Tuesday 27 August – Slow going in Sligo; darting around Donegal

After a delicious seafood dinner at the local hotel last night and a good night’s sleep, we set off this morning on the long drive to Sligo.  It seems that we may have already experienced the best of summer as today we drove through constant rain for most of the day. After passing through Charlestown, our first stop was the small town of Sligo, where we had a walk through the ruins of Sligo Abbey (which our guide insisted was actually a friary).  Built in the mid-13^th century, it was victim of an accidental fire in 1414 and then restored, damaged during a siege of the town in 1595 and virtually reduced to ruins by Hamilton’s army in 1641.  So what is left, which comprises mainly external and some internal stone walls, dates from the 13^th and 15^th centuries. It is certainly enough to give a good idea of how it would have looked before the various forces of nature and man went to work on it.

We had lunch and a leisurely walk around Sligo town centre then drove for another ninety minutes to the seaside town of Donegal, where we walked through the ruins of the Franciscan Abbey, built around 1474.  This one survived until it was plundered by the English in 1588.  It occupies a picturesque spot overlooking the River Eske and, interestingly, has been used as a cemetery for the past few hundred years, so as we walked within the remaining walls of the abbey we were stepping around graves that may only be eighty years old.

We then walked on to Donegal Castle, quite a modest structure, built around the same time as the abbey – in fact they were both built by Red Hugh O’Donnell.  The castle has been restored in part so we were able to climb up the original steps to the upper level of the Norman tower house and the 19^th century Jacobean manor house.

We walked several hundred metres out of the town centre to the Famine Graveyard, where countless numbers of people were buried after falling victim to the “potato famine” of 1845 – 1850.  On display is a large cooking pot which was used to feed up to 800 people each day.

Back to our car, and the short drive to Killybeggs, a fishing port, and our digs for the night – a small self-contained cottage, where a roaring fire was waiting our arrival.  A home-cooked meal and an early night before another long drive tomorrow.