Visitor Centres

Things to do in County Sligo

You will never run out of things to do in County Sligo - you are more likely to run out of time first! Sligo is rich in landscape, heritage, history and culture and if you are interested in any of these fields, you will be well rewarded. The driving tours (see Touring Sligo) are a good way to see the scenery and landscape and find out some of the historical and mythological background to each area.

These tours also take you to some of the many archaeological treasures within Sligo - more richly endowed with ancient sites than any other part of Ireland, so if you like visiting ring forts, cairns and other megalithic remains, this is cetainly the place for you!

Sligo is well known as a place to enjoy outdoor activities of all descriptions. Endless beaches, wonderful woodland rides and hill treks provide plenty of choice for the equestrian enthusiast, and the county boasts some of the best links and parkland courses in Ireland; while fishermen return again and again to Sligo’s lakes, rivers and varied coast-line for course, game and sea angling. In addition there is sailing, diving, swimming, world-class surfing, racing, hill walking, cycling and shooting. There are boxing clubs, flying clubs and yacht clubs. There are music festivals, drama festivals and Feis Ceoil. There is Irish dancing, set dancing and you can even learn to tango!

Many visitors come to Sligo because they have an interest in literature and want to see the county that so inspired WB Yeats, the nobel-prize winning poet who is buried at Drumcliffe. The Yeats Society in Sligo is a monument to his life and work, and there are both summer and winter schools devoted to the study and appreciation of his writing. Sligo has many other current literary figures, and the annual Scriobh Festival at the Model and Niland Gallery celebrates some of these. Painting is just as vitally part of Sligo’s make-up, with Yeats’ brother Jack being one of the county’s most famous sons. Today painters live here and painting classes and holidays make wonderful use of Sligo’s scenery and extraordinary light.

Perhaps Sligo’s greatest asset is her beautifully clean sea and fabulous coastline. The area is famous for fossils - the carboniferous limestone rocks along the coast contain spectacular coral reefs. Explore some of the shingle beaches and you will be amazed, although with stopping to look at fascinating stones and dabbling in rock pools, don’t expect to make very speedy progress! Sandy beaches include Mullaghmore, Rosses point, Streedagh where several ships of the Spanish armada sank in 1588, and Enniscrone, which is 3kms long, ends in the romantically named valley of the Diamonds and is justly famous for its sunsets. What could be better for a walk, a picnic, a swim or just to get away from it all! To walk barefoot on an empty beach beside the sea is to feel very close to heaven!

Whatever you choose to do in County Sligo, take care! You might find yourself falling in love - don’t forget, Yeats called it ’the land of heart’s desire’!