The rich agricultural land around Raphoe has been inhabited and cultivated for thousands of years, and evidence of this can be seen through monuments such as the Beltany Stone Circle, just outside the town.
The stone circle is one of the largest in Ireland with a diameter of 44 metres (165 feet) and made up of more than sixty stones in all.
The site is the subject of some dispute as to its age believed to date to around 2000 BC by certain experts but claimed by some others to 1400-800 BC, and that it was originally an enclosed cairn.
Its name is believed to be linked the Celtic festival of fertility known as 'Beltane'.
Beltany is a Neolithic stone circle just south of the town.
It comprises 64 stones around a low earth platform or tumulus, situated at the summit of Tops Hill.
One stone is decorated with cup marks and many of the stones stand at an angle after being disturbed around a hundred years ago.
