Few counties pack this much prehistory into so small an area. Carrowmore sits in open fields on the Coolera Peninsula just west of Sligo town, more than thirty Neolithic tombs in one cluster, with the 34-metre cairn of Listoghil at its centre. Knocknarea rises 327m directly above it, topped by Queen Maeve’s Cairn and reached by marked trails that open onto Benbulben and the Atlantic. Sligo Abbey, a 13th-century Dominican friary with its carved high altar, is in the middle of the town itself on Abbey Street, so the three make an easy day without much driving between them.
The rest of the list pulls south and north. In south Sligo the Bricklieve Mountains carry the fourteen Carrowkeel cairns above Lough Arrow, with Heapstown Cairn and the Labby Rock dolmen on the Moytura ridge nearby and Castlebaldwin the village you turn off the N4 for. North of town the N15 runs past Drumcliffe, where Yeats is buried beside a high cross and a round tower, and on to Cliffoney and the Creevykeel court tomb sitting free and unguided beside the road.
Most of these are open fields and hillsides rather than visitor centres. The tomb sites need boots in wet weather, and the Knocknarea and Ballygawley walks are worth saving for a clear day.
The densest cluster of Neolithic tombs in Ireland, over thirty of them in open fields below Knocknarea, centred on the huge Listoghil cairn.
Yeats' plain limestone grave, a high cross carrying the Virgin and Child and Sligo's only round tower, all on one free monastic site off the N15.
A 327m hill above the Coolera Peninsula crowned by Queen Maeve's Cairn, with marked trails to a summit view of Benbulben and the Atlantic.
The one surviving medieval building in Sligo town, a ruined Dominican friary keeping a carved 15th-century high altar that few Irish monastic churches still have.
A low range south of the town with four Neolithic passage-graves on its tops, good for quiet walking and wide views back over the coast.
14 of 16 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Carrowmore, sligo
Carrowmore is the densest cluster of Neolithic tombs in Ireland, with more than 30 still visible across open fields below Knocknarea. At its centre is Listoghil, a 34-metre cairn whose capstone carries faint carvings the midsummer sun picks out. DNA work shows the builders were sea-faring people from what is now Brittany, who arrived around 4000 BC with cattle, sheep and deer.
Drumcliffe, sligo
Drumcliffe’s churchyard holds W.B. Yeats’ plain limestone grave and a sandstone high cross thought to be the only one in Ireland carrying the Virgin and Child, on a monastic site founded by St Colmcille around AD 574. Free, open all year, and walkable in under an hour – with Sligo’s only round tower standing across the road.
Coolera Peninsula, sligo
Rising 327m above the Coolera Peninsula, Knocknarea is dominated by the massive Queen Maeve’s Cairn. Walk the marked trails to the summit for sweeping views of Benbulben and the Atlantic, then explore the ancient megalithic landscape below.
Abbey Street, sligo
A 13th-century Dominican friary in the centre of Sligo, ruined since the 1640s wars but still holding a carved 15th-century high altar – one of the few left in any Irish monastic church. The visitor centre keeps a copy of Charlotte Thornley's cholera diary; her son, Bram Stoker, drew on its accounts of mass graves for Dracula.
sligo
The Ballygawley Mountains are a low, rugged range south of Sligo town, good for quiet hill-walking with wide coastal views. Four Neolithic passage-graves crown the highest points, and the hills carry the legend of the Cailleach and align with the great tombs at Carrowmore below.
South County Sligo, sligo
The Bricklieve Mountains, a low limestone range in south Sligo, carry the Carrowkeel passage tombs – a scatter of 14 Neolithic cairns built around 3,500 BC on the ridges above Lough Arrow. One of them, Cairn G, has a roof-box aligned to the summer solstice sunset, like a quieter Newgrange you can usually walk into alone. The Caves of Kesh and their myths sit at the range's western end.
Castlebaldwin, sligo
Castlebaldwin is a small south Sligo village built around a 17th-century fortified house and McDermott's pub. The real reason to turn off the N4 is close by: the Carrowkeel passage tombs, 14 Neolithic cairns strung across the Bricklieve Mountains, built between roughly 3200 and 2400 BC.
Cliffoney, sligo
Cliffoney is a small village on the N15 between Mullaghmore and the Gleniff Horseshoe, ringed by Neolithic court tombs – Creevykeel, in state care beside the road, is among the best in Ireland. Built up by Lord Palmerston in the 1800s, it later locked its own church in protest when its republican priest was moved on.
Cliffony, sligo
Creevykeel is a full-court tomb built around 3500 BC, one of the largest and best-preserved of its kind in Ireland. An oval, enclosed court leads to a two-chambered burial gallery set in a long trapezoidal cairn. It sits free and unguided right beside the N15 north of Cliffony, and a 1935 Harvard dig here found cremated remains, Neolithic pottery, arrowheads and stone axes.
Rosses Upper, sligo
A roofless, ivy-clad shell on the shore at Rosses Point, Elsinore House was the summer home of the Yeats brothers' Middleton cousins and turns up in W.B. Yeats's poetry. You view it from the coastal path; the house itself is a protected ruin on private land.
Moytura ridge, sligo
Nuada of the Silver Arm is said to rest beneath Labby Rock’s massive limestone capstone. Often called Ireland's second-largest portal tomb, it stands on the Moytura ridge facing the winter-solstice sunrise, a ten-minute signposted walk from the car park at Cromleach Lodge.
Sligo, sligo
Sligo is the north-west's cultural and transport hub, a compact town of 20,608 people where the Garavogue meets Sligo Bay. Its one surviving medieval building is Sligo Abbey; its landmark is the ornate 1872 Town Hall; and Ben Bulben and Knocknarea frame the skyline. This is Yeats country, and you can walk the lot in an afternoon.
Ballymote, sligo
Heapstown Townland, sligo
Ballyfarnon, sligo
Carraroe, sligo
← All things to do in County Sligo
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