Most people pass through Cliffoney on the N15 without slowing down, which is a shame, because 50 metres north of the Creevykeel crossroads sits one of the finest court tombs in Ireland. The village itself is a small crossroads settlement in north County Sligo, three kilometres short of Mullaghmore and within sight of Benbulben, with a population of 521. If you stop for one thing, make it Creevykeel.
Creevykeel and the older monuments
Creevykeel Court Tomb is a full-court cairn built somewhere around 4000–3500 BC, and it’s unusually complete: an open forecourt leads into burial chambers behind a massive entrance lintel. It was excavated by the Harvard Archaeological Mission in the 1930s and is now in state care, with a small car park and a short, level walk in from the road. Allow ten or fifteen minutes – it’s signposted off the N15 just north of the Creevykeel crossroads, and entry is free.
It’s not alone. Five Neolithic court tombs ring the village, scattered across the townlands of Creevykeel, Creevymore and Cartronplank. The honest catch is that Creevykeel is the only one set up for visitors – the Cartronplank tomb and two overgrown sites sit on private land and aren’t really accessible.
The same goes for St Brigid’s Well, which stands inside a ringfort about 40 metres across on private ground. Beside it is an early cross-slab, probably 8th-century, carved with a gammadion (swastika) motif – a genuinely old and rare piece of stonework. A cattle fair was held at the well every 1 February right up to the 20th century.
The village Palmerston built
Most of what you see in the village proper went up under one landlord. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston – later twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – inherited estates of some 10,000 to 12,000 acres around Cliffoney and Mullaghmore in 1802, and set about rebuilding the place. He rebuilt the Cliffoney Inn, now O’Donnell’s Bar, in 1820, put up a boys’ school in 1824 and a girls’ school in 1826, and brought in the engineer Alexander Nimmo – the man who designed Mullaghmore Harbour – to renovate the inn in 1826.
There’s a quieter claim to fame too: Brigid MacGonigal, mother of the stained-glass artist Harry Clarke, was a native of Cliffoney.
The priest who locked the church
In late July 1914, Father Michael O’Flanagan – later vice-president and president of Sinn Féin, and known as ‘the Republican Priest’ – was posted to Cliffoney, and the place has remembered him ever since. In June 1915 he led the Cloonerco Bog Fight, backing villagers who cut turf on the bog in defiance of a Congested Districts Board ban.
When the bishop transferred him as a punishment, the parish didn’t take it quietly. They locked the doors of St Molaise’s church and refused to accept a replacement curate – a stand-off that ran for roughly ten weeks until Christmas Eve 1915, and is still called the Cliffoney Rebellion. The area saw harder fighting a few years later: the Moneygold Ambush of 25 October 1920 was followed by Black and Tan reprisals along this stretch of road.
Around Cliffoney
The village earns its keep as a base for the country around it rather than for its own sights:
- Mullaghmore – three kilometres north, a harbour village and surfing headland on the Wild Atlantic Way, with Classiebawn Castle on the skyline.
- Gleniff Horseshoe – a glacial valley ringed by the Dartry Mountains to the east, with a roughly 9 km loop past the ruined Gleniff Barytes Mill and the cave linked to the legend of Diarmuid and Gráinne.
- Cliffoney Beach – a quiet sandy strand for a walk, with limited roadside parking.
- Benbulben Forest Walk and the megalithic cemeteries at Carrowkeel and Carrowmore are all within a short drive south.
Nearby Bunduff Marsh and the Cloonerco Bogs are good for over-wintering birds if you’ve an eye for them.
Practical information
- Getting there: Cliffoney is on the N15, about 25 km (20 miles) north-west of Sligo town and 8 km south of Bundoran in County Donegal, where the road meets the R279 for Mullaghmore. TFI Local Link runs a bus from Sligo Bus Station to Cliffoney roughly every three hours, taking about 45 minutes; route 566 (Sligo–Dowra) also stops here. A car is far easier.
- The market: the Cliffoney Country Market runs in the village hall on the first and third Sunday of the month, 11am to 1pm – local crafts and produce.
- Food and drink: O’Donnell’s and Harrison’s on the main street cover the village’s bar and food options.
- When to go: spring and early autumn give the best light and the firmest ground for the bog and the tombs. Bring boots whatever the season.
Time it for a Sunday morning and you can pair the market with the ten-minute walk into Creevykeel before the day gets going.