We left Boyle a little after one o'clock and arrived in Sligo at 1:30ish. There was a good parking lot across from Sligo Abbey so we found a space there and went looking for a restaurant. Sligo looked a bit tired, a bit grey. But we found a good Asian Street Food restaurant and enjoyed some lunch. Using my phone's GPS, I figured out where the two cathedrals in Sligo were. Actually across the street from each other.
We walked up the street, up to the Church of Ireland Cathedral. Unfortunately, though, its gates were locked. It only opens on Sunday, only for services. Disappointing because it looked like a beautiful cathedral from the outside. The Catholic Cathedral was open, however, and it was beautiful as well:
After visiting the Cathedral, I visited Sligo Abbey. It wasn't an "abbey", it was actually a Dominican friary, built in 1253. It was destroyed in 1414 by a fire and attacked two more times. The friars finally moved out in the 18th century but the ruins have been preserved since then. The sense of history as I walked around it was so strong. It is still early tourist season so the sites we have been visiting have been almost empty. A great opportunity to get the feeling.
By the time I finished photographing the Abbey, it was 4:30 and we thought we ought to start the two-hour drive to Gweedore, our stop for the night. But as we were following the GPS instructions out of Sligo, I saw a sign for Lissadell House. Remembering that we had wanted to see it, I asked Richard if we could take a detour. He was game and we arrived just in time for the last tour of the house at 5:00.
It was a fantastic tour, a fantastic house. Built between 1830 and 1835, the family that owned it were the Gore-Booths. English again but during the Famine the then-Baronet mortgaged his estate so that he could help his starving tenants with food and with emigration funds to Canada. He ensured that the ships were well equipped and, according to the guide, his tenants had the highest survival rate for emigration. Two of the daughters, Constance and Eva Gore-Booth were immortalized in a poem written by W. B. Yeats (a frequent visitor to the house) entitled "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz." Also, Constance Markiewicz was a suffragette and revolutionary nationalist. She was also a wonderful artist and several of her paintings hang in the house.
The tour lasted 45 minutes and was probably the best of several excellent tours I have been on in Ireland.
We walked up the street, up to the Church of Ireland Cathedral. Unfortunately, though, its gates were locked. It only opens on Sunday, only for services. Disappointing because it looked like a beautiful cathedral from the outside. The Catholic Cathedral was open, however, and it was beautiful as well:
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| View through the gate of the COI Cathedral |
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| Above the entrance to the Roman Catholic Cathedral |
After visiting the Cathedral, I visited Sligo Abbey. It wasn't an "abbey", it was actually a Dominican friary, built in 1253. It was destroyed in 1414 by a fire and attacked two more times. The friars finally moved out in the 18th century but the ruins have been preserved since then. The sense of history as I walked around it was so strong. It is still early tourist season so the sites we have been visiting have been almost empty. A great opportunity to get the feeling.
By the time I finished photographing the Abbey, it was 4:30 and we thought we ought to start the two-hour drive to Gweedore, our stop for the night. But as we were following the GPS instructions out of Sligo, I saw a sign for Lissadell House. Remembering that we had wanted to see it, I asked Richard if we could take a detour. He was game and we arrived just in time for the last tour of the house at 5:00.
It was a fantastic tour, a fantastic house. Built between 1830 and 1835, the family that owned it were the Gore-Booths. English again but during the Famine the then-Baronet mortgaged his estate so that he could help his starving tenants with food and with emigration funds to Canada. He ensured that the ships were well equipped and, according to the guide, his tenants had the highest survival rate for emigration. Two of the daughters, Constance and Eva Gore-Booth were immortalized in a poem written by W. B. Yeats (a frequent visitor to the house) entitled "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz." Also, Constance Markiewicz was a suffragette and revolutionary nationalist. She was also a wonderful artist and several of her paintings hang in the house.
The tour lasted 45 minutes and was probably the best of several excellent tours I have been on in Ireland.
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| Count Markievicz painted the estate staff's portraits (including the dog) on the dining room walls |
The tour ended at 5:45 so unfortunately there was no time to walk around the estate as it closed at 6:00. Well worth the visit though.
We spent the next 2.5 hours driving 138 kms to Gweedore, northern Donegal. Narrow, windy road. I was SO glad that it was the longest day (Summer Solstice) so that although we arrived at 8:30 pm, it was light all the way. The hotel, An Chuirt (pronounced An Kurt), was very welcoming, the room large and comfortable. We ate a late dinner in the bar area and then relaxed. What a day!!
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