Castles and Historic Sites in Co. Sligo
4 places
1.Knocknarea Cairn
the largest unexcavated cairn in the country
A 327m limestone mountain crowned by a huge stone cairn said to be the burial place of the warrior Queen Maeve. The waymarked Queen Maeve Trail climbs forest, timber steps and a raised boardwalk to 360-degree views of Sligo Bay, Benbulben and the Atlantic.
- Highlights
- Summit cairn about 55m wide and 10m high, never excavated
- Built around 3400 BC, older than the Queen Maeve legend
- Marked 6–8km loop gaining 327m from the car parks
2.Tobernalt Holy Well
A 5th-century spring with a Mass rock and rag tree
A natural spring issuing from beneath a wooded cliff near Lough Gill, Tobernalt has drawn pilgrims since early Christian times and is still a working place of prayer — free, and open day and night.
- Highlights
- Natural spring beneath a cliff face
- Rag tree hung with clooties and rosary beads
- Penal-era stone Mass altar
- Facilities
- Wheelchair access
3.Roslee Castle
a roofless ruin you can climb for Atlantic views
A roofless medieval tower beside Easkey pier on Sligo's north coast, climbed by a hidden spiral stair to the "Sailor's Bed" and wide Atlantic views. The walls around it still bristle with gun-loops.
- Highlights
- Photo: tower above Easkey pier
- Hidden spiral stair to the Sailor's Bed
- 16th–17th-century bawn walls with gun-loops
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Wheelchair access
4.Lisadell House and Gardens
Yeats's mansion, closed until May 2027
A grey limestone Georgian mansion on Drumcliff Bay, built for the Gore-Booths in the 1830s, where W.B. Yeats found his "two girls in silk kimonos" and Countess Markievicz grew up. Restored Victorian and alpine gardens, coastal woodland and five exhibition galleries sit in its 416-acre estate under Ben Bulben.
- Highlights
- Neo-classical Greek Revival house of 1830-35, last of its style built in Ireland
- Childhood home of Countess Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth
- Immortalised in Yeats's poem with its "great windows open to the south"
- Facilities
- Good for kids · Wheelchair access