Malin Head

The Malin Head site is a Met Eireann Weather Observing Station situated on a well elevated site at about 22 m above mean sea level and located at approximately 52° 22′ N, 7° 20′ W with a panoramic exposure to the North Atlantic off the north Donegal coast. Malin Head is a coastal station with a North Atlantic exposure profile similar in many respects to that encountered at Mace Head (MHD), with an oceanic clean sector having a more north westerly facing aspect. The dominant prevailing winds are reasonably uniformly spread over a sector stretching from westerlies to southerlies with lesser but significant occurrences from both northerly and easterly directions. The station has ample exposure to both clean background and polluted airflows in a broad range of meteorological conditions. Malin Head, on the most northerly tip of the Inishowen Peninsula in Co. Donegal, is generally considered to be the most northerly point on the island of Ireland. The nearest towns are the small village of Malin approximately twelve kilometers south east of this location and the market town of Carndonagh, which is about nineteen kilometers south southeast. The area is generally rural, remote and sparsely populated and, with the exception of a small cluster of houses very close to the eastern boundary of the site, most of the local dwellings are relatively distant from the observing station.