Ellen’s, Ballyconnell, Maugherow, Co. Sligo. €3.80

It took three tries to get into Ellen’s Pub. We tried to find it once on some shady directions and ended up driving round Raghley Harbour and settling for a pint somewhere else. On the second try, we arrived around the lunch hour to find it didn’t open until 6PM. On our third attempt, we came after work at 6:30, to find the doors still closed. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long for someone to show and open up.

Ellen’s opened in 1610 and is the oldest pub in Sligo and apparently the second oldest in Ireland. (That second fact hasn’t been checked, but nearly 400 years of service is pretty impressive.) A good deal of the original, thatched pub still exists, though it has been built upon in the back. I didn’t have my camera with me which will serve as a good excuse to go back.

A testament to this pint is the fact that David and I had the first two pints of the evening. Not typically when you want to be sampling a pint of Guinness … but the pints were still fine. I can only imagine what they would be round ten o’clock that same evening. This would have been in the top five had it been on the original 30 Pint Tour.