Stories, seaweed baths and scallops: the magic of Ireland’s forgotten coast (2024)

Prannie Rhatigan, doctor, author and seaweed guru, is looking doubtfully at my feet. In hindsight, suede boots might not have been the most practical option at 10am on Sligo’s Streedagh Beach after a night of heavy rain. Undeterred by my lack of foresight, she hands me a pair of wellies to swap them with and we’re off.

We stride across the sands, splashing through seawater puddles, the waves of the Atlantic pounding ahead. We pick our way through the seaweed gathered in clumps along the tidelines — the bladderwrack with its distinctive air-bubble nodules and the nori, looking like melted black plastic gleaming on the rocks.

You haven’t tasted freshness until you’ve snipped a strand of seaweed off a stone, rinsed it in seawater and put it in your mouth. We breakfast on peppery dulse, tangy sea spaghetti and feather-light sea lettuce, accompanied by herbal tea from Rhatigan’s flask, the tang of salt-drenched air sharpening our appetites.

When she’s not working as a GP, Rhatigan leads seaweed tours in Sligo and she’s a passionate advocate for the town and the plant. Growing up by the sea, she learnt everything she knows from her father. As we walk she explains how seaweed is a good source of vitamins and that she uses it in recipes from nori chocolate brownies to seaweed turkey curry.

I think about all of this later that afternoon as I lie draped in glistening strands at the Voya Seaweed Baths in Strandhill. Not only is seaweed good to eat; put it into a bath of hot water and it releases oils, called alginates. I steamed for two minutes before the bath to open my pores and now I’m lying back like a beached mermaid, my skin sucking in alginates like a balm, the water jelly-like with the salty oils (£30; voyaseaweedbaths.com).

Strandhill, once a traditional fishing village a few miles from Streedagh, has a place on many a surfer’s bucket list, along with the beaches Enniscrone and Mullaghmore, thanks to waves that sometimes reach 60 feet. Ireland’s National Surf Centre opened in Strandhill in June and houses the local surf club and three surf schools catering for everyone from beginners up (£35; sligosurfexperience.com).

The waves are most spectacular in winter when the clouds sit low on Knocknarea mountain, rolling in to cover Queen Maeve’s grave, the lonely cairn of stones perched at the summit. This neolithic passage tomb is said to be the final resting place of the legendary Irish Queen and mythical warrior woman. It’s a 300m climb to the top via some wooden steps and the sea views are worth the effort.

The legend of Maeve was one of the myths that fascinated the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, who spent much of his childhood living in Sligo with his grandparents, the Pollexfens, in a house overlooking the harbour. One of his plays, The Land of Heart’s Desire, is about Sligo and inspired him all his life, sparked by his mother’s childhood stories: “It was always assumed between her and us that Sligo was more beautiful than other places”, he wrote in his Autobiographies, published in the mid-Thirties.

Sitting in Fish and Bean in Rosses Point, where chef Dave Mullan serves locally caught fish, I have a view across the sea to the Metal Man, a lighthouse sculpture captured in watercolour by another Yeats brother, Jack. The beacon has lit the way for ships since the 1800s, as they sail up the narrow channel to Sligo port past Coney Island, after which locals claim New York’s Coney Island was named. Both Yeats brothers spent their lives trying to convey the magic of Sligo in paint and poetry, from the play of light over the Atlantic to the stories of the sidhe, or fairy folk, everything, Jack once said, “had a thought of Sligo in it”.

WB Yeats was also a frequent visitor to Sligo’s Lissadell House, the 19th-century manor and former home of the first woman elected to the House of Commons, Constance Gore-Booth. Lissadell is now owned by Eddie Walsh and his wife, Constance Cassidy, both barristers. They bought the dilapidated estate 20 years ago and, along with their seven children, are painstakingly restoring it. It opens to the public every summer and 400 acres of grounds run down to the beach where three luxury cottages, renovated by Constance, are available for holiday lets year-round (one night’s self-catering for six from £435; minimum three-night stay; lissadellhouse.com).

The sea air makes me crave shellfish and I find fat mussels, crab claws with hot garlic butter and briny oysters at the Eithna’s by the Sea restaurant, a cheerful bright blue building near the pier in the seaside town of Mullaghmore. Eithna is also famous for her baking and uses seaweeds in her breads and desserts (mains from £14; eithnasrestaurant.com).

There’s more terrific seafood on the menu in Sligo town, including buttered scallops and sea trout at Eala Bhan, where the white swans that give the restaurant its name float past the window facing the River Garavogue, (mains from £18; ealabhan.co.uk).

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Oysters and coffee seem an unlikely pairing but at WB’s Coffee House, opposite the bronze statue of the writer in Sligo, they will serve half a dozen alongside your flat white (six oysters from £13; wbscoffeehouse.ie). I skip the caffeine and wash down my oysters with a pint of Guinness in Thomas Connolly’s across the road, Sligo’s oldest pub. Along with Shoot the Crows on Castle Street, famous for its traditional music sessions, it’s a favourite with Sligonians. You can almost imagine Yeats hobnobbing here, gathering the myths and legends he loved.

Local stories, traditionally passed down by word-of-mouth, are also the stock in trade of butcher turned woodcarver Michael Quirke, who stopped selling meat 35 years ago when people started to show more interest in the carvings he displayed in the window than his trays of beef and pork. I cross the Garavogue outside Connolly’s to visit his shop, just off the main street, and he chisels a tiny hare on a block of wood for me as we talk — “just for fun” he says.

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper,” said WB Yeats. He wasn’t wrong — you don’t have to go far in Sligo to find the otherworldly.

Bernadette Fallon was a guest of Tourism Ireland (tourismireland.com). Fly to Knock. Tours with Prannie Rhatigan from £43 (Irishseaweedkitchen.ie)

Three places to stay in Co Sligo

1. The Glasshouse, Sligo
This four-star hotel in the town centre sits on the edge of the River Garavogue, opposite the sculpture of WB Yeats. Opened in 2006, it was designed to resemble a ship in dock, and riverside rooms have balconies overlooking the roaring swell of water as it tumbles over the rocks and out into Sligo Bay.
Details B&B doubles from £87 (theglasshouse.ie)

2. Coopershill House, Riverstown
This 18th-century Georgian mansion is set in 500 acres and built by an ancestor of the present owner. The O’Haras started taking in paying guests in the 1970s, but Coopershill is still a family home, where you can wander among their possessions, from walls of stags’ heads on the upper landing to delicate china tea sets in the drawing room with river views. The seven bedrooms are a mix of old world and new with menus strong on local produce from black pudding to cheese.
Details B&B doubles from £260 (coopershill.com)

3. Markree Castle, Collooney
One of the largest privately owned castles in Ireland, set on a 500-acre estate, Markree’s diary of weddings and events means it’s only open for individual bookings on selected dates. There are 31 bedrooms, all individually styled, with views of the grounds, formal garden and the River Unshin, sweeping moat-like alongside the castle. Most rooms have canopy beds, some have free-standing baths, and the Johnny Cash suite — named for the singer who once stayed here — has both.
Details B&B doubles from £159 (markreecastle.ie)

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