Village · Co. Sligo
The surf village on the north shore of Carribbeg Sound, eight km from Sligo town: one of the best beach breaks in Ireland, a 200-year-old thatched cottage, and the start of the Benbulbin walk.
Strandhill is a surf town. The beach faces north-west and takes swell from south-west through to north, which makes it one of the most consistent breaks in the country; when the swell is between one and four feet, the beach puts up waves for shortboards and longboards alike, and the village has produced a generation of Ireland’s top surfers. There are surf schools on the sand, a National Surf Centre at the north end, and the County Sligo Surf Club above the seaweed baths. Swimming is not allowed — the currents are strong and the beach is a surfing beach, not a bathing one.
Strandhill (population about two thousand) is on the Coolera Peninsula, and its old name was Ros Dragnige. It is a proper village, not a strip of holiday lettings: pubs and cafés on the seafront, the Strandhill People’s Market at Sligo airport on Sundays, Dolly’s Cottage — a 200-year-old thatched cottage, open to the public — and VOYA Seaweed Baths, Victorian baths filled with seaweed just off the seafront. The beach is one of the county’s Wild Atlantic Way discovery points, and the sunset from the sand, with Benbulbin filling the horizon, is the photograph the place is known for.
The headland at the west end of the village is Sligo Head, and from the beach the coastal path runs south to Culleenamore, with the full length of Benbulbin on your left; the Killaspugbrone Loop takes you around the coast beyond. Benbulbin itself starts from the village — the standard walk is a full day from the car park at the foot of the climb.
Where to stay
A base on the sand puts the swell report and the breakfast table the same distance away.
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A headland on the north coast of Sligo Bay and one of the best-known surf spots in Ireland — a place we describe here without a precise map, because the headland and its dunes are fragile and the land is not all public.