Things to do in County Sligo

Carrowkeel in the Bricklieve Mountains of County Sligo is a cairn cemetery of fourteen Neolithic passage tombs dating from approximately 3000 BC, a remarkable concentration of prehistoric monuments set on a series of limestone ridges with commanding views over the surrounding Sligo landscape, Lough Arrow below and the distant profiles of Knocknarea and the Ben Bulben plateau visible to the north. The combination of the elevated setting, the multiple tombs of considerable scale and the views make Carrowkeel one of the most impressive and most atmospheric Neolithic sites in Ireland. The tombs are all passage tombs of the classic Irish Neolithic type, with a central chamber accessed through a narrow stone passage and covered by a circular cairn of stone and earth. The Carrowkeel tombs are less excavated and less heavily visited than the more famous Brú na Bóinne complex in Meath, preserving an atmosphere of untouched wilderness that Newgrange, with its visitor facilities, cannot provide. The approach across the open limestone hillside to the cairns, with the views expanding at every step, is one of the most rewarding walks to any prehistoric site in Ireland. Cairn G at Carrowkeel has an alignment similar to Newgrange in that the rising sun at the summer solstice illuminates the chamber through a roofbox above the entrance, demonstrating that the solar alignment of passage tombs was not unique to the Boyne Valley complex but was a widespread practice in the Irish Neolithic tradition.

Inishmurray is an uninhabited island off the Sligo coast that contains one of the most remarkably preserved early Christian monastic sites in Ireland, a cashel enclosure protecting the remains of several churches, beehive cells, pillar stones and a cursing stone tradition of considerable antiquity in a state of preservation quite extraordinary for a site that has not been managed or significantly excavated since its abandonment in the twentieth century. The island is accessible by charter boat from Mullaghmore and the visit provides one of the finest and most authentic early Christian heritage experiences available in the west of Ireland. The monastic cashel at Inishmurray encloses several distinct ecclesiastical buildings including the remains of three churches, a women's church and the men's church of the main enclosure, beehive cells that provided accommodation for the monks and a remarkable collection of cursing stones, smooth rounded pebbles used in a specific ritual of imprecation that could be invoked against enemies by turning the stones in a particular direction while uttering specific prayers. The cursing stone tradition is unique to Inishmurray among Irish monastic sites and its persistence to the modern era, long after any formal religious observance had disappeared from the island, demonstrates the tenacity of folk religious practice. The island was permanently inhabited until 1948 when the last residents were evacuated to the mainland, and the remains of the twentieth-century settlement add a more recent layer of human habitation to the island's extraordinary archaeological landscape.

Knocknarea is a flat-topped limestone mountain rising above the Cúil Irra Peninsula southwest of Sligo town, its summit crowned by the vast cairn of Medb's Cairn, a Neolithic passage tomb mound of approximately 40,000 tonnes of stone that is one of the largest prehistoric monuments in Ireland and is traditionally identified as the grave of the mythological Queen Maeve of Connacht. The combination of the mountain's distinctive profile visible from a wide area of Sligo and the extraordinary scale of the cairn on its summit creates one of the most powerful prehistoric landscape monuments in the west of Ireland. The cairn on the summit, measuring approximately 55 metres in diameter and 10 metres high, has never been excavated and is believed to contain a passage tomb of the Neolithic period beneath the stone mound. Whether or not the mythological identification with Queen Maeve is historical, the scale of the cairn demonstrates the enormous investment of labour and resources that the community who built it was prepared to make, and its continued status as one of the most visible landmarks in the Sligo landscape reflects the sustained importance of this monument across five thousand years. The ascent of Knocknarea from Strandhill or Grange provides excellent views of the surrounding Sligo landscape, the Benbulben plateau to the northeast, the Atlantic coast and the Carrowmore megalithic cemetery on the plain below visible in a panorama that encompasses the most remarkable prehistoric landscape in the west of Ireland.

Carrowmore near Sligo town is the largest and one of the oldest megalithic cemetery complexes in Ireland, a collection of over sixty prehistoric monuments including passage tombs, dolmens and stone circles covering a wide area of the lowland plain below the great cairn of Queen Maeve on Knocknarea to the west. The oldest monuments at Carrowmore have been dated to approximately 5,500 years ago, making them among the earliest megalithic monuments in western Europe and among the oldest passage tombs in Ireland, predating Newgrange by several centuries. The scale and variety of the Carrowmore complex is immediately impressive. The monuments range from small boulder circles enclosing central megalithic structures to larger and more elaborate passage tombs of considerable ambition, and their distribution across the flat limestone plain creates a landscape of concentrated archaeological significance that has been compared to the great cemetery landscapes of the Boyne Valley and the Orkneys. Many of the monuments are well preserved, retaining the structural logic of their original construction in a way that allows the visitor to understand the Neolithic building tradition. The Visitor Centre at Carrowmore provides interpretation of the complex and manages access to the most significant monuments. The combination of the archaeological interest, the views to the surrounding Sligo landscape including the dramatic profile of Knocknarea above the plain and the exceptional age of the monuments makes Carrowmore one of the most significant prehistoric heritage sites in Ireland.

Classie Bawn Castle at Mullaghmore in County Sligo is a Victorian turreted castle on a headland above the Atlantic Ocean that is most powerfully associated with Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India and cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, who was murdered by an IRA bomb placed on his fishing boat in the bay below the castle on 27 August 1979 in one of the most consequential acts of political violence in the history of the Troubles. The castle stands in a position of extraordinary natural beauty above the Mullaghmore headland, its Victorian Gothic outline visible from a wide area of the north Sligo coast. The castle was built in 1856 for Viscount Palmerston, the Prime Minister, in a position of considerable scenic drama above the natural harbour of Mullaghmore. The Mountbatten family purchased it after the Second World War and it became the summer residence where the family spent holidays throughout the following decades, the elderly earl's continued use of this remote Sligo headland after the beginning of the Troubles reflecting a personal attachment to the place that ultimately cost him his life. The village of Mullaghmore below the castle is one of the most attractive on the Sligo coast, its natural harbour providing shelter for a small fishing and pleasure craft fleet and the Mullaghmore Head providing the finest surfing big waves in Ireland, a destination for professional big-wave surfers when the Atlantic swells arrive with sufficient power. The wider Sligo coast and the landscape of W B Yeats, with the great table mountain of Benbulben visible to the east, provides one of the finest scenic settings of any coastal village in Ireland.

Lissadell House is a striking Greek Revival country house situated on the southern shores of Drumcliff Bay in County Sligo, Republic of Ireland, and it stands as one of the most historically and culturally resonant houses in the west of Ireland. Built in the 1830s, the house is most famously associated with the Gore-Booth family, and in particular with two of its daughters — Constance Gore-Booth, who became Countess Markievicz, a revolutionary nationalist and the first woman elected to the British House of Commons (though she did not take her seat), and her sister Eva Gore-Booth, a poet and social activist. The house drew the young W.B. Yeats as a guest in the winter of 1894–95, and his visits there produced some of his most elegiac lines, including the celebrated poem "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz," in which he recalled "the light of evening, Lissadell, great windows open to the south." That literary and political heritage alone would make the house significant, but it also represents one of the best-preserved examples of its architectural style in Connacht, set against a landscape of almost theatrical beauty. The house was designed by the prominent Dublin architect Francis Goodwin and constructed between 1830 and 1833 for Sir Robert Gore-Booth, a wealthy landowner and baronet. It was built from Ballysodare limestone, giving it a pale, almost chalky appearance that catches the light differently throughout the day. The Gore-Booth family had long been established in Sligo, and Sir Robert distinguished himself during the Great Famine of the 1840s by chartering ships to bring food to his tenants and reportedly spending much of his personal fortune in relief efforts, a fact that sets him somewhat apart from the more notorious landlord histories of the period. The house remained in the Gore-Booth family for generations, but by the latter half of the twentieth century it had fallen into serious disrepair and became the subject of a prolonged and contentious legal dispute. In 2003, ownership passed to Eddie Walsh and Constance Cassidy, who undertook an extensive and painstaking restoration project that returned the house and its grounds to something approaching their former grandeur. Physically, Lissadell House is a commanding two-storey structure with a six-bay south-facing facade and a long, impressive gallery corridor running through its interior, lit by a remarkable top-lit atrium. The gallery is one of the most distinctive features of the house, lined with family portraits and artefacts, and the quality of light within it on a clear afternoon is genuinely beautiful. The main reception rooms retain their original proportions and much of their plasterwork, and the restoration has been careful to preserve authentic details rather than impose a sanitised period reconstruction. Visitors frequently remark on how inhabited the house feels — not sterile or museumlike, but alive with the textures of actual domestic history. Outside, the sound of the wind off Drumcliff Bay is almost always present, and the gardens, which include a walled kitchen garden planted with heritage varieties, carry the particular stillness and damp fragrance of the Atlantic west. The surrounding landscape is quite extraordinary. Lissadell sits within a broad peninsula bounded by Drumcliff Bay to the east and Sligo Bay to the west, with the great bulk of Benbulben rising dramatically to the southeast. Benbulben, the flat-topped limestone plateau that dominates the skyline of north Sligo, is visible from the house and gardens and lends the entire area a quality of mythological grandeur that is difficult to overstate. The grave of W.B. Yeats lies at Drumcliff churchyard, only a few kilometres away, beneath the shadow of that same mountain. The coastline near Lissadell is wild and relatively undeveloped, with sandy beaches, dunes, and the Lissadell Beach itself within easy walking distance of the house. The area is popular with birdwatchers, as the bay and surrounding wetlands support significant populations of wading birds and wildfowl, particularly in winter. Visiting Lissadell is a manageable and rewarding experience. The house is open to visitors seasonally, generally from late spring through early autumn, with guided tours of the interior and access to the gardens, café, and gift shop. The best time to visit is on a clear day in May, June, or September, when the light on the bay and the mountains is at its most dramatic and the gardens are in fine condition without the peak summer crowds. The house is located off the R291 road, roughly 8 kilometres north of Drumcliff and about 15 kilometres from Sligo town, and is signposted from the main N15 road. Driving is the most practical means of access, as public transport to the immediate area is limited, though local taxi services from Sligo town are an option. Parking is available on site. The grounds are largely accessible, though the house interior involves some stairs, and visitors with mobility considerations would do well to check ahead. One of the more quietly remarkable aspects of Lissadell is the story of Constance Gore-Booth's later life viewed against the backdrop of her privileged childhood here. She was presented at court to Queen Victoria, hunted and socialised in the conventional manner of her class, and then transformed herself into a revolutionary who fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, was sentenced to death (later commuted), and became a minister in the first Dáil. The contrast between the serene, aristocratic beauty of Lissadell and the turbulent political life she chose is one of Irish history's more arresting ironies. Her sister Eva's trajectory was different but equally remarkable — she moved to Manchester, campaigned for women's suffrage and workers' rights, and wrote poetry of considerable lyrical power. That two women raised in this quiet house on a Sligo bay should have become such consequential figures in their respective fields gives Lissadell a resonance that goes well beyond its architectural or scenic interest, and it is that human story, as much as the house itself, that most visitors carry away with them.

Ballinafad Castle stands on a limestone outcrop in County Sligo and is one of the most striking tower houses in the northwest of Ireland. The castle is generally dated to the late sixteenth century and is associated with the O'Rourke family, an important Gaelic dynasty that held considerable authority across this part of Connacht during the late medieval and early modern period. Its position was not accidental. From here the occupants had broad views over the surrounding countryside, allowing the site to function both as a residence and as a watchpoint in a politically unstable time when the expansion of English authority was beginning to press against established Gaelic power structures. Architecturally the building is a classic Irish tower house, rising vertically rather than spreading outward, with thick masonry walls, small openings and an emphasis on defence. Castles of this kind were created to give local lords a defensible residence without the scale or cost of a great enclosure castle or Norman keep. The result was a tall, compact structure designed around security, visibility and controlled access. Ballinafad's surviving shell still conveys that sense of compact power, and even in ruin it gives a strong impression of how fortified domestic life worked in late medieval and early modern Ireland. The castle is also tied to the wider conflict of the Elizabethan wars. In the closing years of the sixteenth century many strongholds in the west and northwest became caught up in struggles between Gaelic Irish lords and expanding English authority, with the Nine Years' War of 1593 to 1603 representing the decisive confrontation. Ballinafad was one of the places drawn into that tension. That historical backdrop gives the ruin more meaning than its walls alone might suggest, because it belonged to a moment when the older local power structures of Connacht were under the most intense pressure they had yet faced. The site has an isolated and atmospheric quality that rewards a visit. The ruin rises directly from the rock and the landscape around it remains open and rural, offering the same kind of unobstructed prospect that made the site valuable in the first place. It is a place where the relationship between building, bedrock and surrounding land explains clearly why it was built exactly here. County Sligo is rich in prehistoric and medieval heritage, and Ballinafad fits naturally into a day that takes in the broader archaeological landscape of the region, including the megalithic monuments of the Carrowmore and Carrowkeel complexes to the south.

Ballymote Castle is situated on the western outskirts of Ballymote village, 15 miles south of Sligo in the north west of Ireland. The castle is a large rectangular enclosure castle which is in a state of partial ruin although well preserved in parts. The symmetrical plan of the keepless castle has three quarter round towers at each corner, a double towered gate entrance in the centre of the north wall; now mostly demolished, two D shaped towers in the curtain walls to the east and west and there are also a few remains of a typical gatehouse. The castle is situated on a small amount of ground but the interior of the castle is 30 meters square. Facilities Access to the castle can only be gained via the car park of St. John of God's Nursing Home. It is believed that Ballymote castle was built in the 1300's by the Red Earl of Ulster, Richard de Burgo and was the last and greatest Norman castle in Connaught to be built. The castle was subject to many battles and takeovers between 1317 and 1584 and left abandoned for much of the time with the two major owners being the O'Connors of Sligo and the MacDonagh clan. Richard Bingham, governor of Connaught, took the castle on behalf of the English in 1584 and remained there for 14 years before it was surrendered once again to the MacDonagh's. Finally the castle was sold by the MacDonagh's to Red Hugh O'Donnell. It was from here that he rode out to the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 leaving the castle to become badly damaged and the O'Donnell clan having to surrender to the English. After this time the castle changed hands on many occasions, mainly between the English; for King James II and local clans. It was the Williamites who dismantled the fortifications and filled in the moat in the late 1690's. The castle is now classed as a National Monument and in the hands of the Office of Public Works who are responsible for its preservation.