County Sligo

Ireland · Other

關於County Sligo

County Sligo (Contae Shligigh) is on the Irish coast in Northwest Ireland and Lakelands. Most of the population live in Sligo town and the county beyond is quiet, with a haunting scenery of prehistoric monuments and limestone scarps that often feature in the poetry of WB Yeats.

County Sligo旅遊指南

城市概覽

Ancient Ireland's skies and mountaintops thundered to the conflicts of the gods and other supernatural beings, according to Irish legends, such as the Second Battle of Moytura fought east of Ballymote. Almost as powerful and quarrelsome were the mortal races of warriors and heroes that followed, such as Queen Méabh or Maeve (Shakespeare's Queen Mab), who fled from Ulster into Connacht there to battle with all and sundry, and to lay any likely man left over. Alas she was killed by a sling-shotted piece of cheese, an iconoclastic first. Tis said Maeve is buried on top of Knocknarea near Sligo town - her legend is from the Ulster Cycle supposedly set in the first century AD; the real burial monuments on Knocknarea are 3000 years older. Another body of legend, the Fenian or Ossianic Cycle, is mostly set in Munster, but the eloping lovers Diarmuid and Gráinne legged it here to settle in Keshcorran near Ballymote. Diarmuid was warned that he will be killed by a boar yet what does he go and do? - he joins a boar hunt. (Perhaps he'd misunderstood, and was on his guard against some prat with a voluminous knowledge of Game of Thrones.) Sure enough he and the boar deal each other mortal blows. Yet his former love-rival Fionn, who just happened to organise the hunt, has the power to heal Diarmuid by letting him drink water from his hands. Twice Fionn deliberately lets the water slip through his fingers; he's threatened with violence and conveys the water third time, but it's too late to save Diarmuid. And that in a nutshell is the problem of surviving on limestone terrain like Keshcorran, where the rainwater slips away through cracks in the bedrock before it can nourish your vegetables. The county of Sligo was formed in 1603 at the end of the Nine Years' War, an all-too-real conflict which broke Irish resistance to English Tudor rule, and sparked the chain of events leading to the Partition of Ireland. Sligo town developed as a port and became the county seat, but the region's

如何抵達

1 Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC IATA) is just south of the county. It has few flights, mostly by Ryanair from London Stansted, Luton and other UK cities, and some European destinations. Dublin Airport (DUB IATA) is generally a better option for its range of flights (including budget carriers) and onward transport. Six trains per day run from Dublin Connolly, taking 3 hr 20 min to Sligo town via Drumcondra, Maynooth, Mullingar, Longford, Dromod, Carrick-on-Shannon, Boyle, Ballymote and Collooney. See Irish Rail for timetables and fares. Bus 23 runs every 2-3 hours from Dublin Busáras and Airport to Sligo, taking four hours. There are also buses from Galway, Donegal and Derry. By road from Dublin follow M4 / N4.

當地交通

All the towns are small enough to walk around, but you need wheels to reach the sights scattered around. Buses run from Sligo to Strandhill and to Rosses Point, and north along the coast towards Ballyshannon. See individual towns for Local Link bus services. These are generally too sparse for visitors, and some only run once or twice a week.

必看景點

The horse that comes from the road / The rider, the birds that range / From cloud to tumbling cloud / Minute by minute they change - Yeats Knocknarea is a slab of limestone 327 m high, just north of Strandhill but usually climbed from the southeast towards Sligo. The cairn and other grave markers around its summit are believed to date from 3000 BC. Carrowmore megalithic cemetery below is part of the same Neolithic ritual landscape, as the Knocknarea markers are aligned with it. Heapstown Stone Cairn is a 7 m tall megalithic mound close to Lough Arrow. Other nearby prehistoric monuments include Labby Rock. Carrowkeel is another collection of ancient graves further south. Benbulbin or Ben Bulben is a prominent table mountain that dominates the landscape to the north. Coney Island is a tidal island just north of Strandhill, you can walk or drive across, but think about the getting back.

體驗活動

Surf at Strandhill, which has surf schools and equipment. Boat trips of Lough Gill take in Beezie's Island, Parkes Castle, and the frankly disappointing Lake Isle of Innisfree: it's just a woody outcrop. Trips usually start from Sligo. Wild Atlantic Way is a motoring route that hugs the west coast from Donegal all the way south to Kinsale near Cork, 2500 km. The route across County Sligo is fairly obvious. From County Donegal N15 crosses a sliver of County Leitrim into County Sligo; at Cliffony turn up the side road for Mullagmore, and at Grange turn off for Streedagh Point. Continue on N15 past Benbulbin and Drumcliffe and detour to Rosses Point before coming in to Sligo town. From here take the loop of R292 through Strandhill before returning to the main road at Baladrihid, then take N59 west as far as Shemagh, branching onto R297. Follow this west then trending south through Enniscrone to reach Ballina in County Mayo. Look up your Irish ancestors: Sligo was a major port of emigration to America, and the town has a good genealogy centre. Mike Pence (US Vice President 2017-21) had a maternal grandfather from the county; his maternal great-grandparents were from County Clare. Also from Sligo was the father of Bernardo O'Higgins (1778-1842), founder of the nation of Chile; and the father of Spike Milligan (1918-2002), who grew up in India before his showbiz career. When Spike sang of "walking backwards for Christmas, across the Irish Sea" he evoked a pilgrimage as spiritual as any made by early saint or friar. Gaelic games: the County GAA teams play Gaelic football and hurling at Markievicz Park in Sligo. There are almost 30 club teams across the county. Golf: courses are dotted around, but the prestige course is the Championship links at Rosses Point. Seaweed: walk across a stony beach uncovered at low tide, the crinkly dark stuff that goes "pop" under your feet is bladder-wrack. Its alginates make it slippy, and you could easily skid and land in a cold pool of it,

購物

Every village has a Centra or similar convenience store, but Sligo is the place to stock up and re-fuel the car.

美食

Sligo town centre has the best choice. Well-regarded places are Fiddlers Creek, Bistro Bianconi and Coach House.

飲品與夜生活

I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young / and weep because I know all things now - Yeats Shoot the Crows pub in Sligo is still going strong, but the bartenders no longer accept dead crows as payment as they did in 1876. It's probably pointless to offer them bitcoin. Lough Gill Brewery east edge of Sligo town produces a range of beers, plus mead. They don't offer tours. White Hag Brewery is in Ballymote. No tours. Athru is the only distillery in the county, producing Irish malt whiskey. It's by Hazelwood House near the outflow of Lough Gill east of Sligo. Opened in 2019, they don't offer tours but plan a second building to accommodate visits from 2021.

住宿

There are many B&Bs throughout the county, several mainstream hotels and a few hostels, see individual towns. The Glamping Village in Enniscrone bro

城市概覽改寫自 Wikipedia，旅遊指南來自Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA)。照片來自 Wikimedia Commons.