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Sligo is a town located in the northwest of Ireland. Sligo has a scenic location with approximately 20,000 inhabitants. As the area’s capital, Sligo has been a regional center for trade and culture for centuries, and it has also been a traffic hub and shipping port.
There are several attractions in Sligo. Here, among other things, two cathedrals lie next to each other; the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and the Anglican St. John the Baptist Cathedral. You can also see the town’s fine town hall and courthouse, both from the end of the 19th century.
You must also visit the ruins of Sligo Abbey, which is the town’s best-known attraction. The monastery was founded in the middle of the 13th century by Maurice FitzGerald, and with the monastery the town gradually grew into Sligo, which you can experience today.
The area around Sligo is also interesting. Many beautiful nature experiences await here, and perhaps Ireland’s most iconic mountain, Ben Bulben, is quite close to the city. Ben Bulben’s profile dominates the landscape and there are many lovely walks around the mountain.
Sligo Abbey was a Dominican monastery founded in 1253. It was the English authority in the form of the Governor of Ireland at the time who established the monastery dedicated to the Holy Cross. The reason for its founding was said to be to gather some monks who could pray for Richard Marshal, the 3rd Earl of Pembroke, because he was rumored to have been murdered.
In 1414, the Romanesque monastery burned down and could not afford to rebuild it. Instead, they asked the Pope for help, and with the help of donations, the abbey was able to be used again in 1416. After this, Sligo Abbey was active until the end of the 17th century, which was a century of many trials. Several times the monastery was destroyed, and by a law from 1697 all monks had to leave Ireland no later than 1 May 1698. Sligo’s Dominicans went to Spain and left the monastery empty.
Through the 1700s and 1800s, the old monastery gradually became the ruin that can be seen today. Among other things, the place was used to collect building material for other buildings, and returned monks had built a church and a monastery elsewhere in the city. Today, Sligo Abbey stands as a large ruin, with part of the church’s masonry preserved. You can also see the monastery courtyard with some of the old archways.
This is a museum dedicated to the history of the County Sligo area. It was opened in 1955 in the house that was formerly a parsonage. Here lived the priests who served in the neighboring building, which was a Presbyterian church until 1954.
The museum depicts the history of Sligo from the Stone Age to the present day. In the exhibition you can see, among other things, effects that deal with the writer William Butler Yeats, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923. There are also several paintings, documents and photographs that give an impression of the area’s history.
Incidentally, the Presbyterian church next to the museum can still be seen. Today, the church is set up as Sligo Bibliotek/Sligo Library, and inside you can clearly see the structure of the former church.
This is Sligo’s Town Hall, built in the 1860s to house the town’s government and administration. The town hall stands as a beautiful example of Italian palazzo style, with well-balanced dimensions and multi-colored brickwork emphasizing the architectural details. It was the architect William Hague who designed the town hall, which was built on the site of several previous houses in the city.
Sligo Courthouse was designed by architect Rawson Carroll and completed in 1878 as the town’s new courthouse. It was built in the French-Gothic style and built in ashlar. The house was built for legal purposes, but after the so-called Local Government Act of 1898, which established local councils in Ireland, the council for Sligo County was established in the same building. Here the council held its meetings until 1979, when it moved to modern offices in the city.
There are two cathedrals in Sligo and this is the larger of them. The church is the cathedral of the Catholic Church, which is the dominant one in Ireland. It was Bishop Laurence Gillooly who decided to build a new church to replace the parish church of St. John’s, believing that the congregation had grown large enough for a larger building.
Gillooly engaged the English architect George Goldie, who was particularly known for designing Catholic churches in the 1800s. George Goldie built the new church in a style that architecturally mixed Romanesque with features from both Byzantine and Norman architecture.
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was opened in 1874, and the church stands with its 70 meter high tower and an elegant interior, where you can see, among other things, tall stained glass windows in the church’s apse. In the center of the church room you can see the cathedral’s remarkable high altar.
St. John the Baptist Cathedral is one of Sligo’s two cathedrals. The church belongs to the Church of Ireland, which is the name of the Anglican Church in Ireland, which is an independent part of the Anglican Church.
The church was built in the 18th century as St. John’s Church and achieved the status of a cathedral in 1961. It was the German-born architect Richard Cassels who designed and built the church, and he was particularly inspired by the Romanesque building style. You can still see these style features, even though several conversions in the 1800s also left their mark.
The railway station in Sligo is one of the town’s traffic centres, and has been since 1862, when the first railway came to the town. The line connected Sligo with Dublin and later lines were laid to Enniskillen and Limerick. The service to Enniskillen was discontinued in 1957, while trains ran to Limerick until 1963.
Since 1966, Sligo Station has been named after Seán Mac Diarmada, who was a politician and one of the leaders of the Irish Revolution. Diarmada hailed from County Leitrim, east of Sligo, and he took part in the Easter Rising of 1916, in which militant Irish tried to achieve Irish independence from England. In the same year, Diarmada co-signed a proclamation of an Irish republic.
In this place you can see a large group of megaliths from tombs dating from the Neolithic period, which corresponds to more than 5,000 years ago. There are around 30 preserved graves in the area and Carrowmore is considered one of the largest and most important of these sites in Ireland.
Over recent centuries, some of the megaliths have been destroyed since Gabriel Beranger visited Carrowmore in 1779 and illustrated the site. Beranger’s work and subsequent artists’ impressions mean that you know more about how Carrowmore used to look.
Today there is a visitor center at the burial site. Here there are descriptions of Carrowmore and the known history of the place, and you can of course take a walk among the many megaliths in the open countryside.
Ben Bulben is a distinctive table mountain that lies beautifully in the countryside north of Sligo. The iconic mountain is Sligo’s natural landmark and can be seen from afar. The highest point is 526 meters above sea level, and the entire mountain was formed during the Ice Age, when Ireland was under colossal glaciers.
You can enjoy the sight of Ben Bulben when driving in the area, but there are also plenty of opportunities for hiking around the mountain. You can, for example, go on the Ben Bulben Forest Walk tour, which consists of fine hiking trails all the way around Ben Bulben. On the trip you get fresh air and breathtaking views of both Ben Bulben and the surrounding landscape.
There are also other opportunities for wonderful nature experiences at Ben Bulben. East of the iconic profile of Ben Bulben itself, from the north you can reach Gleniff Horsehoe in the Dartry Mountains, which is also a beautiful place. A few kilometers further east you can enjoy the cliffs at Eagle’s Rock, and south of the mountain massif you can see the waterfall Devil’s Chimney and the beautiful lake, Glencar Lough.
The town of Donegal is a pleasant town with around 2,500 inhabitants. The square called The Diamond is the center of Donegal, and here atmospheric houses lie side by side. In the middle of the square you can see a stone pillar commemorating the so-called Four Masters. The Four Masters were four Gaelic historians who wrote The Annals of the Four Masters about the Irish Middle Ages in 1630.
There are cozy eateries around The Diamond and in the side streets, which at the same time form the city’s main thoroughfare. Close by, the River Eske meanders through the town, and at its outlet in Donegal Bay to the west lies the ruin of the former Franciscan monastery, Donegal Abbey. The abbey was built in 1474 and it was destroyed during the Siege of Donegal in 1601.
From the center of Donegal there is also the option of a boat trip with the Donegal Bay Waterbus. There are tides in Donegal Bay, so sailing times vary, usually lasting 75 minutes and sailing guests around the bay.
O’Connell Street
johnstoncourt.com
Wine Street
quayside.ie
O’Connell Street, Grattan Street, Wine Street, Market Street
Zero Gravity Skate Park
4 The Back Avenue, Cleveragh
zerogravityskateparksligo.ie
Eagles Flying
Portinch
eaglesflying.com
Vertigo
Collooney
vertigosligo.com
WaterPoint
Pier Road, Carrowhubbuck South, Enniscrone
waterpoint.ie
Happy Days Adventure Play Centre
Cleveragh Business Park
happydayssligo.ie
This is Sligo’s Town Hall, built in the 1860s to house the town’s government and administration. The town hall stands as a beautiful example of Italian palazzo style, with well-balanced dimensions and multi-colored brickwork emphasizing the architectural details. It was the architect William Hague who designed the town hall, which was built on the site of several previous houses in the city.
Sligo Courthouse was designed by architect Rawson Carroll and completed in 1878 as the town’s new courthouse. It was built in the French-Gothic style and built in ashlar. The house was built for legal purposes, but after the so-called Local Government Act of 1898, which established local councils in Ireland, the council for Sligo County was established in the same building. Here the council held its meetings until 1979, when it moved to modern offices in the city.
There are two cathedrals in Sligo and this is the larger of them. The church is the cathedral of the Catholic Church, which is the dominant one in Ireland. It was Bishop Laurence Gillooly who decided to build a new church to replace the parish church of St. John’s, believing that the congregation had grown large enough for a larger building.
Gillooly engaged the English architect George Goldie, who was particularly known for designing Catholic churches in the 1800s. George Goldie built the new church in a style that architecturally mixed Romanesque with features from both Byzantine and Norman architecture.
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was opened in 1874, and the church stands with its 70 meter high tower and an elegant interior, where you can see, among other things, tall stained glass windows in the church’s apse. In the center of the church room you can see the cathedral’s remarkable high altar.
St. John the Baptist Cathedral is one of Sligo’s two cathedrals. The church belongs to the Church of Ireland, which is the name of the Anglican Church in Ireland, which is an independent part of the Anglican Church.
The church was built in the 18th century as St. John’s Church and achieved the status of a cathedral in 1961. It was the German-born architect Richard Cassels who designed and built the church, and he was particularly inspired by the Romanesque building style. You can still see these style features, even though several conversions in the 1800s also left their mark.
The railway station in Sligo is one of the town’s traffic centres, and has been since 1862, when the first railway came to the town. The line connected Sligo with Dublin and later lines were laid to Enniskillen and Limerick. The service to Enniskillen was discontinued in 1957, while trains ran to Limerick until 1963.
Since 1966, Sligo Station has been named after Seán Mac Diarmada, who was a politician and one of the leaders of the Irish Revolution. Diarmada hailed from County Leitrim, east of Sligo, and he took part in the Easter Rising of 1916, in which militant Irish tried to achieve Irish independence from England. In the same year, Diarmada co-signed a proclamation of an Irish republic.
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