County Sligo: history, culture, food and places

The history of County Sligo

Sligo holds one of the largest and oldest concentrations of megalithic tombs in Europe, at Carrowmore and Carrowkeel, was a stronghold of the O'Connor Sligo lordship, saw one of the few Irish victories over an English army at the Battle of the Curlews in 1599, and lost a large share of its population to Famine death and emigration.

Carrowmore, on the plain just outside Sligo town, is a cemetery of more than thirty passage tombs, some of them older than Newgrange and older than the Egyptian pyramids. People were burying their dead here around 3800 BC, and the site sits in direct line of sight of Knocknarea, the flat-topped hill capped by an unexcavated cairn locals call Maeve's Grave. Whether or not a queen is actually inside it, the pairing of tomb field and mountain cairn is one of the most complete ritual landscapes left in Ireland.

Higher up, on a limestone plateau above Lough Arrow, the Carrowkeel passage tombs sit in a scatter across the Bricklieve Mountains with views out over half the county. They see a fraction of Carrowmore's visitors, which is largely the reason to go.

In the medieval period Sligo was held by the O'Connor Sligo branch of the Connacht O'Connors, ruling from Sligo Castle and contesting the region with the O'Donnells of Donegal. That rivalry fed into the Nine Years' War, and in 1599 an English army marching to relieve Collooney was ambushed and routed at the Battle of the Curlews, one of the few clear field victories Irish forces won over a Tudor army. The Curlew Mountains, on the Sligo-Roscommon border, still carry the name.

The nineteenth century was brutal here as everywhere in the west. The Famine hit Sligo hard, and Sligo port became one of the main emigration points for ships to Liverpool and onward to North America. Streets in the town still carry the memory in the Yeats family's own writing and in the county's genealogy records, which are heavily consulted by American visitors tracing a Sligo surname.

c. 3800 BC

Carrowmore passage tomb cemetery in active use.

c. 3000 BC

Carrowkeel tombs built on the Bricklieve plateau above Lough Arrow.

1310

Sligo Abbey founded by the Anglo-Norman de Burgo family.

1599

Battle of the Curlews, an Irish victory over an English relief force.

1845 to 1851

The Famine and mass emigration through Sligo port.

1865

W. B. Yeats born in Dublin to a Sligo family, spending childhood summers in the county.

1943

Yeats buried, per his wish, at Drumcliffe under Benbulben.

Yeats Country and the culture of Sligo

Sligo markets itself, accurately, as Yeats Country. W. B. Yeats spent childhood summers with his mother's family here and set much of his early poetry in its landscape, and his brother Jack B. Yeats painted the county's light and coastline for decades. The county leans into that legacy without becoming a theme park about it.

Yeats's connection to Sligo was through his mother's family, the Pollexfens, who were merchants and mill owners in the town. He did not grow up here full time, but the county supplied the imagery of his early work almost entirely: Lough Gill and its island of Innisfree, the woods at Rosses Point, Glencar waterfall, Knocknarea and Benbulben all appear in named poems, which makes Sligo one of the rare places where you can visit the literal geography of a poet's most famous lines.

He is buried at Drumcliffe churchyard, under Benbulben, with the epitaph he wrote himself: Cast a cold eye on life, on death, horseman, pass by. The grave is unticketed and the churchyard is a working parish site, not a museum, which is worth knowing before a visit.

Jack B. Yeats, the poet's younger brother, became one of Ireland's most significant painters, and his loose, expressive later work drew heavily on Sligo's people and coastline. The Model in Sligo town holds a permanent collection of his paintings alongside contemporary exhibitions, and it is the strongest single culture stop in the county.

Lissadell House, on the shore of the bay north of the town, adds the other strand of Sligo's cultural memory: the Gore-Booth family home of Constance Markievicz, the revolutionary and the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, and her sister Eva Gore-Booth. Yeats wrote about both of them, and the house and gardens are open to the public on a seasonal schedule.

What to eat in County Sligo

Sligo food runs on Atlantic seafood: native oysters and Lissadell mussels from the bay, and a food-forward town built around a small cluster of kitchens including Hooked, Eala Bhan, Shells Cafe and the long-running Lyons Cafe.

Lissadell mussels, farmed in the sheltered water below Lissadell House, are one of the county's genuine food exports and show up on menus well beyond Sligo. Sligo Bay and the estuary also produce native oysters, in season through the winter months, and they turn up at markets and seafood counters in the town rather than only in restaurants.

In Sligo town itself, Hooked has built a reputation on straightforward seafood done well, Eala Bhan sits on the river and has been one of the town's steadier dinner addresses for years, and Shells Cafe out toward Strandhill does the daytime, surf-town version of the same coastal ingredients. Lyons Cafe, upstairs in the department store on the same site since the 1930s, is the town's institution for tea and a proper Irish breakfast rather than anything experimental.

Seaweed baths are as much a Sligo food-and-wellness tradition as a spa treatment: hot seawater and fresh seaweed drawn straight from the bay, taken in a cast iron or timber tub, a practice that runs along this coast from Enniscrone up through Strandhill. It counts as one of the county's signature experiences even though nothing about it is eaten.

Inland, the county has a growing farmers' market and small-producer scene in Sligo town on Saturdays, and the surf towns of Strandhill and Easkey both run on a casual, coffee-and-fish-taco economy that has grown up around the surf schools.

Lissadell mussels

Farmed below Lissadell House, on menus across the county and beyond.

Native oysters

Sligo Bay and the estuary, in season through the winter months.

Seaweed baths

Strandhill and Enniscrone, hot seawater drawn fresh, a genuine local tradition.

Sligo town kitchens

Hooked, Eala Bhan and Shells Cafe for seafood; Lyons Cafe for breakfast and tea.

Whiskey, gin and pubs in Sligo

Sligo's drink scene is built on two long-standing pubs in the town, Hargadon Bros and Shoot the Crows, and a newer distilling operation on Lough Gill trading as Athru, which makes whiskey and gin using water drawn from the lake Yeats wrote about.

Hargadon Bros, on O'Connell Street, is a Victorian grocer's pub with the original snugs, shelving and shop counter still in place, and it is the reference point for what an old Sligo pub looked like before renovation. Shoot the Crows, a short walk away, is the town's music and craft beer pub, and the two together cover most of what a visitor needs on a Sligo evening.

The Lough Gill Distillery, trading under the Athru name, sits on the lake that gave Yeats The Lake Isle of Innisfree and produces Irish whiskey and gin using water drawn from the lough. It is a young distillery rather than a historic one, and visits are worth checking ahead since tour schedules are seasonal.

Beyond the two Sligo town anchors, the surf towns keep a more casual pub culture, built around the day's swell rather than a session, and Sligo's traditional music scene, while real, sits a register quieter than Clare's or Galway's. Ask in Hargadon's or Shoot the Crows on a given night rather than assuming a session is running.

As anywhere in Ireland, order Irish whiskey and give a stout time to settle. Nobody in Sligo will rush a pour, and neither should you.

Benbulben, the coast and the surf

Sligo's landscape centres on Benbulben, the flat-topped limestone mountain that dominates every view north of the town, the Gleniff Horseshoe drive around its back side, and an Atlantic coastline that has become one of Ireland's serious surf destinations at Strandhill and Easkey.

Benbulben's distinctive shape, a table mountain sheared by glaciers, makes it one of the most recognisable landmarks in Ireland and the backdrop to most of the county's postcards. The Gleniff Horseshoe is a signposted looped drive around its eastern side through a glacial valley, quiet, mostly single lane, and one of the best short drives in the county for the effort involved.

Strandhill, a few minutes from Sligo town, has grown from a fishing village into one of Ireland's main surf towns, with a beach break that suits beginners and a row of surf schools, cafes and a seaweed bath house along the seafront. Easkey, further along the coast toward Mayo, is the more serious reef break, known internationally among surfers well before Strandhill's tourist trade caught up.

Coney Island, in Sligo Bay, is reachable on foot across the strand at low tide, following a marked line of posts, or by a longer road route; it gave its name, by way of a Sligo sea captain, to the New York beach of the same name. Rosses Point, on the north side of the bay, has a broad beach and the clubhouse of County Sligo Golf Club, one of the finest links courses in Ireland and regularly ranked among the best outside the championship rota.

Further west, the coast opens into Enniscrone, home to another well-regarded links course and one of the coast's classic seaweed bath houses, and the smaller road toward the Bricklieve Mountains and Lough Arrow gives access to the Carrowkeel tombs and a genuinely rural, uncrowded stretch of the county.

Getting there and getting around

Fly into Ireland West Airport Knock or Donegal Airport, or drive up from Dublin or Galway, rent a car, and allow two to three nights. Sligo has a train and bus connection to Dublin but the county's coast and tombs need a car.

Ireland West Airport Knock, about 50 minutes south of Sligo town, and Donegal Airport, about 45 minutes north, both carry limited but useful connections. Most American visitors either fly into Dublin and drive up in around three hours, or combine Sligo with a Donegal or Mayo leg of a longer road trip along the west coast.

Sligo town sits on the Dublin-Sligo rail line, with a few services a day, and long-distance buses cover the same route, but neither gets you to Carrowkeel, the Gleniff Horseshoe or Easkey. Rent a car if you want to see anything beyond the town itself.

Bases, briefly. Sligo town for restaurants, the abbey and easy access to Carrowmore and Lissadell. Strandhill for surf, seaweed baths and a beach evening. Rosses Point for golf and the bay views. All three sit within twenty minutes of each other and of the town centre.

Weather is Atlantic and can turn quickly, especially around Benbulben and the coast. Build in an indoor option, such as The Model or Sligo Abbey, for whichever day looks roughest on arrival, and do not treat the forecast as final until the morning of.

Eleven places worth planning a day around

Ordered roughly from Sligo town outward, with what each one actually is, why we send people, and what to know before you go.

1. 01 · Two miles southwest of Sligo town

   Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery

   A cemetery of more than thirty Neolithic passage tombs, some predating Newgrange, set on open pasture within sight of Knocknarea.

   The largest concentration of megalithic tombs in Ireland, and one of the most complete Neolithic ritual landscapes in Europe, without the crowds of the Boyne Valley.

   PlanningSeasonal opening hours through an OPW-run visitor centre. Allow an hour, more if you plan to also climb Knocknarea.

2. 02 · Visible from most of Sligo town, trailhead near Strandhill

   Knocknarea and Maeve's Cairn

   A flat-topped limestone hill capped by an unexcavated cairn traditionally said to be the grave of Queen Maeve of Connacht.

   A steep but short climb with one of the best panoramic views in the county, taking in Carrowmore, the bay and Benbulben in one turn.

   PlanningNo ticket, roadside car park. Do not remove or add stones from the cairn.

3. 03 · On the N15, ten minutes north of Sligo town, under Benbulben

   Drumcliffe Church and W. B. Yeats's Grave

   A working Church of Ireland parish churchyard holding the grave of W. B. Yeats and his self-written epitaph.

   The single most requested stop in Yeats Country, and a quiet one if you arrive outside a tour bus window.

   PlanningFree and unticketed. The visitor centre and tearoom across the road keep separate, seasonal hours.

4. 04 · On the shore of Sligo Bay, 15 minutes north of the town

   Lissadell House and Gardens

   The Gore-Booth family estate, childhood home of Constance Markievicz, with restored gardens and a coastal woodland walk.

   A direct thread into both the Yeats story and the revolutionary history of the county, in one house.

   PlanningHouse and gardens keep seasonal hours; check ahead for winter closures. The walled garden and shore path can be done separately if the house is shut.

5. 05 · East of Sligo town, on the Sligo-Leitrim border

   Glencar Waterfall and Lough Gill

   A roadside waterfall named in Yeats's poetry, and the lake that holds Innisfree, the small wooded island from The Lake Isle of Innisfree.

   The most literal way to stand inside a Yeats poem, and a genuinely pretty half day whether or not you know the lines.

   PlanningGlencar has a short paved path from the car park. Boat trips to view Innisfree from the water run seasonally from Sligo town and Parkes Castle.

6. 06 · The Mall, Sligo town

   The Model

   A gallery and cultural centre holding a permanent collection of Jack B. Yeats paintings alongside contemporary exhibitions.

   The strongest indoor culture stop in the county, and the best wet-weather answer in Sligo town.

   PlanningFree entry to the permanent collection. Café on site.

7. 07 · O'Connell Street, Sligo town

   Hargadon Bros

   A Victorian grocer's pub with its original snugs, shelving and shop counter intact, still trading as a bar.

   The clearest picture left of what a west of Ireland pub looked like a century ago, and a good pint besides.

   PlanningBusiest evenings and weekends. Food served at lunchtime.

8. 08 · Five miles west of Sligo town

   Strandhill

   A surf village with a beginner-friendly beach break, a row of surf schools and cafes, and a working seaweed bath house on the seafront.

   The best single afternoon in the county for anyone who wants a beach, a surf lesson and a seaweed bath in one stop.

   PlanningBook a surf lesson or bath slot ahead in summer. The beach itself is unsafe for casual swimming due to a strong current; ask locally before going in.

9. 09 · North of Cliffoney, behind Benbulben

   Gleniff Horseshoe

   A signposted loop drive through a glacial valley around the back of the Benbulben and Truskmore range.

   The best short scenic drive in the county, mostly single track and almost always quiet.

   PlanningAllow 30 to 40 minutes for the loop without stops. Narrow road; pull in to let oncoming cars pass.

10. 10 · Rosses Point, six miles north of Sligo town

    County Sligo Golf Club, Rosses Point

    A links course on Sligo Bay, regularly ranked among the top courses in Ireland outside the championship venues.

    A serious links test with Benbulben and Knocknarea in view from several holes, without an Open-championship price tag.

    PlanningVisitor tee times available outside member events; book ahead for summer weekends.

11. 11 · Bricklieve Mountains, above Lough Arrow, 30 minutes south of Sligo town

    Carrowkeel Passage Tombs

    A scatter of Neolithic passage tombs on a limestone plateau, with views over Lough Arrow and south Sligo.

    The Carrowmore experience without another visitor in sight, reached by a short climb rather than a visitor centre.

    PlanningNo facilities on site. Wear boots; the last stretch is open hillside without a paved path.