As we journey towards the close of the 2025 Jubilee Year, there is still the opportunity to get your Lough Derg stamp in the special Pilgrim Passport. 

Visit Saint Brigid's Chapel, the Pilgrim Shelter Museum on the mainland, or follow in the footsteps of the pilgrims  of years gone by along the Pilgrim Path and stamp your Pilgrim Passport in the Visitor Centre.

Traditional
​Three Day Pilgrimage

The pilgrimage is all about letting go, a time to see ones daily life as it truly is. The Three Day Pilgrimage provides a kind of breathing space in which people can calmly explore and reflect on where they find themselves in their lives at that moment in time.

Part of the spiritual benefits of any pilgrimage is learning to take nothing we have for granted. It is an opportunity to give thanks to God for having the health, the time, and the freedom to do the pilgrimage. It’s a moment to remember one’s loved ones at home and anyone who particularly asked for prayers, and also to say a prayer for fellow pilgrims.
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Lough Derg is a sacred place apart to bring burdens and leave them behind, to seek healing for wounds and to ask for them to be healed.

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One Day Retreat

One Day Retreats are guided days of prayer and reflection and include Prayers of Intercession, reflection on life with scripture and the celebration of Eucharist in Saint Patrick’s Basilica.

The afternoon also offers an opportunity for quiet time and Eucharistic Adoration.
​Hospitality on the day includes tea/coffee & scones on arrival and a light lunch is served.

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Lakeshore Pilgrimage
along The Pilgrim Path

In the summer of 2020 Station Island had to remain closed in line with public health measures due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

​Encouraged by the many enquiries from pilgrims who were missing their annual visit to Lough Derg, we turned our attention to what we could offer. The inspiration for the Lakeshore Pilgrimage came from those pilgrims who prayed at  the shore of Lough Derg in Penal times.

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Residential Retreat

Our popular residential retreats are for anyone who is curious and searching for a way to explore and deepen their experience of God in a Christian context. 

On crossing over to this ancient island of prayer, Lough Derg offers a unique opportunity to step back from a busy life, into prayer and reflection, and towards a deeper relationship with God. 
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Each retreat is structured around daily prayer, input from renowned facilitators, and personal time. Over the course of four days, the retreats provide a comfortable, full-board stay on the island.  Without fasting or walking barefoot, retreatants have the opportunity to join pilgrims making the traditional Three Day Lough Derg pilgrimage for Mass and Night Prayer.

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Most tribes have holy ground, a sacred place that has come to stand for a presumed, numinous essence: the tribe transcendent. Lough Derg in County Donegal, a small lake with an island in it, Station Island, is such a symbol for the native Irish. An ancient site of pilgrimage associated with Saint Patrick, it evokes the central place of Catholicism in Irish culture, a position that in turn gives the people their spiritual purpose and distinction.

Margaret O'Brien