County Dossier
Sligo
A county of table mountains, bays and old stories.
Sligo lies on the north-west coast where mountain, bay and river meet in a compact but varied county landscape.
At a glance
Sligo at a glance
A county of table mountains, bays and old stories.
- Ben Bulben and the north-west coast
- Named from the shelly place
- Birthplace (1865) of W.B. Yeats, playwright
- Area: 709 sq mi 1,836 km²
- Population: 65,393
- County Top: Truskmore 2,123ft / 647m
County Geography
Sligo meets Donegal to the north-east, Leitrim to the east and south-east, Roscommon to the south, and Mayo to the west and south-west, while the Atlantic forms the county’s northern and western sea edge. The county is shaped by Sligo Bay, the Garavogue and Lough Gill, the mountain blocks of the north, and the lower inland country to the south.
Sligo is easy to recognise through Sligo Bay, the mountain wall, and the southern plain.
Map Reference
View Sligo on the map
Sligo is the county. The map shows its boundary, places, and neighbouring counties.
The county.
The county boundary.
Nearby counties and places.
Places and routes
Sligo, Ballymote, Tubbercurry, Enniscrone, and Mullaghmore show the county from its central bay-side town to its southern inland side and outer Atlantic coast.
Connections
The county’s routes have long centred on Sligo town, followed the bay and river corridor, and branched south toward Ballymote and Tubbercurry and west toward the Atlantic side. Movement follows the same bay, river, mountain, and plain pattern.
Names
- Sligo
- County Sligo
- County of Sligo
- Contae Sligeach
Sligeach is the Irish form of Sligo. County Sligo is the formal historical style, the county name means the shelly place, and the older county background includes the prehistoric and mythic landscape around Knocknarea, Carrowmore, and the north-west coast.
Sligo was a county by the sixteenth century, and the county’s own combination of bay, river, coast, and mountain has kept its shape distinct ever since. That bay-and-mountain geography still gives the historic county a clear shape.