The Holywell Hill transmission site is located on a 260-metre (853') hill near Killea in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

, Ireland, and is owned and operated by 2RN (formerly RTÉ NL).

History

The site which is close to the border with Northern Ireland has a 60-metre (200') self-supporting tower and was opened in 1981 to provide UHF television coverage to parts of

as well as Derry City and

County A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. It originally carried the two Irish analogue channels,

RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...

(Ch 23), and

RTÉ Two (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RT� ...

(Ch 26), in later years, both

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

(Ch 29), and

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

(Ch 33) were added, all were horizontally polarised and with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 20 kW.

Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV, DTT, or DTTB) is a technology for terrestrial television, in which television stations broadcast television content in a digital signal, digital format. Digital terrestrial television is a major technologica ...

(DTT) was first broadcast from the site in 2008 in preparation for the national switchover to digital television on 24 October 2012. Today the Irish digital television service

Saorview Saorview ( ) is the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Ireland. It is owned by RTÉ and operated by 2RN. The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with a full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation i ...

, and five national radio stations on FM, are broadcast from the Holywell Hill site to a large area of North West Ireland including

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

city. The transmitter also services a number of relay transmitters in County Donegal to help improve coverage in the difficult terrain.

Current transmissions

Digital television

FM radio

Holywell Hill relay transmitters

Gallery

File:Holywell_approach.jpg, The approach road to the site File:Holywell_top.jpg, Top of the transmitter mast File:Holywell_view.jpg, Holywell Hill seen from Heather Road in Derry

References

External links

www.rtenl.ie

saorview.ie
{{Main broadcast transmitters in Ireland Transmitter sites in Ireland Buildings and structures in County Donegal 1981 establishments in Ireland Towers completed in 1981 Radio masts and towers in Europe