Streedagh is a beautiful award winning 3km stretch of strand with historical links to the Spanish Armada…
Streedagh Beach
Streedagh Beach is a beautiful 3km stretch of strand only 5 minutes away from Mount Edward Lodge. Streedagh Beach has won a Green Coast Award for its excellent water quality and beautiful rural location.
The beach is very popular for walking, horse riding and kite surfing all year round and is the perfect spot for swimming during the summer months when lifeguards are on duty.
The limestone cliffs and rocks that can be found to the west Streedagh Beach contain many species of fossil coral. Zaphrentis are particularly common here, formed about four hundred million years ago.
Spanish Armada Sligo
The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed in August 1588 with the purpose of invading England. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Tudor establishment of Protestantism in England.
The Armada was scattered firstly by an English fireship attack and in the ensuing Battle of Gravelines was damaged but managed to regroup and withdrew north, with the English fleet harrying it up the east coast of England.
The commander ordered a return to Spain, but the Armada was disrupted during severe storms in the North Atlantic and a large portion of the vessels were wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Of the initial 130 ships over a third failed to return.
Driven into Donegal Bay by the storms of September 21st 1588 three ships of the Spanish Armada, La Lavia, La Juliana and the Santa Maria de Vision, anchored off Streedagh Strand, Co. Sligo.
During a further heavy storm on September 25th all three ships were driven ashore and wrecked. Up to 1,100 aboard these ships died cruelly on Streedagh beach.
One survivor Capt. Francisco de Cuellar wrote an account of his adventures in Sligo, his journey to MacClancy’s Castle in Leitrim and his eventual departure from the Causeway Coast of North Antrim.
You can find out more information by visiting the Grange & Armada Development Association.
