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County Sligo Contae Shligigh
Motto: Land of Heart's Desire
Location
Statistics
Province:	Connacht
County seat:	Sligo
Code:	SO
Area:	1,837 km2 (709 sq mi)
Population (2006)	60,894[1]
Website: www.sligococo.ie

County Sligo (Irish: Contae Shligigh) is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Connacht. It was named after the town of Sligo (Irish: Sligeach).

Sligo is the 22nd largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and 25th largest in terms of population^[2]. It is the fourth largest of Connacht’s 5 counties in size and third largest in terms of population.

Geography

Sligo is bordered to the west by Mayo, to the south by Roscommon, and the east by Leitrim.

Towns and villages

The county town is Sligo (population: 17,892 ^[9]), which is home to the Institute of Technology, Sligo.

• Achonry, Aclare
• Ballaghnatrillick, Ballinafad, Ballintogher, Ballymote, Ballysadare, Beltra, Bunninadden
• Carney, Castlebaldwin, Cliffony, Cloonacool
• Collooney, Coolaney,
• Dromore West, Drumcliffe
• Easky, Enniscrone
• Geevagh, Grange, Gurteen/Gorteen
• Kilglass, Keash
• Monasteraden, Mullaghmore
• Riverstown, Rosses Point
• Skreen, Strandhill
• Tourlestrane, Tubbercurry

Music tradition

A view of the Sligo countryside and Ben Bulben seen in the background.

County Sligo has a long history of traditional music. The south of the county is particularly noted with such musical luminaries as James Morrison, Michael Coleman, Paddy Killoran, Fred Finn , Peter Horan, Joe O'Dowd, Jim Donoghue, Martin Wynne, Oisín Mac Diarmada (of Téada), tin-whistle player Carmel Gunning and the band Dervish. The county has many traditional music festivals and one of the most well known is the Queen Maeve International Summer School, a traditional Irish Music summer school of music and dance which is held annually in August in Sligo Town. On the more contemporary music scene there are Westlife, Tabby Callaghan and The Conway Sisters who are from Sligo. Strandhill, about 9 km west of Sligo, hosts the Strandhill Guitar Festival[1] each year, featuring a wide variety of guitar music and musicians.

Culture and literature

The megalithic cemetery of Carrowmore is located in County Sligo. It forms part of a huge complex of Stone Age remains connecting Carrowkeel in South Sligo to the Ox Mountains, to the Cuil Irra Peninsula, where Queen Maeve's tomb dominates the skyline from the crest of Knocknarea Mountain. The poet and Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) spent much of his childhood in northern Sligo and the county's landscapes (particularly the Isle of Innisfree, in Lough Gill) were the inspiration for much of his poetry. Yeats said, "the place that has really influenced my life most is Sligo." He is buried in North County Sligo, "Under Ben Bulben", in Drumcliffe.

National politics

Sligo is part of the Sligo-North Leitrim constituency and has three representatives (TD's) in Dáil Eireann, Eamon Scanlon, John Perry and Jimmy Devins. It also has two representatives to Seanad Eireann Marc MacSharry and Gearldine Feeney.

Local government

Sligo County Council is the governing body for the county. It is divided into five Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) Ballymote, Dromore, Sligo-Drumcliffe, Sligo-Strandhill and Tubbercurry. There are 25 members elected to Sligo County Council

COUNTY COUNCILLORS

BALLYMOTE LEA

DROMORE LEA

SLIGO-DRUMCLIFFE LEA

SLIGO-STRANDHILL LEA

TUBBERCURRY LEA

SLIGO COUNTY COUNCIL

See also

• List of abbeys and priories in the Republic of Ireland (County Sligo)
• List of Sligo people
• Sligo GAA
• Sligo Rovers F.C.

External links

• Collection of Sligo Landscape Photographs
• Sligo County Council
• Sligo Borough Council
• Map of Sligo
• Sligoheritage.com
• Sligo Rovers F.C.
• County Sligo travel guide from Wikitravel
• History of Sligo, County and Town By William Gregory Wood-Martin
• Song, "Beautiful Sligo" sung by Michael McGloin,YouTube Video, with images.

References

Counties of Ireland Connacht Galway (Galway City) · Leitrim · Mayo · Roscommon · Sligo Munster Clare · Cork (Cork City) · Kerry · Limerick (Limerick City) · Tipperary (North Tipperary • South Tipperary) · Waterford (Waterford City) Leinster Carlow · Dublin (Dublin City • Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown • Fingal • South Dublin) · Kildare · Kilkenny · Laois · Longford · Louth · Meath · Offaly · Westmeath · Wexford · Wicklow Ulster Antrim† · Armagh† · Cavan · Fermanagh† · Derry or Londonderry† · Donegal · Down† · Monaghan · Tyrone† Italics denote non-administrative counties. Brackets denote eponymous cities or non-traditional counties. † denotes counties of Northern Ireland

Coordinates: 54°15′N 8°40′W / 54.25°N 8.667°W / 54.25; -8.667

From Wikitravel

County Sligo is in Northwest Ireland and Lakelands. Sligo is often overlooked but most visitors can understand the slogan 'Sligo is surprising'. It is a small county but densely packed with scenery and cultural interest

Statue of WB Yeats in Sligo Town

• Yeats Country This area vaguely describes the land within about 10 miles of Sligo town which features in Yeats' poetry.
• South Sligo. The larger, more remote and less scenic (in comparison) part of the country, which has a reputation for tradtional music.

History

County Sligo is named after the main town in the county, Sligo, which in turn gets it's name from the Irish (Gaelic) Sligeach, which means Shelly River or Shelly Place.

Sligo in Irish mythology

(For more information on Irish mythology, see Irish Mythology page on Wikipedia )

• According to the ancient mythology of the Ulster cycle, the cairn on top of Knocknarea Mountain is said to be the final resting place of Queen Maeve (or Medb in Irish), ancient queen of Connacht.

• Ben Bulben is said to be the final resting place of Diarmuid and Gráinne, the eloping lovers from the Fenian cycle of Irish mythology. Gráinne, daughter of the High King, Cormac MacAirt, was to be married to Fionn MacCumhail (Finn McCool), but she eloped with a warrior of Fionn's, called Diarmuid. Eventually, they made peace with Fionn, and settled in Keshcorran, County Sligo (near Ballymote), where they have five children. In spite of a prediction that he will be killed by a boar, Diarmuid joins a boar hunt organised by Fionn. Indeed, the creature wounds him mortally as he deals it a fatal blow. Fionn has the power to heal his dying comrade by letting him drink water from his hands, but he lets the water slip through his fingers twice. Finally Fionn's grandson Oscar threatens him with violence if he does not help Diarmuid, but when he returns from the well on the third attempt it is too late. Diarmuid has died.

• Sligo
• Ballymote
• Rosses Point
• Strandhill
• Tubbercurry
• Grange

Understand

Most of Sligo's population speak English but, as with most parts of Ireland, there are different accents in different parts of the county. For example, some of the people from Sligo town (sometimes derogatorily known as townies) speak in an accent which tends to slur vowels and lengthen words, e.g., 'haows ih goooin?'(how is it going?, meaning how are you doing?).

Much of the landsape of Sligo features in the poetry of W.B.Yeats (The Stolen Child, The Fiddler of Dooney) and the poet is buried, as he wished in Drumcliffe, north of Sligo town. There is an annual Yeats Summer School which attracts writers and students from all over the world, but many other visitors enjoy the insights the poet has given into the landscape.

For lovers of traditional music, the more remote southern part of the county has given rise to a strong fiddle tradition, while in recent years the bands, Dervish and Westlife, from Sligo town, have become internationally famous.

Spike Milligan's father was from Sligo.

Get in

By plane

There is a small airport at Strandhill (7 km west of Sligo town), with direct daily flights to and from Dublin and Manchester and an international airport, Ireland West Airport Knock(55 km south of Sligo town) between Charlestown and Knock, just over the county border in Mayo.

By train

There is a railway from Sligo to Dublin (135 miles) which takes a little over three hours and usually has a shop or snack trolley on board. It costs between €25.50 and €36 for an adult single or return ticket. There are eight trains running each way daily, from Dublin Connolly Station to Sligo Station at 7.05AM, 9.05AM, 11.05AM, 1.05PM, 3.05PM, 4PM, 5.05PM and 7.05PM.

By car

135 miles to Dublin on the N4 road and also to Belfast (take the M1, then the A4, which becomes the N16 when you cross the border into the Republic of Ireland). 90 miles to Galway on the N17 road.

By bus

From Galway, Limerick, Derry, Donegal, Dublin.

Get around

Sligo town is small enough to walk from one end to the other in an hour. Garys Cycles down by the river's edge rents bicycles. There are buses which run from the main bus station to Strandhill and Rosses point (small nearby coastal towns) regularly, as well as a city service around the town.

Rainbow over the monolithic mountain of Knocknarea

• Knocknarea mountain is 4 miles west of Sligo on a peninsula. It is just over 1000ft and can be climbed in 20 to 40 minutes. The summit offers a magnificent panorama of the indented coast and holds a massive cairn, which is reputed to be the grave of the ancient Celtic warrior Queen Maedbh (pronounced May-v). As the cairn is estimated to weigh 40,000 tons it has never been excavated. Climbers are now requested NOT to climb on the cairn or to use the stones from the cairn due to much damage in recent years.

An old local tradition has it that a climber should bring a stone from the bottom of the mountain and place it on the cairn on the top. Failure to do so, according to the legend, will result in your dreams being haunted by the Queen Maeve herself!

• Between Sligo town and Knocknarea is the megalithic cemetery of Carrowmore. This is smaller than it was but is still a significant ancient site, older even than the Pyramids of Egypt.

• Heapstown Stone Cairn (Near Highwood, turn right at Castlebaldwin coming from Dublin on the N4) is a 20 foot tall megalithic mound set in a farmyard close to Lough Arrow. Also in this area are the Moytirra mounuments, including The Labby Rock. There is an historical trail that links these together. As you make from Heapstown to Labby at Killadoon Cross Roads, look north east and you can see on the hillside The Gyreum which is a latter day cairn that is now a venue and accommodation place in shape and style not unlike an old Gaelic Chieftain's hall.

• The Carrowkeel Passage Tomb Cemetery is another collection of ancient graves, less convenient placed, on the slopes of Bricklieve mountain 20 miles south of Sligo.

• Ben Bulben mountain is a prominent table mountain that dominates the landcape to the North. It is about 5 miles from Sligo town.

• Coney Island, (Leave Sligo town by the Strandhill Road (R292), about 4 kilometres on the right, watch for small finger signpost.). Said to have given its name to its better known namesake in New York City. In Irish it translates as Oilean na gCoiníní (Island of the Rabbits, Coinín means rabbit). If you're feeling adventurous, and the tide is out, you can drive across the strand to the island. Do check with locals regarding tide times, as almost every year tourists (and locals) get stuck in the sand.  edit

Do

In August you might like to join in the annual Warrior's Run, in Strandhill. It starts from the seashore, up Knocknarea and back.

It should be possible to take a boat trip on Lough Gill. There is a passenger craft which will take you to Parkes Castle, near Dromahair, County Leitrim, or you could hire a boat and make your way where you will.

Strandhill is a noted surfing beach. Be warned, however, that there are treacherous currents here, and swimming is prohibited.

Drink

==Sleep== There are many B&Bs throughout the county, plenty of main stream hotels, a fair few hostels. By far the strangest and most eclectic place to stay in Sligo, in the North West, perhaps in the whole of Ireland is the GYREUM ECOLODGE. This is a 100 foot wide hilltop ringfort aligned to 3 solar events, with views over 5 counties and Lough Arrow. It is 3 miles east of Castlebaldwin. Individual hostellers can stay in it hostel style or doubles too and also caters for large groups.

From Familypedia

County Sligo Contae Shligigh
Location
Statistics
Province:	Connacht
County Town:	Sligo
Code:	SO
Area:	1,837 km²
Population (2006)	60,894[1]
Website: www.sligococo.ie

County Sligo (Irish: Contae Shligigh

lit. Shelly River) is a county in the province of Connacht in the west of the Republic of Ireland.

Location

Sligo is bordered to the west by Mayo, to the south by Roscommon, and the east by Leitrim.

Music tradition

County Sligo has a long history of traditional music. The south of the county is particularly noted with such musical luminaries as James Morrison, Michael Coleman, Paddy Killoran, the band Dervish and tin-whistle player Carmel Gunning. The county has many traditional music festivals and one of the most well known is the Queen Maeve International Summer School, a traditional Irish Music summer school of music and dance which is held annually in August in Sligo Town. On the more contemporary music scene you have Westlife, Tabby Callaghan and The Conway Sisters who are from Sligo. Strandhill, about 9km west of Sligo, hosts the Strandhill Guitar Festival [1]each year, featuring a wide varierty of guitar music and musicians.

Literary inspiration

The poet and Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) spent much of his childhood in northern Sligo and the county's landscapes (particularly the Isle of Innisfree, in Lough Gill) were the inspiration for much of his poetry. Yeats said, "the place that has really influenced my life most is Sligo."

Towns and villages in County Sligo

The county town is Sligo (population: 17,892 ^[2]), which is home to the Institute of Technology.

• Achonry, Aclare
• Ballaghnatrillick, Ballinafad, Ballintogher, Ballymote, Ballysadare, Banada, Beltra
• Carney, Castlebaldwin, Cliffony, Cloonacool
• Collooney, Coolaney,
• Dromore West, Drumcliffe
• Easkey
• Geevagh, Grange, Gurteen/Gorteen
• Inishcrone
• Kilglass, Keash
• Monasteraden, Mullaghmore
• Riverstown, Rosses Point
• Skreen, Strandhill
• Tourlestrane, Tubbercurry

See also

• List of Sligo people

External links

• Collection of Sligo Landscape Photographs
• Sligo County Council
• Map of Sligo
• Sligoheritage.com
• SligoZone
• {{{2}}} travel guide from Wikitravel

References

1. ^ Population of each Province, County and City, 2006. CSO Ireland, Principal Statistics. Retrieved on 2007-05-31.
2. ^ Report 06. Population and area of each Province, County, City, urban area, rural area and Electoral Division, 2002 and 2006. CSO, Ireland, Volume 1 - Population classified by Area. Retrieved on 2007-05-31.