Glencolmcille is situated on the Slieve League Peninsula at the south-west point of Donegal - an area starting to be known as the Donegal Highlands. The area is bounded on the south by the mountains of Slieve League (Sliabh Liag) and Leahan and on the north by Slieve Tooey. To the west lies the restless Atlantic Ocean.

Glencolmcille is a place of tremendous natural beauty and changing colours ... mountains, lakes, sea cliffs and beaches; a place of quiet roads, stone walls and fuschia-bordered lanes. It is an ancient corner of Ireland witnessed by the sites of dwellings and the tombs of the Megalithic period and by the cross inscribed stones of early Christianity.