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Earlier this month The Irish Times published a great little guide to Sligo, in collaboration with Failte Ireland. Lots of times you read this type of thing and, as a local, don’t recognise the place you live, for good or bad reasons. This one was different though, Not only did I recognise the place they were describing, but it covered nearly all the best bits of Sligo that I include when I’m in my own tour guide mode with visiting pals. Lots of my Top 10 things to do in Sligo made an appearance, in one guise or another, but I see the Magic Road alluded them once again, it must be the magic….
The supplement, which you can download via the link below, or by clicking on the image up top, is a great reference guide, and would make an excellent pocket guide for any type of traveller. I was particularly thrilled to see so much culture and lifestyle entries; great foodie recommendations, culture summaries and a special focus on Sligo Music, which is in abundance in all forms in Sligo town and county, as a quick glance at sligomusic.ie will usually show you.
I think the publication was the first time, or one of the first times, that the new Sligo brand was used;“Sligo, Set your Spirit Free”. It’s a brand I really like, and I’m usually very critical of visual identities, especially the tag line. This one however, also seems to concur with the Sligo I know, a place that can set your spirit free in lots of ways; surfing, golfing, eating, listening to music, walking, visiting arts and culture events, or ancient historic sites, or just contemplating the landscape. The actual coloured text took me a few minutes to settle into, but it’s really grown on me. For some reason it immediately reminded me of Dakar’s photos of Sliglow (a project for Culture Night Sligo 2010), something in the free-flowing, yet painterly aspect of the font. It could reference anything from cave painting to street art and all that came in between, while still looking very natural and “of nature”. When I looked up the official line it said; “The brushstrokes are inspired by the paintings of Jack B Yeats, the vertical limestone features of the landscape and the crashing Atlantic waves.” which is even better; Sligo’s three big selling points; landscape. culture and water all rolled into one. Well done Zero G
Download the pdf: Sligo – Irish Times 6th July 2011
Gotta love this – a filmaker captures the San Fran to Paris flight via 2,459 photographs – roughly one every 2 miles- including a trip through the aurora borealis. Pretty magic. Click through to his vimeo page for info on the camera, how he shot it etc
Thanks to Judi for passing on the clip link
I had visitors this past weekend so I took my own advice and brought them to to The Model, followed by lunch in Hargedons, for a shop around Castle Street (to Kate’s Kitchen for a can of illy and some Rooibos Tea for the South African), then to Cafe Arabica for some take away coffees and then a drive up to the Horseshoe.
And we had a great old time of it. For the first time I didn’t get lost finding the horseshoe, and we even found the Magic Road! which we rolled up and along for ages and ages while I freaked them out with my “look- no feet” move. The visitors were from Dublin and South Africa and were blown away by beautiful Sligo. We stopped to take loads of pics, and were even greeted with that most irish of photo op’s – the Sheep coming down the road (pic above) in picture perfect order. the mountains were spectacular, the light was great, we stopped at every ruined cottage so they could take pics, and the view out to the ocean as you come to the end of the horsehoe is mind-blowingly good on a clear day. I even popped the car out perfectly in Grange (followed the Yeats County feather pen sign) but the only downside was not having enough time for that pint in Langs- we were trying to make John the Fish back in town before he closed, but were rewarded with great salmon and scallops in return, and I was rewarded with a ” you live in a beautiful part of the world” statement which is the best accolade from a visitor. Well done Sligo
(I’ve more pics on flickr but they are only phone ones so not great quality)
