Seaweed baths and stargazing in Sligo

It was a bit of a hard sell at first. “How about a quick trip to Sligo for a night hike to the top of a mountain and a bath in some seaweed?” My wife Laura is usually pretty adventurous, but her enthusiasm was about as weak as a milky cup of tea. Below us, the twinkling lights of Sligo Town glimmered in the night and, beyond them, the blackness of the Atlantic Ocean stretched out towards the horizon We spent an hour riding on Streedagh Beach, in the shadow of Benbulben, the distinctive mountain that so entranced poet WB Yeats. I’ve worked on Lonely Planet guides to Ireland for more than two decades in which my co-authors regularly praise the putative health benefits of seaweed baths, but I’ve never actually tried one myself. Below us, the twinkling lights of Sligo Town glimmered in the night and, beyond them, the blackness of the Atlantic Ocean stretched out towards the horizon.