The Long Way Home

I was in Tubbercurry on Friday and instead of taking the normal main road home I decided to take a bit of a detour. I headed up towards Lough Easkey – this is one of my favourite places in Sligo. If you haven’t been there yet it’s well worth a visit.

Take the road out of Tubbercurry heading to Ballina and you’ll see a sign for Lough Easkey on the right. It’s a bit of a long drive with narrow roads – not for the faint hearted in places but so worth it.

You will drive alongside the Owenaher River which has a stunning waterfall. I parked at the top and hopped over the wall, well I say hopped – I clambered….I won’t mention my wet backside – whoops I just did. I sat of the rocks and watched the water rushing. The smell of coconut from the gorse bushes made me feel like I was in an exotic country. I’m always blown away by the beauty we have here in Sligo. My photos really don’t do it justice.

Back in the car on the next stop was Masshill. This is an outdoor place of worship and well worth a visit. There’s also an old school house dating back to 1910. I met up with the farmer and he let me go and look at it as it’s on his land. He told me his mother used to go to the school and that it was only open for a short amount of time. It’s these stories I’d love to explore more of, finding out the local tales behind the places. I just found one of the Duchas site about treasure being at Masshill – I wonder if it’s still there….

As I carried on driving I saw chickens crossing the road – no idea why they crossed 😉

There were turf bogs and ruins as I drove into what felt like the wilderness but really is just around 8 miles from the nearest town.

I saw the Ox Mountain Adventure Camp which you can also stay in. Imagine being out in this part of the world? Talk about getting away from it all.

There were also sheep all over the place, one of them tried to hitch a lift!  When I got to Lough Easkey I made friends with one of the locals, it’s unusual for the sheep to come up to you but this one did. As I walked back to the car I was being followed….maybe I look like a sheep!

What a journey home – just magic. I might take the long way home more often.