Ireland Travel Search: Connacht: County Roscommon Tourism Information Directory for Visitors to Ireland


	Home \| Team \| Contact Us \| Maps \| Visas & Immigration \| Specials \| Add Your Listing \| UK Time

	UK & IRELAND MAPS
Search Travel Services
	ACCOMMODATION
	MEETINGS/CONFERENCES
	THEATRE BOOKINGS
	TRANSPORT
	TUBE MAP
	TOURS
	Custom Itineraries
	UK Information Links
	UK Information Guides
Search Special Travel
	Myths, Magic & Legends
	Battlefields Remembered
Search Destinations
	ENGLAND
	LONDON
	LONDON 2012 GAMES
	IRELAND
	SCOTLAND
	WALES
	CHANNEL ISLANDS
	ISLE OF MAN
	PARIS
Odds n' Ends..!
	American English!
	Famous People & Places
Administration
	ABOUT US
	Terms & Conditions
	Secure Payment Options
	Privacy Statement
	Currency Converter

Ireland > Connacht > County Roscommon

Sligo is famous for its local Irish fiddle music, its fishing and a superb collection of ancient prehistoric monuments dating back to the Mesolithic and Neolithic times. The major Gaelic families of Sligo were the O'Hara's, the O'Connor's and the O'Dowd's, and until the Anglo Norman invasion in the 13th century these powerful families ruled the land, often rather badly, as their perpetual suspicion of each other resulted in major battles and skirmishes between them for centuries.

Sligo Town was burnt to the ground in the 1641 rebellion and later taken by the Jacobites in the wars of the 1690s. Again, as in most of Ireland, the Potato Famine in the 1840s had a horrific effect with hundreds of thousands dying or immigrating to America or Australia.

After the constant wars of the 16th and 17th century and the 1840's famine, the population had dropped away alarmingly with many proud old families either dead or scattered all over the world. However, Yeats and Lady Gregory (see Yeats section in County Galway and the section on Lady Gregory) in the 1920's/30's personally saved much of the local Gaelic folk legends and stories from these families through presenting them at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

Click on the headings to find out more:

Sligo Town with a population of around 17,000 people is the administrative centre of County Sligo. A bright and colourful market town, it has a wonderful feel of age as well as monuments to its most famous family - the Yeats. Sligo Abbey was founded in 1253 for the Dominicans by Maurice Fitzgerald, 2nd Baron of Offaly, who was also founder of the town. It escaped the ravages suffered by Sligo Castle, which was destroyed in the 13th century and again in the 14th century, however it was accidentally torched in 1414 and rebuilt - only to be burnt again by the hated Cromwellians. Well worth a visit as much of its interior structure remains. The 14th century Anglican Cathedral is also worth a quick visit to see the brass memorial to Susan Mary Yeats, mother of William and Jack.

County Sligo is of course Yeats Country just as the county of Wessex in England is Hardy - references to the poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats abound in County Sligo. The tiny island of Innisfree in Lough Gill was immortalised in powerful lines of astonishing beauty by Yeats' in The Lake Isle of Innisfree:

'I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade'.

William Yeats brother Jack was also a famous painter who painted many portraits of the people of Sligo, capturing the magic qualities of the soft ethereal light that typifies this part of Ireland. All of the areas that so inspired both the Yeats brothers are easily accessed and discreetly signposted by Tourism Ireland.

Drumcliffe - this ancient Christian monastic site is a small pretty village with the main attraction Yeats' grave, located in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland where Yeats' great grandfather was the rector. The poet is buried here under his cherished Ben Bulben, as per his wish that he should be buried under 'bare Ben Bulbens head' His epitaph summons up a stern injunction that is classical Yeats:

'Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by'

Of great interest however is that Yeats in fact died in Monaco, where he had gone for the sake of his health. He was buried in France for 10 years before the Irish Navy brought his remains back to Ireland. Rumours persist that they brought back the wrong body. Yeats' wife Georgie lays buried beside him (assuming it is in fact him). When they married, he was 52 and she was 15. - Seems like Bill Wyman and Jerry Lee Lewis weren't trendsetters after all!

Sligo Racecourse is quite famous. Located inside large municipal Doorly Park in Sligo Town its racing season starts in April and finishes in August.

Approximately three miles from Sligo Town is Knocknarea Mountain, with Maeve's Cairn on the top. From a practical perspective at about 2000 feet high, it offers a wonderful view of the stunning patchwork quilt fields below it. From a mythical and legendary reason this is a holy place, reputedly the burial chamber of Queen Maeve, Queen of Connacht, known as 'Queen Mab' in old English and Welsh folk tales. The cairn is massive, and thankfully so far unexcavated. It is about 35 feet high by about 200 feet wide. Maeve is the legendary Queen who took on the Ulster army over a bull in the story; Tain Bo' Culigne, the longest and most say the most important of all of the heroic Ulster fables. Historians think that Maeve lived around the same period as Christ, and although the origins of the Tain are only chronicled from around the 12th century, most scholars date the Tain from around the 1st century. Note: access to the summit is via private land - however if politely requested access is usually granted.

About 4 miles southeast is Carrowmore, a superb megalithic stone-age cemetery spread over a number of small fields although much of it was vandalised in the 19th century it is still worth a visit. Carrowmore represents the largest grouping of megalithic monuments in Ireland, and is an immense Neolithic burial ground where once there may have been more than a hundred tombs.

Inishmurray Island in Glencar Lough is a strange, uninhabited place, where bees buzz among the remains of a 6th century church. Pagan relics include a collection of stones used to lay curses. They don't bother the bees.





Send this page to a friend Add page to favourites

VIEW AREA MAP

DOWNLOAD OLD MAP

VISITOR INFORMATION

GALLERY