The Ham Nomads

12 Jun 2014. <IE> Sligo, & Lough Gill, Co. Sligo —

Woke up another unsettled day. Decided to drive to Sligo Abbey. We were actually trying to find some shops on the way in, but we found ourselves in Abbey Street, and then turned the corner almost directly into an all-day pay-and-display park (€2.50 per day) right outside a Dunnes Store and within walking distance of the centre of town. You can't say we don't fall on our feet!

Sligo Abbey Nave
& Rood Screen

Sligo Abbey
Susie at Reader's Desk

Went into Dunnes for our regular shop — and Warren finally replaced his umbrella, which had become as useful in the rain as a colander! Then we went round to the Abbey and explored there for a while. This friary is different in that is has an intact rood screen between nave and choir, and also the only intact example of a pre-15th century carved stone altar against its eastern wall. There are a couple of significant tombs there, and we would have been a lot happier if we had seen these treated with similar care to the one at Ennis, but these two are still basically exposed to the elements!

Sligo Abbey Cloister

Sligo Cathedral

Sligo Cathedral Interior

Asked the abbey staff where the local Tourist Information Office was, and it was only about 3 blocks away! Went into town, got what we needed from the Tourist Office — including a walking tour of the central area of Sligo. Turned out we had already done about a quarter of it. We decided to do a bit more of it, but selecting the sites that were of interest to us. Right beside the Tourist Information Office is the WB Yeats Memorial Building — Yeats is a favourite son of Sligo! And guess what — tomorrow, June 13, is WB Yeats Day with numerous functions being held in his honour. Looks like we're staying around here another day!

Parke's Castle

After lunch in the van, we drove out to Lough Gill, just outside Sligo, and Parke's Castle, a 17th Century fortified manor house. We've now followed the history of fortified sites in Ireland from Celtic ring forts to Norman and Irish Castles to fortified towers to fortified manors of the 16th and 17th centuries. Quite an interesting exploration! Parke's Castle is actually built on the site of an earlier fortified tower. The fortified walls (or bawn walls) of the current manor are very obviously a reworking of the original walls of the tower, and the stone from the original tower has been used to build the current manor. The manor has been totally reconstructed, but OPW have taken the reasonable step of using sandstone for all new work instead of the original limestone, so we can see quite easily what is original and what is reconstruction!

We were driving back towards Sligo to find a camp for the night when we pulled into a viewing point overlooking Lough Gill to take a photo, and liked the place so much that we decided to overnight here! Just looked outside the van — swarms of what we thought at first were midges, but on closer inspection turned out to be mosquitoes. Looks like the van will stay well sealed tonight, and we might be glad we bought some flyspray this morning!

Distance driven — today, 12 miles ( 19 km ); to date, 2,373 miles ( 3,819 km )