1. DHS - the Drowes river and the first salmon

Shrine One: the angler's first salmon. Location: 54.473728, -8.312702Speaker: Shane Gallagher, Lareen, KinloughTheme: gathering to be the first of the season.Right on the border with Leitrim is the River Drowes, duly famous for regularly producing the first salmon of the year, being one of the few rivers opening on the 1st January. Rarely is there a year when a fish is not caught on opening day. Indeed this is a very festive occasion with some 250 anglers fishing, all striving to land the first salmon of the year and invariably ending up on the cover of the national papers. As such, this stretch of river is an unlikely, but worthy member of the hallowed sites of Donegal where Mother Nature rewards the patient, the wily and the downright lucky. Fishing is an integral part of the Donegal economy, but fishing on New Year's Day and trying to be the most famous angler in the land is a well nigh sacred rite of passage in these parts. All fishermen are of course superstitious and so to add to the mandatory magical quality of the water, there is an affiliation to St Patrick - his well just outside of Ballyshannon has been seen as a place of cures and pilgrimage for centuries. Legend has it that on his way to it, St Patrick stopped for a feed at the Duff river, but was denied a salmon. Disgusted, he cursed the Duff and headed to the Drowes where he duly got a huge salmon and blessed the Drowes and the fishermen. The river flows for about 5 miles draining the 103 square mile catchment into the Atlantic. The river generally keeps good water levels right through the season being fed by Lough Melvin. There is a good run of spring salmon from the 1st January through to April/May with some summer and autumn fish. The main grilse run starts around the end of May peaking around June/July.URL: Drowes Salmon FisheryAudio taken from Donegal's Hallowed Sites on the Racontour Archive.Spotify URL: Donegal's Hallowed Sites playlist on Spotify