First published: 11/11/23.

Zoë Sheng 1

The Passage Tomb Landscape Of County Sligo

The Passage Tomb Landscape of County Sligo (On tentative list)

The Passage Tomb Landscape of County Sligo by Zoë Sheng

I know why there's only one review because nobody wants to follow such a detailed explanation of the proposed site and honestly I can't add much more than personal trip info - which is pretty neat to read too, right? :) So here I go with the "do yourself a favor and just skip down to the second review instead" posting.

First of, I only went to the Carrowmore cemetery which is very conveniently situated near Sligo. You can park onsite, pay an entrance fee and get a visitor card (no deposit required maybe they trust me more or it was a slow day). I spoke to the staff quite a bit and it was the first time I heard UNESCO mentioned. They were recently added to the tentative list which I didn't even know because I had my plans for Ireland way before Covid and it was definitely a highlight on the way up to Northern Ireland not to miss one way or another. Being a tentative list was even better I suppose so I can "tick" this off one day eh. You also can play a kid's game of spotting things around the site which keeps you a bit entertained plus I got a postcard as gift - slow day for the staff indeed (I want to add that they are super friendly!). Your first steps will be across the road which one could potentially get without paying but with the honest system they'll assume you paid entrance already. There is one circle you cannot visit because there is only a narrow passage to see it and they was a medical incident once and the emergency services couldn't get through that passage - anyway you'll see it fine from a distance and those circles are in the end "all the same". The biggest highlight will be the large tomb as seen from the pic (funny how I took exactly the same shot as the review below although there aren't that many photo ops around the fields). Inside you can see a covered tomb and the walls have been carefully fastened to keep the original state. Most of the info about the place is read on the info sheet. There are a couple more sites across the fields which you can only see from the hill and again they aren't gonna be much different. As I was talking to the staff I learnt that the lands are owned by farmers but officially the government has the right to seize it for cultural reasons such as protection, so basically now it stands that the farmer owns the land but isn't allowed to touch the rock formations. He'll have the cows and sheep all over them though lol ("that's good to keep it from overgrowning" said the staff).

As for the site I found it interested but I think Ireland can do more with the tomb landscapes, and they only want to include 2 sites to make it a landscape?! I wouldn't want to suggest Ireland can combine this with other tomb sites that aren't related with culture and time periods but I think they can do a grander thing than just this.

As it only takes an hour or so to visit I would make sure you put this on your travel itinerary as you cross around Ireland. Sligo was a good stopover spot too before you head into NI and have to suddenly switch to miles, pounds and ... royalty. Last thing to say is totally off-topic, Ireland changed to metric but will still use imperial so if they say it's 5 miles down the road it IS actually miles. The walking trip around the the site is only around 4 furlongs by the way...hohoho

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