|
The sight worth stopping for in the village of COLLOONEY , five miles south of Sligo where the N4 and N17 separate, is the Teeling Monument at the northern entrance to the village, built to commemorate Bartholomew Teeling, hero of the Battle of Carricknagat. The battle was fought nearby during the rebellion of 1798, when a combined Franco-Irish force - on its way from Killala in County Mayo, where the French had landed , to Ballinamuck in County Longford - was held up by a single strategically placed English gun. Teeling charged up the hill and shot the gunner dead, turning the tide of the engagement. After their defeat at Ballinamuck the French were treated as prisoners of war, but five hundred Irish troops were massacred. Irish-born Teeling, who was an officer in the French army, was later hanged in Dublin. The monument links Teeling and his fallen comrades with subsequent generations of Irish freedom fighters. Close to Collooney is the battlemented Markree Castle , originally seventeenth-century but with grandiose Victorian extensions, which is still the home of the Coopers, who used to be Sligo's most powerful Anglo-Irish family. It's set in impressive parklands and is now open as a hotel (tel 071/67800, www.markreecastle.ie ; over GBP130/?165.07), and also houses an excellent, though expensive, restaurant . Midweek, non-residents can wander in for a drink in the bar. Comfort and gastronomic delights at a more affordable level are on offer at Glebe House (closed Nov-Feb; tel 071/67787, www.glebe house.com ; GBP55-70/?69.84-88.88), just outside Collooney on the other side of town. A "restaurant with rooms" which is also open to non-residents rather than a guesthouse, this Georgian former rectory is filled with an assortment of heavy, Victorian-and-later furniture - but is attractive not so much for its decor as for its food and the freshness of the ingredients, many of which are grown in the garden outside (restaurant open daily June-Aug; variable for the rest of the year).
Your Tip for Collooney
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Collooney - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Collooney - visit the main Collooney forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Collooney webguide section below! Thanks.
|
