ENGINEERS WERE yesterday preparing to clear a landslide along 800m of a country road over bogland in Co Donegal
The mudslide, up to 220m wide and 1.5m deep, cut off about 20 families in a remote part of the Co Donegal Gaeltacht 10km north of Glencolmcille.
Donegal mayor Brendan Byrne, who lives in the area at Carrick, said 15 hours of torrential rain caused the landslide on Sunday afternoon when mud and debris was swept down Strabui Hill in the foothills of Sliabh Tooey.
Families in the townlands of Strabui, Kiltyfanned, Lougherherk and Largybrack were cut off. The road was completely impassable.
Mr Byrne said: “I’ve asked for council engineers in the local area and from the headquarters in Lifford to assess the damage caused and to establish what corrective action can be taken.
“I’ve asked that the matter be given priority.
“The communities in those townlands are now cut off from their hinterland.”
He said a problem for workers clearing the mud was that a channel through it was unlikely to be an efficient short-term solution because of the liquid nature of the debris.
“The whole mudslide will have to be cleared from the road and that’s going to be some task.” he said.
Nobody was injured in the slide although one motorist was understood to have had a lucky escape when he passed along the road just minutes before the mud cascaded on to it.
The nearest house is about 400m away.