Sligo walking tour

Today I went on the walking tour of Sligo.  It runs every weekday morning at 11am starting at the Tourist Office in O’Connell Street, Sligo.  You can join the tour when you wish and leave when you wish.

John Ryan took us all around Sligo town and even though I’ve lived here for 23 years there were things I didn’t know about.  We heard all about W. B. Yeats and his connection to Sligo.

We also heard about Spike Milligan’s connection to Sligo.

We got to see Stable Lane, which as the name suggests used to be stables.  I’d never been here before, it’s a very pretty courtyard.

John told us all about the oldest pub in the town….sadly he didn’t buy us a pint 😉

We heard about the Garavogue River, the shortest river in Ireland.  We even saw a fisherman catch a salmon.

One of the next stops was a visit to the Courthouse.  Again this was the first time I’d been in here.  John also told us about the Dracula connection with Sligo.

On to another pub, again no pint 😉 A local told us it was much more interesting inside the pub…but we didn’t get to find out.

Next we looked at Lady Eireann, Sligo’s answer to the Statue of Liberty.

We saw the grave of W. B. Yeats’ little brother who died when he was three and the graves of other members of the family who died from the cholera epidemic which killed more people in Sligo than anywhere else in the country.

It was a really interesting tour and I’d recommend it to anyone, both tourists and locals alike.  I’m not going to tell you the stories we were told because if I did I’d have to kill you you’ll just have to take the tour for yourself 🙂