Wim van Velzen photography - landscape

Co. Sligo


Carrowkeel 1	Carrowkeel 2


Carrowkeel 3	Carrowkeel 4	Carrowkeel 5


Carrowmore	Knocknaree	Carroweden


Sligo 1	Sligo 2	Sligo 3	Sligo 4


Inishcrone 1	Inishcrone 2

To me Sligo is associated very much with prehistoric times - and with a most excellent pizzeria in Sligo town, but that is a different story.
Sligo has a high density of prehistoric monuments, even for Irish understanding. Queen Maeve's Grave, Carrowmore - easily reachable - and Carrowkeel. The last can only be reached by the well determined (at the end of the road you go through the wall paper, as soon as you reach the large oak, go to the right through the grass for another 400 man's lengths), but it is well worth the visit. Where else can one creep into graves 5500 years old? And without a chippie or the oblique postcards selling store to be seen!

The Ox Mountains deserve to be mentioned here. The are not spectacularly high or special, but very peaceful and surrounded by rustic farmland. And the people are very nice - but then, where not in Ireland?
The best way to meet nice people, is getting lost without hope and then drive the car into an impossible position. As soon as you want to reach for the map, someone stops and asks if he can be of any help. And of course to say that the weather is fine. And if you would take that way, you could take a look at...

This all sounds like time stopped long ago here, but that is most certainly not the case. The whole of Ireland has been painted again in recent years, roads are broadened and many new houses have been built. Very sensibly, the houses never appear as out of another universe - the fit neatly in the landscape and avoid to be a show off of wealth.
The Irish themselves say they get rather hurried by all new wealth. And then I think: if everyone in the Netherlands were as hurried as the Irish, the number of heart attacks would decrease dramatically.

Sligo itself is a nice town, with a pizzeria well worth a visit - or did I tell you? The abbey in the city centre is worth a visit as well. Compared to many others the buildings have been preserved well. And generally Sligo has little urge for looking as hip as possible. Not by being the umpteenth modern style shopping mall and parking lot city nor by being overly retro classic.
And right they are.

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