We booked the Atlantic Sheepdogs demonstration a couple days out and we woke up to drizzle on Sunday morning that turned to full rain throughout the entire experience. Our host, Martin, was engaging and informative and canine Mist put on a good show – directing sheep around the field in front of us. After the demo we learned about several unusual varieties of sheep, and I got to hold a 5 day year old lamb! Overall, I think the 15€ pp fee is a little high but I saw it as a donation to the farm. And it obviously would have been more enjoyable if not for the steady downpour.
Another artifact from my school trip 30 years ago was W. B. Yeats’ grave, so I made a quick stop to take in the Drumcliffe Church and its surroundings.
Once the rain subsided we got back into the car and drove the loop around Glencar Lough. We started along the south end and saw some great views of the mountains which was fortuitous because it started raining again about 30 minutes later and those views were no longer available!
Glencar waterfall is very popular with a large parking lot to match. We easily parked and walked to the waterfall in about five minutes. The flow was intense but it was hard to see the whole thing with all the greenery.
A little further up we got incredibly lucky to find a parking spot for the Devils Chimney Forest Walk. There are only about seven roadside spots and we snagged an open space right at the start of the trail. The hike is mostly uphill with two sets of stairs, about 1km each way. We found the best viewpoint to be through the gate on the right and then up a small trail on the right shortly after that. It really started pouring at this point, so we hustled back to the car.
We stopped in the lot for the Benbulben Forest Walk but we could barely see the mountain in front of us through all the mist and clouds, so we decided to call it a day for hiking and headed back into town. After drying out a bit we headed out on foot to find a snack and explore the town. We walked along the Garavogue River to views of Sligo Abbey (didn’t go in since it was 5€), then across the river and back to center – seemingly all uphill!
On our way back we stopped by Queen Maeves Square and the Sligo sign, before heading back to our room to rest before dinner.
The skies were clear when we left town, so we decided to make the short drive north to see if we could see the mountain from the Benbulbin Forest Walk. Yay! We did about a mile round trip on the trail to get some views of both the mountain and the coast in the opposite direction.
