← All events
markets · Thursday 17 September 2026 · Various 
Cloonacool Sheep Festival
At Cloonacool · Cloonacool, Co. Sligo
At Cloonacool · Cloonacool, Co. Sligo
Cloonacool, a small village in the Ox Mountains south of Tubbercurry, holds its own dedicated sheep festival every September, built around the skills that still shape hill farming in this corner of Sligo. Sheep shearing displays and sheepdog trials form the backbone of the four days, run by working farmers rather than staged for show, alongside local crafts, food stalls and traditional music. It draws farming families, visitors curious about rural life, and locals catching up over the festival weekend.
The shearing displays put skilled shearers through their paces on working sheep, a demonstration of a trade that is still very much a working part of the local economy rather than a heritage re-enactment. The sheepdog trials are the other main draw: handlers and their dogs guide sheep through a set course, a discipline built directly on the everyday work of moving flocks on the surrounding hill farms. Around these two centrepieces, expect craft stalls, food vendors and music sessions running across the four days, with the festival building toward its busiest days over the weekend. It is a community-run event rather than a commercial one, organised by local volunteers rather than an events company.
Cloonacool is a small village in the Ox Mountains foothills, reached by minor roads north of Tubbercurry. There is no rail or scheduled bus service into the village itself, so a car is the practical way to get there; Tubbercurry, on the N17, is the nearest town with wider transport links.
The festival is very much the village’s own event, drawing people from the surrounding townlands as much as from further afield. There is more to see in Cloonacool and across Co. Sligo.
Heading to Cloonacool in Cloonacool? Sligo has plenty more to see. Read the Cloonacool area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.