DONEGAL RESIDENTS were woken by a minor earthquake in the north of the county in the early hours of this morning.

According to the British Geological Survey, an earthquake measuring 2.2 on the Richter Scale struck the area around Buncrana and Rathmullen just after 1am.

Director of the Irish National Seismic Network Tom Blake told TheJournal.ie that Donegal is one of the two areas in Ireland that sees the most seismic activity relative to the other parts of the country (Wexford being the other area).

“There’s major faulting in Donegal coming across from Scotland right through the country, so we have stress readjustments on the fault system from time to time,” he explained.

Blake said that the INSN operates an outreach programme with schools across Ireland and that two of these schools were able to record this morning’s event on their own seismometers.

Locals have been phoning Highland Radio’s Shaun Doherty this morning saying that they thought that the rumble of the earthquake was part of a storm. One woman said she moved her children from their upstairs bedrooms to the ground floor in case there were any further tremors.

The station reports that the quake was also felt in Kerrykeel and Letterkenny.