The train from Dublin to Sligo near our house and we have always wanted to find out what’s there in Sligo. Opportunity came during the autumn school break, I was able to get a couple of days off from work and we bought our tickets to Sligo. It is a 3 hour train ride from Dublin to Sligo and we are lucky to get the family ticket fare. It is 60 Euro return and we get assigned seats.

Sligo is mainly know for it’s gateway to outdoor sports such as surfing and hiking. When we were there, we noticed they also celebrate William Butler Yeats and his brother Jack Butler Yeats

Sligo Abbey

Seeing that we liked to visit historic places in Ireland, it is only natural that Sligo Abbey is our first stop. Our visit coincide with the last week the Abbey will be open before it closes for winter. With the OPW heritage card, entrance to the Abbey is free for us. We are provided with a laminated guide (that we have to return when exiting) to help us know what we are seeing. The children gets a set of pictures that they need to find the corresponding artefact in the Abbey. This is a great idea for the kids to have something to do while adults do the serious exploring.

The Model

The Model is gallery for contemporary art. It is located 15-20 mins walk from city centre. When we where there, they features works from prominent women artist. Contemporary art is not our thing so I would not be able to appreciate much. It also housed the largest collection of Jack Butler Yeats. I can see that he has tried his hands on classical method and later develop his contemporary style. It has a lounge and some children play spaces that is good to take a rest, the cafe is also brightly lit from natural light. The galleries are quite small and we covered it in a matter of minutes.

Sligo Town

Sligo is a small town, walked around town and only made 13k steps. In general shops are along the few roads by the river. There’s a huge car park that serves Tesco, Dunnes and an arcade. I suppose you can walk from one end of town to the other in 20 mins.

Interestingly, there’s no fast food chain on town. No KFC, no MCD, no BK. So we have to focus on finding interesting cuisine from local shops. We noticed there’s a few O’Hehirs around town that serves hot meal and sandwiches on top of bread and cakes. We stopped to get some cakes and wraps and they are not bad.