Sligo Abbey

From the Sligo County Library in Stephen Street a bridge leads over to the south bank of the River Garavogue. To the left are the oldest buildings in Sligo - the church, cloister and conventual buildings of Sligo Abbey (National Monument), a Dominican friary founded by Maurice Fitzgerald in 1253 and rebuilt in 1416 after a fire.

The church has a double aisled nave and transepts; the choir dates from the original foundation, the transepts from the 16th C. Notable features are the canopied tomb of Cormack O'Crean, on the north side of the nave, with a Crucifixion and other figures in low relief, and the O'Conor Sligo monument (1624) on the south side. Three sides of the beautiful 15th C. cloister have survived, with the sacristy and chapter house (13th C).

550yd/500m to the west are the town's two principal churches, St John's Church (Church of Ireland) in John Street, a neo-Gothic building of 1812, and the Roman Catholic St John's Cathedral (neo-Romanesque, 1869-74) in Temple Street.