Mullaghmore

Mullaghmore (Irish: An Mullach Mor), meaning “the great summit“, is Sligo‘s most northerly seaside resort, sitting on its own peninsula offering spectacular ocean views and stunning mountain scenery, including the unmistakable shape of the iconic Benbulben mountain.

This small village is fairly busy during the summer months, with a fine, cuved, sandy beach, small harbour and plenty of places to go for walks and to enjoy the stunning scenery.

Standing guard over the southern entrance to Mullaghmore village, is Classibawn Castle, which was part of the large 12,000 acre estate belonging to the Temple family from the 17th to the 19th century.

The estate was granted to Sir John Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston and Master of the Rolls in Dublin. The 3rd Viscount, Henry John Temple was better known as Lord Palmerston, the absentee landlord, whose estate was run initially by middlemen, and later by land agents, such as Stewart and Kincaid, a Dublin based firm with offices in Sligo.

The agents oversaw the “assisted emigration” which took place on the Palmerston and the nearby Gore Booth (Lissadell) estates, during the famine and continuing until the 1860s.

Classiebawn Castle was the favoured holiday retreat of Admiral of the Fleet The 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, who had inherited Classiebawn Castle.

The small seaside resort of Mullaghmore hit the world news headlines in August 1979 when Lord Louis Mountbatten, along with the Dowager Baroness Brabourne, The Honourable Nicholas Knatchbull and County Fermanagh teenager Paul Maxwell were killed by a bomb planted on his pleasure boat by the Provisional IRA.

Mullaghmore is one of the best surfing locations in the world, where surfers and windsurfers can ride waves of up to 15 metres (49 ft) high off Mullaghmore Head.