 King Edward VII and his wife Alexandria arrived by royal yacht from Belfast to Buncrana and after visiting the hotel proceeded by train to Derry. In 1911 the hotel was also visited by George V. The Lough Swilly hotel closed in the 1970s and was used as a music venue and a warehouse afterwards. It fell into a state of disrepair and was destroyed by fire in 2012.