County Sligo
Blessed with fine lakes and a coastline that has some of the best surf in the British Isles. The more culturally inclined can explore Yeats Country and experience the source of inspiration for some of William Butler Yeats passionate poetry. Sligo has the 2nd largest megalithic cemetery in Europe. Sligo has surprising contrasting landscapes, spectacular scenery which are a dream for painters, historians and archaeologists.
County Sligo has an interesting history. Plundered by Norse pirates in the 9th century, it later became the residence of the Earl of Kildare, Maurice Fitzgerald. Sligo felt the tyrannical hand of Cromwell in 1645 when it fell to his forces.
W.B Yeats was seduced by the beauty of Sligo. You can retrace his steps over a one hundred kilometre trip which features many of the places he immortalised in his poetry, including the lake-isle of innisfree.
This lively county town is built on the Garavogue and is one of the most important in the north-west of Ireland. For the sports minded there is fishing in many of the lakes and rivers in the area, there is also golf at Rosses Point and Strandhill, also there is boats for hire and summer walking tours of the town.
Culture Vultures may wish to visit the theatre or Sligo Abbey. And when you are in need of a rest, there are plenty of excellent public houses where you can stop for a pint of the black stuff or a shot of Irish Whiskey.
Sligo Abbey
This was founded by Maurice Fitzgerald in 1252 for the Domincans, it is the oldest building in Sligo. Devasted in a fire in 1414, the present building dates from the 15th century.