Sligo County

Motto: Land of Heart's Desire

Sligo is part of the province of Connacht and is named after the town.  The county was theoretically formed in 1585, but was not made a reality until after the chaos of the Nine Years’ War had ended in 1603.  Its boundaries reflect the O Conchobhair Sligigh overlordship of Lower Connacht as it was at the time of the Elizabethan conquest.  

The poet and Nobel Laureate William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) spent much of his childhood in northern Sligo and the county’s landscapes were the inspiration for much of his poetry.  He is buried in North County Sligo, in Drumcliff.  The tartan is one of a series of Irish District tartans but which are not 'officially sanctioned' District tartans.  However, they have proven popular and no doubt in time will be accepted as genuine District rather than Fashion tartans.