The Atlantic Companion · Wild Atlantic Way · Sligo

Welcome to Sligo & Strandhill.
We're glad you're here.

Sligo town — Sligeach — sits on the Garavogue river between Lough Gill and the Atlantic, with Benbulbin's flat-topped silhouette to the north and Knocknarea's cairn-topped dome to the west. W. B. Yeats grew up summering here and is buried at Drumcliff, 'under bare Ben Bulben's head.' Strandhill, six kilometres west, is the surf town — a long Atlantic beach at the foot of Knocknarea, with the Voya seaweed baths on the seafront. Carrowmore, between the two, is one of Europe's largest megalithic cemeteries.

Yeats country. Knocknarea over the bay. The surf at Strandhill.

Sharing from the Wild Atlantic Way

You're in Sligo & Strandhill. Send it to someone who'd love it.

First things first

Where are you headed next?

Tell us once and we'll shape the rest of the page around it.

The essentials

What you shouldn't miss.

Locally chosen, not algorithmic. In rough order of "if you only do one thing".

View

Knocknarea and Queen Maeve's Cairn

A 327m flat-topped hill west of Sligo town, crowned by a 55m-wide unopened Neolithic cairn — said to be the tomb of Queen Maeve of Connacht, buried standing up facing her enemies in Ulster. The walk to the top takes 45 minutes from the Strandhill side, with a 360-degree view from Donegal Bay to the Ox Mountains.

Good to know · Free car park at Strandhill side (Knocknarea Glen). Do not climb the cairn — locals ask you to add a stone at the base instead. Wind-exposed.

Get directions

Beach

Strandhill beach and Voya baths

A long west-facing Atlantic beach with consistent surf and a powerful undertow — flagged for surfing, not swimming. The Voya seaweed baths on the seafront, family-run, fill cast-iron tubs with hot seawater and fresh-cut Atlantic kelp. Shells Café next door is the morning queue.

Good to know · Free parking along the seafront. No swimming — strong rips. Surf schools on the beach. Voya open daily; book ahead in summer.

Get directions

History

Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery

Thirty surviving Neolithic tombs in a one-square-kilometre site between Sligo town and Strandhill, dating from around 4000 BC — older than the pyramids and among the largest passage-tomb complexes in Europe. The central tomb, Listoghil, was built before the rest and may have set the alignment for the others.

Good to know · OPW site. Check current opening hours and admission before visiting. Visitor centre with guided tours.

Get directions

History

Drumcliff and Yeats's grave

A small church under the cliff of Benbulbin, eight kilometres north of Sligo on the N15. Yeats — who died in France in 1939 — was reinterred here in 1948, with the epitaph he wrote himself: 'Cast a cold eye / On life, on death. / Horseman, pass by!' A 6th-century round tower stump and a high cross stand in the same churchyard.

Good to know · Free, always open. Café and craft shop in the old vicarage. Good Benbulbin photo spot from the car park.

Get directions

View

Benbulbin

A flat-topped 526m limestone escarpment north of Sligo town, formed by glaciers carving a flat plateau into a long ridge. The classic profile is from the N15 between Drumcliff and Grange — pull in at Mullaghmore turn for the textbook shot. The Gleniff Horseshoe loop drive on its north side is the deeper view.

Good to know · Don't try to climb without proper kit — the cliffs are dangerous. Free roadside pull-ins on the N15.

Get directions

Town

Sligo town

A compact river town on the Garavogue, with the 13th-century Sligo Abbey ruin in the centre, the Yeats Memorial Building on Hyde Bridge, and Hargadon's pub on O'Connell Street — a Victorian grocery-bar with snugs and a back kitchen serving stews. Markets on Saturday at the IT.

Good to know · Pay-and-display in the centre. Big Tesco and Dunnes for groceries. Train station to Dublin (3 hours).

Get directions

Local businesses

Places we'd point a friend to.

Hand-picked, not paid for. The ferries, the beds, the pubs and the bike hire that make a visit work.

Before you go. These listings are compiled from public sources and aren't yet verified by the businesses themselves. Hours, menus and prices change with the seasons — always check directly with the venue before travelling, and book ahead in July and August. Owners can get in touch to update their listing.

Eat

Shells Café

On Strandhill seafront opposite the surf break — Jane and Myles Lamberth's café, bakery and small shop. Brunch built around the Atlantic out the window: crab toasts, grain bowls, the cinnamon roll people drive for.

Where: Seafront, Strandhill, Co. Sligo

Directions

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Eat

Lyons Café

Above Lyons department store on Quay Street, Sligo — the town's grande dame tea-room since 1926, given a serious modern food makeover by Gary Stafford. Brunch, lunch, properly-made cake. The reliable town daytime spot.

Where: Quay Street, Sligo

Directions

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Eat

The Perch Coffee Roasters

Small roastery and café on Castle Street, Sligo — properly serious about espresso, with single-origin beans roasted on site. Pastries, toasties, and the fastest takeaway flat white in the county.

Where: Castle Street, Sligo

Directions

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Drink

Hargadons

On O'Connell Street in Sligo town since 1868 — snugs, dark wood, stone floors, a wine cellar that surprises everyone, and a kitchen turning out daily-changing plates of Sligo lamb and Lissadell oysters. The town's anchor pub.

Where: O'Connell Street, Sligo

Directions

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Drink

The Strand Bar

On Shore Road in Strandhill — the surfer pub, with a turf fire, sessions on weekends, decent burgers and the post-surf crowd in wetsuits. Loud in summer, snug in February.

Where: Shore Road, Carrowbunnaun, Strandhill, Co. Sligo, F91 C5VW

Directions thestrandbar.ie +353 71 916 8140

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Stay

The Glasshouse Hotel

Glass-fronted four-star on the Garavogue river in the centre of Sligo town — bright rooms, river-facing bar, walk to anywhere. The town-base choice.

Where: Swan Point, Sligo

Directions

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Stay

Strandhill Lodge & Suites

On the hill above Strandhill village with sea views to Knocknarea — boutique hotel with twenty-two rooms, no restaurant (use the village). Walking distance to Shells, the Strand Bar and VOYA.

Where: Top Road, Strandhill, Co. Sligo

Directions

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Do

VOYA Seaweed Baths

On Strandhill seafront — the Walton family's bathhouse since 2000, restoring a Sligo tradition that nearly died out. Hand-harvested organic seaweed in a steaming cast-iron bath. Forty minutes that recalibrates the whole weekend.

Where: Shore Road, Strandhill, Co. Sligo

Directions

Own this business? Get in touch to update or correct this listing →

Run a place in Sligo & Strandhill?

Our directory is curated, not pay-to-play. If we'd recommend you, you can be on here.

See how to get listed

Got a window or a counter?

Download a free A5 QR card for Sligo & Strandhill — print it, stick it up, and visitors land straight on the Sligo & Strandhill guide.

Ask a local

The bits that aren't on Google.

Yeats's grave at Drumcliffe, early
Under bare Ben Bulben's head — the famous epitaph. Coaches roll in from 11. Get there at 9 and it's just you, the round tower, and the mountain.
Climb Knocknarea for sunset
Maeve's Cairn on top — Iron Age queen, allegedly buried standing up facing her enemies. 45 minutes up from the Strandhill side, the whole Atlantic in front of you when you turn around.
Know a Sligo spot worth sharing?
Hidden gems on this page are written by locals, not us. The right session pub on a Tuesday, the back-road climb up Knocknarea, the swim spot at Rosses Point — tell us and we'll add it.

Off the spine

Worth leaving the route for.

Not on the Wild Atlantic Way — but a short drive inland (or further along the coast) and locals would always send you here.

Glencar Waterfall
Inland (Leitrim border) · 20 min from Sligo town
Yeats's 'Where the wandering water gushes / From the hills above Glen-Car' — the line from The Stolen Child carved on the path. A 15m fall on the southern shore of Glencar Lough, a five-minute walk from the car park, with a tea-room and a wooden boardwalk to the base. On a wet windy day the water blows back up the cliff face. The drive in along the lake from the N16 is half the experience.
Off the N16 east of Sligo, signposted. Free, daylight hours, small car park. Pair with a slow drive around Lough Gill (the Lake Isle of Innisfree sits at its eastern end) for a full half-day.
Lough Gill & Innisfree
Inland · 15 min from Sligo town
The lake Yeats made famous in The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Drive the loop road around the lake — about 40km — through Dooney Rock and Slish Wood, both name-checked in his poems. Innisfree itself is a small uninhabited island visible from the southern shore; you don't land on it, you just see it from the water and understand. Best at the slow pace the poem asks for.
The Lough Gill drive is signposted off the N4 south of Sligo town. Several pull-ins and forest walks. No tickets needed.

Common questions

What people ask about Sligo & Strandhill.

Is Sligo worth visiting?

Yes — Sligo is a small, walkable cathedral town deeply associated with W.B. Yeats (buried at Drumcliffe under Benbulben), with a strong food scene around Hargadon's and Sweet Beat, the Sligo Abbey ruin in the centre, and one of Ireland's best surfing beaches at Strandhill five minutes west. A natural base for the wider Yeats Country.

Can you surf at Strandhill?

Yes — Strandhill is one of Ireland's best-known surfing beaches, with consistent Atlantic swells year-round. Several surf schools and board hire shops operate from the village; beginners do well in summer on the smaller days. Swimming is not allowed at the main beach due to dangerous rips — surf only, or swim at nearby Rosses Point.

Where is Yeats buried?

W.B. Yeats is buried in Drumcliffe Churchyard, about 8 km north of Sligo town on the N15 road to Donegal, with Benbulben directly behind. His epitaph — 'Cast a cold Eye / On Life, on Death. / Horseman, pass by!' — is carved on a simple limestone slab. The visit takes about 30 minutes including the small craft shop and café at the church.

Is Benbulben worth climbing?

Benbulben (526 m) is a serious hill walk, not a casual ramble — the safest route is the Gortarowey Forest Loop and the back-of-Benbulben trail, not a direct ascent. Most visitors take the Gortarowey loop (4 km, 1.5 hours) for views of the cliffs without committing to the summit. The vertical cliff face is best appreciated from below, from Drumcliffe.

Practical

The things you'll wish you'd known.

Fuel: Sligo town has the lot. Strandhill has one station.
Cash: All major banks in Sligo. Strandhill has shop ATMs only.
Pharmacy: Multiple in Sligo. Sligo University Hospital for emergencies.
Parking: Pay-and-display in Sligo centre. Free at Strandhill seafront, Carrowmore, Drumcliff, Knocknarea.
Phone signal: Strong in Sligo and Strandhill. Patchy on Knocknarea summit.
Swimming: Strandhill is for surfing only. Rosses Point and Mullaghmore for safe swimming.

Designed & developed by ideapath.app