2 Best Sights in The Northwest, Ireland

Standing beside the Atlantic waters of Drumcliff Bay, on the peninsula that juts out between Donegal and Sligo bays, Lissadell is an austere but classical residence built in the 1830s by Sir Robert Gore-Booth. Lavishly restored to the tune of €9 million, the house, designed by the London architect Francis Goodwin, is regarded as the leading attraction in the Northwest and highlight of the Wild Atlantic Way coastal driving route. Two of its most notable features are a dramatic 65-foot-long gallery, with 24-foot-tall Doric columns, clerestory windows, and skylights. Lissadell was the ancestral home of the Gore-Booth family, whose members Eva and Constance were close friends of W. B. Yeats. The house became a holiday retreat for the poet, and a copy of his poem "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz" is on display. Constance Gore-Booth, who later became Countess Markievicz, fought in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. She was the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons (although she did not take her seat) and later became the first female member of the Dáil (Irish Parliament). A fascinating exhibition features her paintings and letters. The Yeats Gallery contains first editions, letters, paintings, drawings, and photographs relating to the work of W. B., his brother Jack, father John, and sisters Lily and Lolly. Among the recent acquisitions is a table from Coole Park in County Galway where W. B. dined with Lady Gregory. The "March of a Nation" exhibition features artifacts from the Lissadell Collection from 1798 up to the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. Dating from 1740, the Alpine Garden, which had been neglected for 60 years, has been restored with thousands of bulbs planted to add to the natural beauty of the woodland walk and the 18th-century ponds. The walled Victorian kitchen garden, created in 1840, now showcases heritage vegetables and fruit similar to those grown in its heyday. A staggering 180 varieties of potatoes—one was first grown here in the 19th century—are lovingly tended, and the garden is a work in progress.

The Tea Rooms serve wholesome fare including Lissadell's own apple and mint jelly, other produce from the kitchen garden, and oysters from their own beds.

Lissadell was closed to visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic, instead hosting a drive-in movie theater on the grounds. Be sure to phone or view the website prior to organizing a visit to check that the house and gardens are open.

The main attraction at the Model, housed in a school built in 1862, is one of Ireland's largest collections of works by 20th-century artists from home and abroad, as well as a stunning collection of artwork acquired by the gallery in 2018. Each year, the Model displays six curated exhibitions from its collection, frequently featuring work by famed Irish painter Jack B. Yeats, who once said, "I never did a painting without putting a thought of Sligo in it." At the heart of the collection is the work amassed by the woman whose name the gallery now bears, Nora Niland, who was the Sligo librarian from 1945 until the late 1970s, and who recognized the importance of Jack B.'s work. Only a small selection of this work is on display at any time, but you can view the whole collection on the Model's website. Paintings such as The Funeral of Harry Boland and A Political Meeting (In the West of Ireland) by John Yeats (father of Jack B. and W. B.), who had a considerable reputation as a portraitist, also hang here on a rotating basis, as does work by Sean Keating and Paul Henry. In 2018, a mystery donor, who bought items from a Yeats family collection auction in London, donated eight artworks—six paintings and two sketches—to the gallery. It includes what is regarded as John Yeats's masterpiece, his oil on canvas, Self-Portrait, New York, which at £87,500 was the most valuable item in the auction. The donation also included drawings and portraits by the artist of his children; William, Susan, Elizabeth, and Jack.

Paintings from the Niland collection are cherry-picked and previously unseen work turns up occasionally from elsewhere; visitors should phone to confirm any work in particular that they want to view. In 2019, the Model received The Race Card Seller, a characterful early work by Jack B. from the Office of the Taoiseach in Dublin. It is due to remain on loan to the gallery for several years and is expected to be on display until 2022 or beyond. The Model also has a 180-seat cinema with a program run in conjunction with the Sligo Film Society, and a good café. The Yeats Secret Garden, an enclosed wildflower area behind the gallery, is open to the public. It represents W. B. Yeats's vision in his poem Lake Isle of Innisfree of a secret hideaway and comes complete with a clay-plastered cabin, representing his dream of building a small cabin "of clay and wattles made".