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It’s been a long while since I recommended a Sligo walk, I’ve just been going back to my usual trails so it was nice to rediscover one this weekend. It was a perfect winters day- utterly freezing but very dry and not windy much. I was heading out with a neighbour and some friends who wanted a new walk so we headed for the ruin of Killaspugbrone (also called Killasbugbrone Church) in Strandhill.
Knocknarea from the Church covered in winter air frost
It’s a great walk, a ramble across the dunes – or the beach when the tide is out- and round the back of the airport which makes me smile. When you get to Strandhill beach you turn right past the surf shop, instead of left along the shore which is the more usual walk out there. This one works when the tide is all the way in, which makes it a great option if you get to Strandhill intending to walk to Culleenamore and discover the tide is in the way.
Strandhill Beach
You head out along the dunes and after about 5 or 10 minutes you want to head down to the right (away from the beach) and then walk parallel to the beach- you’ll see a series of brown walking posts with a celtic cross on them that you can follow to the church, or just head for the back of the airport.
After a brilliantly irish sign asking you to watch for low-flying aircraft, you cross the back of the runway and head for the ruin in the distance. The Church itself is pretty special- it dates back to the 12th century but may be much older than that. There’s a great amount of info on a well maintained panel outside the church- courtesy of the Killaspugbrone Preservation Society- which details it’s connections to St. Patrick, and how the cemetery around the church was, unusually, multi-denominational.
It was the main burial place for the Coney Islanders and you can conjure up a vivid image of the mourners walking across the strand between island and church. It tells of a settlement around the church at one time too- which had to relocate due to shifting tidal and land patterns.
Cast a cold eye...
The beaches to the left and right of the Church are wonderful, great shapes and with beautiful views, well worth an extra walk once you get there. All in all it can be anything from an hour long walk to a 2 hour ramble, and it’s reasonably firm going. Enjoy!
A beach overlooked by the church
Knocknarea - image from www.travelinireland.com
One of my favourite walks in Sligo is definitely Knocknarea. You can see the mountain and the tomb on top from all over Sligo and there is definitely something deeply satisfying in reaching the top. The views are spectacular, and on a clear day you can see all five counties: Sligo, Mayo, Donegal, Leitrim and Roscommon…and maybe even the tip of Galway, but my geography isn’t good enough to work that out.
The road on Knocknarea
Every time I go up I try to get pictures of the view from the top but I just don’t have a good enough camera to pick it out. All the fields spread below you like a patchwork quilt and Benbulben looks incredibly impressive . It’s a real-life version of those 3-D plastic topographic moulds you got in geography class.
Maebh's cairn from a-top Knocknarea
The most famous aspect to the Mountain is Queen Maeve‘s grave of course, which sits some 10 meters tall on top of Knocknarea. Legend has it she’s buried upright, protecting Sligo from her enemies in Ulster, hence the massive size of the thing. The powers that be are trying to address the conservation of the cairn and have a nice big sign up these days reminding visitors not to climb up on top of it (but you’ll see from this pic that not everyone is paying attention) or to take the stones from it. The old tradition used to be that you would bring a stone up the mountain with you and add it to the pile, so let’s have that one back.
Practical bits – the walk up is about 45mins and not too tough going. It is steep, and you will want to stop lots of times to “admire the view” (aka catch your breath) but it’s not too tricky. It can get very warm with all the walking so wear layers that can be tied around your waist. Up top can be freezing so pick your day. If it is in anyway overcast or the cloud cover is low, I’d say leave it till another time, you really need the view to make it a great. Be aware that event on a warm day down the bottom it’ll be a few degrees colder up top.
You drive to the car park and take it from there. The car park is well signed as Knocknarea and there are pretty good directions on Discover Ireland, or just get to Ransboro Church and follow the signs. The whole up and down will take you anything from an hour and a bit to 2 hours depending on how much rambling you do once you’re up on the top.
To balance the virtuous feeling of accomplishment and downright healthiness get down to The Strand for one of their super pub lunches and a pint of the black stuff. Has to be done.
Streedagh Beach in Winter
There is a peculiar irish tradition that is the weekend winter walk. The theory goes that it doesn’t matter how cold it is- you have to wrap up and get out there in order to truely appreciate (and deserve) an afternoon pint- or whatever you’re having yourself.
Now, I’m cheating a little bit as the pic above is from a walk taken on new years eve ’07 but, this Saturday was very much the same sort of day; bitterly cold but bright and dry long enough between showers to get the walk in. I was playing hostess to a house load for the weekend and all of them (dublin crew the lot) are well trained enough to have a sligo supply of warm clothes and waterproofs. We grabbed another sligo resident en route and hit the road from town toward streedagh chasing blue sky and running from rain clouds. As we drove up the Bundoran Road through Drumcliffe we could see sheets of rain in the distance looking suspiciously like it was raining directly over streedagh and nowhere else. Luckily by the time we turned off the main road just before Grange (the sign seems to be down but its the first left after Supervalu on the Sligo side of Grange- signposted “De Cuellar Trail”) the clouds had cleared a bright patch of blue.
Hopping out of the car we were knocked out by the cold, The winter has been pretty mild so far and Saturday was one of the first freezing days- the air smelled like snow and caught in your throat as you tried to breath – perfect day for a beach walk then!
Streedagh is worth seeking out when you’re in Sligo. It’s a dramatic beach with a good beach break (as evidenced by surfing classes with their yellow foam boards in all weathers) in the winter and acres of unoccupied sand in the summer. It’s a good long walk right to the end (about 20-30mins each way) and the spectre of Cassiebawn Castle in Mulloghmore on the horizon makes for a dramatic backdrop. Of course when you drive up the little road to the beach (follow the road right round to the right past the cows, don’t stop at the first beach) all you see is dunes and a low bay, but if you walk up over the stones toward the sea you get a breathtaking view.
The beach was the setting of the Armada crash and the De Cuellar trail is so named after one of the few surviving sailors who barely survied a series of attacks once he made it to shore and went on to write about his ordeal. Harrowing stuff for such a beautiful spot.
Walk done (and there was some wimping out on the distance it has to be said) we headed straight for the much needed drink in Grange which is only a few mins away. Grange has plenty of nice pubs- Barry’s of Grange being worthy of a mention for the live gigs it does- but for an afternoon pint Langs is the king. Make sure you go in the very first door (usually stepping past at least one man smoking in the doorway) which brings you into the old proper pub which still has all the paraphernalia of the bar-come-shop; a glorious metal safe, meat and produce hooks in the ceiling, an old scales and best of all, a bizarre selection of things for sale – just in case you realise you’ve forgetten to buy your washing powder/bextartar/dolmio sauce/weatabix.
The main doors of Langs lead to a perfectly nice bar and they do some great grub (toasted cheese sandwiches are becoming a rare commodity and should be flagged when discovered!) but for my money the snug bar is where it’s at. A perfect mix of walkers and local men it’s a pub you could accidentally spend hours in…if you didn’t need to drive home that is.
