Sligo Town

Sligo, the only sizable town in the whole of Northwest Ireland, is the best place to begin a tour of Yeats Country. Since the early 2000s, the streets have been ringing with the bite of buzz saws as apartments, shopping malls, and cinema complexes have been erected behind tasteful, traditional facades, although with the demise of the Celtic Tiger building development has tapered off, and the area has been affected by the recession like most other parts of Ireland. By day Sligo is as lively and crowded as its considerably larger neighbor to the southwest, Galway, with locals, students from the town's college, and tourists bustling past its historic buildings and along its narrow sidewalks and winding streets, and crowding its one-of-a-kind shops, restaurants, and traditional pubs. More than any other town in Northwest Ireland, the Sligo of today has an energy that would surprise anyone who hasn't been here in the past few years.