Enniscrone - human settlement

Enniscrone or Inishcrone is a beach resort in County Sligo, with a population in 2016 of 1156. The nearest town of any size is Ballina 14 km south.

Get in

Bus Éireann 458 runs every couple of hours daily from Enniskillen in County Fermanagh across the border to Sligo (which has trains and buses from Dublin), then west along the coast to Enniscrone and Ballina in County Mayo. To Enniscrone from Ballina is 20 min and from Sligo is just over an hour. The village bus stop is on Main Street, corner with Church Lane, by the hardware store.

Get around

Walk.

See

• O'Dowd's Castle at the east edge of the village is the shell of a 17th century mansion. Nearby is the equally scrappy ruin of Valentine's Church. Both were ruined by the invasion of 1798.
• Cliff Baths are County Sligo's answer to Lisbon's Torre de Belém, a little white castle-cum-wedding cake perched on the beach, built in 1890. The building and baths within are long closed but you can get just as cold in the tide-filled pools outside.
• Easky 📍 is a village 10 km northeast of Enniscrone on the coast road - the bus from Sligo comes this way. There are remains of another O'Dowd fortress, the turret of a 19th century signal tower, and an abbey and graveyard. Easky has pubs and accommodation.
• Quirky Nights Glamping Village in 2016 laboriously transported a disused Boeing 767 here from Shannon Airport, where it had been abandoned by the bankrupt Russian airline Transaero. It was supposed to form the centrepiece of an offbeat accommodation complex: old buses, railway carriages, why not a hovercraft or funicular cabin. It got here, as you can see from the road by the caravan park, but the project flopped and the site is closed.

Do

• Surfing here is relatively sedate and suitable for beginners.
• Seaweed baths are available, see County Sligo#Do for a description.
• Enniscrone Golf Club is southwest edge of the village. The Dunes championship course is 7033 yards par 73, Scurmore course is nine holes. Visitor day rates are €145 April-Oct and €50 Nov-March.
• The Wild Atlantic Way is a coastal itinerary from Donegal to Kinsale in County Cork, 2500 km in all. The section from Sligo through Enniscrone to Ballina is self-evident.
• Black Pig Festival is a week in late July. Various fun events and races, including racing on pigs, inspired by a legend of a giant pig chasing round the county until slain at Muckduff just south of the village. It was poisonous and couldn't be eaten. Dates for 2022, and the nature of any pigs' involvement, are tbc.

Buy

• Centra is the main store, open daily 07:00-23:00.

Eat

• Maple Moose is an ice cream shop on Pier Road open daily 11:00-21:00.
• Gilroy's Bar (dead link: January 2023) and Áit Eile Restaurant is open M-F 16:00-23:30, Sa 12:30-00:30, Su 12:30-23:00.
• Pilot Bar does good seafood daily 13:00-00:00.
• Spicy Affair serves Indian classics daily 17:00-23:00.
• Waterfront Hotel (see Sleep) has a good restaurant open daily for dinner plus Sunday lunch.

Drink

• Wild Atlantic Inn is 1 km northeast of the village on R297, at the junction with R298. They have rooms.

Sleep

• Diamond Coast Hotel, Main St, Enniscrone F26 E9F9, 54.205°, -9.103°, +353 96 26000. Comfy modern hotel on main street. B&B double €150 2020-09-11
• Waterfront Hotel, Cliff Rd, Enniscrone F26 P9Y2, 54.217°, -9.095°, +353 96 37120. Smart comfy hotel with good restaurant. B&B double €160 2021-09-29
• Ocean Sands Hotel, Main St, Enniscrone F26 Y3Y9, 54.213°, -9.094°, +353 96 26700, reservations@theoceansandshotel.net. Good mid-range hotel though some decor is tatty. Dog-friendly. B&B double €160 2020-09-11
• Atlantic Caravan Park, Enniscrone, 54.210°, -9.100°, +353 96 36132. Open for camping and touring caravans June-Aug. Tourer €24 2020-09-11
• There's a handful of B&Bs along Main Street. Ben Bulben Hotel has closed.
• Ballina 15 km south has a much better choice of accommodation.

Connect

Poor coverage: as of Sept 2021 you'll manage a mobile call and maybe even 4G with Three or Vodafone, but there's no signal from Eir.

Go next

• Ballina is the gateway to County Mayo, wild and little-developed.
• Sligo is WB Yeats country, the base for exploring prehistoric Carrowkeel and the mountains of Knocknarea and Benbulbin.
• Strandhill near Sligo has bigger waves for surfing.