Public Notice: This walk is currently closed to the public. Please do not enter as it is unsafe to do so.

Directions to Trailhead

If you approach Sligo from the Dublin side, take the S2 exit and head towards the centre of town. After the first main set of lights, turn right onto Cemetery Road, at the end of which you reach a T-junction at Sligo Racecourse. Turn right and stay on this road, which rises along Holy Well Road for a short distance until you reach the parking area for Carns Hill (Carns Forest Recreation Area) on your right. If you approach from the centre of town along the banks of Lough Gill, pass Cleveragh Sports Complex and when you reach the T-junction, turn left onto Holy Well Road, and from there to the parking area.

You can also cross the road – with care – at the entrance and this provides access to Cleveragh Regional Park, which is a looped trail which further extends onto the Garavogue River Walk, which brings you along the Garavogue River into the centre of Sligo Town.

Carns (or Cairns) Hill is a hidden gem located just a short walk from Sligo Town with views of Sligo Bay, Benbulben and Lough Gill, though these views are mostly obscured by the thick forest. The site consists of two short looped walks through a diverse forest plantation which is rich in biodiversity. The hillside features two large unopened and undisturbed Neolithic cairns and associated caves. They are sited on the highest points of the flat summits where the west cairn stands at 123 metres and the east cairn slightly lower at 112 metres. The Cairn (blue) loop will take you to the edge of the ancient east cairn. The cairn is covered with young trees and scrub – ash, sycamore and hazel, so that you might easily miss it and walk by. The cairn is about 45 meters in diameter and some 10 meters high. It is composed of chunks of quarried limestone, and is most likely kerbed and strewn with quartz.