Overview
Maugherow is the largest peninsula in County Sligo, closing off the north side of Sligo Bay, and its two headline draws don’t quite square with its reputation as empty back-country. Lissadell House, a Greek-revival mansion with guided tours and tea rooms, sits on the south shore; up the coast, Streedagh Beach is where ships of the Spanish Armada were wrecked in 1588. Between and around them the peninsula is what people usually mean by Maugherow: single-track roads, dunes, salt marsh and long strands you’ll often have to yourself.
It’s also known as the Raghly Peninsula, after Raghly Point (say it “Rockley”) at its western tip, and its Irish name is Machaire Eabha.
Getting your bearings
Carney is the only proper village on the peninsula and makes the natural base; Grange, the nearest market town, sits off its eastern edge on the N15. The whole headland is a Special Protection Area and Natural Heritage Area – rugged shore, sandy beaches, salt marsh, dune and farmland – with a scattered population of around 3,100 (2016), most of them farming.
Sand has form here. In the 19th century blowing dunes buried whole townlands on the peninsula, one of those slow coastal disasters that rarely make the guidebooks.
What to see and do
Lissadell House
The big set-piece: a neo-classical, Greek-revival house on the south shore, open for guided tours with tea rooms attached. Its literary pedigree is old – as far back as the early 13th century the poet Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh is said to have kept a school of poetry at Lissadell. Check opening times before you travel, as it isn’t always open.
Streedagh Beach
A long sandy strand backed by dunes, and the spot on the peninsula with the most history: several Armada ships came ashore and broke up here in the autumn of 1588, with heavy loss of life. It’s fully exposed to the Atlantic, better for a walk than a swim.
Raghly Harbour
A small working harbour at the western tip, best at low tide when the water pulls back off the rocky channels and pools. The headland walk from here looks back across the bay.
More along the coast
Yellow Strand is another quiet beach; Ballygilgan Nature Reserve lies just inland from Lissadell; and the fort at Knocklane guards a headland nearby. The narrow coast roads that link them make a decent, flat cycle loop.
Practical information
- Getting there: from Sligo take the N15 north towards Grange, then the minor roads out to Carney and the coast – about ten miles from town. A local bus (route 982) runs between Sligo and Maugherow every few hours, roughly 27 minutes; a taxi from Sligo is 17–18 minutes.
- Parking: free, at informal roadside pull-ins along the coast road. No car parks, no pay-and-display.
- Facilities: thin on the ground. Stock up in Grange or Sligo town for food and fuel; Lissadell’s tea rooms are the main option on the peninsula itself, and only when it’s open.
- Getting around: the coast roads are single-track in places but passable, and the flat terrain suits a quiet cycle loop.
- Dogs: welcome on the beaches and paths, but there’s grazing livestock, so keep them under control.
- Safety: exposed Atlantic coast with fast tides. Mind the tide tables on the beaches, keep off crumbling banks, and expect patchy phone signal out towards Raghly.
If you can only stop once, make it Lissadell; if the tide and weather are with you, Streedagh is worth the extra few miles for the beach and the Armada story. To make a day of it, add the neighbouring Coolera Peninsula across the bay for more beaches and old sites.