POSTED FROM

BUNNANADDEN

CO. SLIGO · IE

Bunnanadden
Bun an Fheadáin, Co. Sligo

The Wild Atlantic Way
STOP 07 / 07

Bun an Fheadáin · Co. Sligo

A small south Sligo crossroads in the heart of the country that produced the Sligo fiddle style.

Bunnanadden is a small village in south Sligo on the R296, nine kilometres from Tubbercurry and eight from Ballymote, sitting about seventy metres up in rolling drumlin country. The Irish name, Bun an Fheadáin, places it at the foot of a small stream. The 19th-century maps mark a busier spot than you will find today - a mill, two churches, a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks and a street of houses, with fairs held six times a year. Modern reality is a crossroads with two pubs, a church, a national school and a sports hall. The post office closed in 2011.

What gives this place its weight is not what you can see but what came out of it. This is the heart of the country that produced the Sligo fiddle style - fast, ornamented, flamboyant - the sound that travelled to New York in the early 1900s and came back on 78s to change Irish music. Martin Wynne, whose reels are session standards from here to San Francisco, was born in the townland of Everlawn just outside the village. Michael Coleman, the most famous of all the Sligo fiddlers, came from Knockgrania in Killavil, the neighbouring parish, a short hop up the road.

There is one piece of stone worth the detour: Cloonameehan Friary, a ruined Dominican house founded in 1488 by Eugene Mac Donogh and dissolved around 1584. It sits in a graveyard in the townland that gives the village its name, quiet and unsignposted, the kind of ruin you find by asking rather than by following a brown sign.

Bunnanadden is part of the south Sligo road network rather than a stop on a tour. There are no beds in the village and no restaurant. Use it as a pass-through and a music pilgrimage, base yourself in Ballymote or Tubbercurry, and time a visit for a festival week when the parish pubs fill with fiddles.

Pubs

2and counting

Walk score

A crossroads village in five minutes

Founded

Medieval parish; Cloonameehan Dominican friary founded 1488

Coords

54.0522° N, 8.6050° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The road

On the R296 between Tubbercurry and Ballymote.

Nine kilometres from Tubbercurry, eight from Ballymote, seventy metres up. A junction village on the back roads of south Sligo. Two pubs, a church, a school, a GAA pitch.

Next stops → 02 The music

Home parish of Martin Wynne, neighbour to Killavil.

This is the country that bred the Sligo fiddle style. Martin Wynne was born here; Michael Coleman came from Killavil up the road. The townlands around here are the source of a lot of what gets played in sessions worldwide.

Stories & lore → 03 The honest take

A parish, not a destination.

Two pubs, a shop long since gone, a parish church, a school. No signposted attraction and no beds in the village. Come for the music country and the friary ruin, then sleep in Ballymote or Tubbercurry.

Skip →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Two village pubs

Parish locals

Traditional bars, the crossroads

Bunnanadden has two pubs and that is the social life of the village. They are working country bars serving their own parish rather than visitors - no food operation, no music programme to speak of, but the place to be on a festival weekend or after a GAA match. Names change with owners in villages this small, so ask before you set out; on a quiet midweek night one or both may keep short hours.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Born Everlawn, Bunninadden, 1913

Martin Wynne's country

Martin Wynne was born in the townland of Everlawn just outside Bunnanadden in 1913, grew up in this fiddle-soaked parish, spent some years in England and emigrated to New York in 1948. There he fell in with the great Sligo emigre players - Coleman, Morrison, Killoran - and composed a handful of reels in the 1930s, of which Martin Wynne's No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 became standards played in sessions the world over. In 1989 he was made the first honorary president in the history of the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann. He died in 1998. If you have ever heard a fiddler call a tune as Martin Wynne's, this is the ground it grew out of.

Killavil, Knockgrania and Coleman's crossroads

The Sligo fiddle style

Bunnanadden sits beside Killavil, the parish that produced Michael Coleman - born at Knockgrania in 1891, the most influential of all the Sligo fiddlers. The style was forged in the rural houses of south Sligo in the late 1800s, where neighbours met to share tunes; Coleman's family home became known as Jamesy Coleman's Music Hall, and people walked from Gurteen, Bunninadden and Tubbercurry to the crossroads for music on a Sunday evening. The Coleman tradition is honoured each year at festivals across these parishes, and the South Sligo Summer School in Tubbercurry in July carries the lineage on with fiddle classes and concerts. A memorial in the village remembers the flute player Sonny McDonagh (1926 to 1991).

A Dominican house, 1488 to c.1584

Cloonameehan Friary

In a graveyard in the townland of Cloonameehan stands the ruin of a Dominican friary founded in 1488 by Eugene Mac Donogh and suppressed around 1584 in the dissolution. It is a modest, weathered ruin set among headstones rather than a managed heritage site - no car park, no signage, no opening hours. Ask locally for the road to it. It is the oldest visible thing in the parish and a reminder that Bunnanadden was a place of some standing long before the 19th-century mill and barracks.

Doocastle, Killavil and the parish

Bunninadden GAA, since 1886

The local Gaelic football club, Bunninadden GAA, was founded in 1886 and draws from the parishes of Doocastle and Killavil as well as the village itself. In a place this size the club, the school and the two pubs are the social spine - the pitch is where the parish gathers, and a championship Sunday does more for the village than any tourist could.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Cloonameehan Friary visit Not a waymarked trail - a quiet visit to the ruined 15th-century Dominican friary in its graveyard. Ask locally for the boreen, mind the wet ground, and treat it as the working cemetery it still is. The reward is solitude and old stone, not interpretation boards.

Short - on foot from the roaddistance

30 minutestime

South Sligo back roads The R296 and the lanes around Bunnanadden, Killavil and Doocastle run through gentle drumlin farmland - the actual country that produced the Sligo fiddle style. There is no signposted route, which is the point. Quiet roads, field gates, the odd memorial. Good cycling country on a dry day.

Choose your owndistance

A morning by bike or cartime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Roads quiet, the drumlin country greening up, the friary at its most atmospheric in soft light.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The season for music. The South Sligo Summer School in Tubbercurry in mid-July and the Coleman-tradition festivals fill the parishes with sessions - the right week to be here.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Quiet, the light good, the roads almost empty. GAA championship still running.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Wet, dark and very quiet. The pubs by the fire are the only assignment, and even those may keep short hours midweek.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Treating Bunnanadden as a destination

There is no signposted attraction, no restaurant and no bed in the village. Come for the friary ruin and the music country, not for a day out. The towns either side are where you sleep and eat.

Expecting a music venue

This is the source country of the Sligo fiddle style, but the village is not a nightly session town. The music happens at festivals and summer schools in the wider parish - Tubbercurry and Killavil more than the crossroads itself. Time your visit, or you will hear nothing but the wind.

Getting there.

By car

Sligo to Bunnanadden is about 35 minutes via the N4 and R296. Tubbercurry is 10 minutes west, Ballymote 10 minutes east. There is no through-traffic to speak of - it is a village you go to, not past.

By bus

No mainline service. TFI Local Link route 566 (Sligo to Dowra) serves the south Sligo area on limited days - check www.locallinkdsl.ie before relying on it.

By train

No station. Nearest is Ballymote (about 10 minutes east) on the Dublin to Sligo line.

By air

Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC) is about 45 minutes south.