County Sligo
From World travel guide
County Sligo is one of the counties in the Connacht province of the Republic of Ireland. Sligo is often overlooked but most visitors can understand the slogan 'Sligo is suprising'. It is a small county but densely packed with scenery and cultural interest
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Regions
- Yeats Country This area vaguely describes the land within about 10 miles of Sligo town which features in Yeats' poetry.
- South Sligo. The larger, more remote and less scenic (in comparison) part of the country, which has a reputation for tradtional music.
Cities
Understand
Most of Sligo's population speak english but some of the towny people speak in a towny accent which slurrs vowels and lenghtens words, for instance 'haows ih goooin?'(how are you doing?).
Much of the landsape of Sligo features in the poetry of W.B.Yeats (The Stolen Child, The Fiddler of Dooney) and the poet is buried, as he wished in Drumcliffe, north of Sligo town. There is an annual Yeats Summer School which attracts writers, and posh snooty people but other visitors may enjoy the insights the poet has given into the landscape. For lovers of traditional music, the remoter south of the county has given rise to a strong fiddle tradition, while in recent years the bands, Dervish and Westlife, from Sligo town, have become interrantionally famous. Spike Milligan's father was from Sligo.
Get in
By plane
There is a small airport at Strandhill, Sligo and a small international airport at Knock, just over the country border in Mayo.
By train
There is a railway from Sligo to Dublin (135 miles) which takes three hours and has a shop on board. It costs approx €32 for an adult return and oddly nearly the same price for a single ticket. There are about three trains running daily. One early in the morn, another around 1pm and one or two in the evening.
By car
135 miles to Dublin and also to Belfast. 90 miles to Galway.
By bus
From Galway, Limerick, Derry, Donegal, Dublin.
Get around
Sligo town/city is small enough to walk from one end to the other in an hour. Garys cycles down by the rivers edge rents bicycles. There are buses which run from the main bus station and from O'Connell Street (the main street) to Strandhill and Rosses point (small nearby coastal towns) regularly.
See
Knocknarea mountain is 4 miles west of Sligo on a peninsula. It is just over 1000ft and can be climbed in 40 minutes. The summit offers a magnificent panorama of the indented coast and holds a massive cairn, which is reputed to be the grave of the ancient celtic warrior queen Maeve. As the cairn is estimated to weigh 40,000 tons it has never been excavated.
Between Sligo town and Knocknarea is the megalithic cemetery of Carrowmore. This is smaller than it was but is still a significant site.
There is another collection of ancient graves, less convenient placed on the slopes of Bricklieve mountain 20 miles south of Sligo.
Ben Bulben mountain is a prominent flat topped summit that dominates the landcape. It is about 7 miles from Sligo town.
Do
In August you might like to join in the annual Warrior's Run, from the seashore, up Knocknarea and back. At any other time you may climb at a more leisurely rate.
It should be possible to take a boat trip on Lough Gill. There is a passenger craft which will take you to Parkes Castle, near the other end of the lake, or you could hire a boat and make your way where you will.
Strandhill is a noted surfing beach. Be warned that there are treacherous currents here
