20/09/2026
Congratulations to Riverstown! A few weeks back we reported on their preparations for the Entente Florale. Last night they were awarded a Gold Medal, the first time ever this prestigious award has come to Sligo. Well done to everyone involved in the local community and Tidy Towns committee on a job well done 🥳🌷🌼🌸🏆and here’s the text of the article below.
Riverstown Heritage Trail an Entente Florale Highlight
With a community garden, heritage trail and biodiversity walks, the people of Riverstown have spent many years improving their lovely village. Located between the River Unshin and River Douglas - Riverstown translates as Baile Idir Dhá Abhann or Town Between Two Rivers - the locals have made use of the landscape to create a village that must be the envy of many. And now, with judging complete, we await the results of the Entente Florale competition to see if the County Sligo village will bring a first prestigious medal back to Yeats Country.
"I would describe it as the best community that you could live in in Ireland," says Michael Tuohy, a member of the local Tidy Towns group. "Five judges from five different countries came to visit the village for four hours yesterday (last Thursday). Twenty of our community groups set up stands for us, for the judges to go around and see, and it was a wonderful sight and no problem getting them out to help us."
The Entente Florale is a pan-European competition whose overall aim "is the
sustainable development of European towns, villages and cities to enhance the quality of life of citizens." And while the Riverstown Tidy Towns group have been to the fore in this application, the entire community has been involved, planting flowers, maintaining each of the five estates in the village and generally helping out.
And anyone who knows the people of Riverstown shouldn't be surprised, for this is just the latest example of that spirit of Meitheal where people from diverse backgrounds, interests and age groups come together for the greater good.
"It doesn't matter whether it's Shamrock Gaels, Arrow Harps, Community Games, the Agricultural Show, the two churches, the two schools, everybody pulls together. We've a wonderful Teach Ceoil, for a village of its size, we punch way above our weight," adds Michael.
Several years ago they also developed the Riverstown Heritage Trail with the support of Ray O'Grady and Sligo County Council. This is a short loop around the village that brings you to each of the many highlights including along the banks of the River Unshin itself, through the Community Park, past historical buildings, all highlighted through signs, photos and street maps.
"It starts off at the Folk Park here and that's where the trailhead sign is," says Hugh Kelly, who was on the committee that established Riverstown Folk Park in 1990. "There are eleven signs altogether at key locations around the village. Some of them are at very interesting places, like we have a fort field, which is a traditional meadow that takes you up to a national monument. The viewing up there, the landscape is outstanding," he says, adding that you can see Keshcorran, Knocknashee and other surrounding walks from this elevated village centre location.
The heritage trail isn't just a series of signposted locations either. There's a community garden where you'll see locals working away tending beds and growing vegetables. When harvest time comes, they'll all gather and the produce will be brought home and eaten. And the heritage trail continues to grow, with a new section being added beside the Folk Park.
"We're 85% finished a new little project here which is a sensory garden with a loop walk through it," says Michael. "We think that it will be a big addition for children with special needs, for adults with dementia. We do a lot of events here at the Folk Park and a lot of events are geared towards children. When we run all those events, we see all the different kids coming in. There's kids coming with autism and special needs and that's really what spurred us on to do this garden, that and we get a lot of retirement groups in here. A lot of people suffer from memory loss and we hope that this garden will be a safe place for them when they come to visit us, relax as well as look at everything else."
And by everything else - we mean the huge collection of items that have been gathered over the past 35 years or so, a reminder of traditional life in Sligo. Once off events like the Harvest Festival, Scare in the Park and Santa Town help raise the finance to maintain what they have and to invest in these new facilities.
With the increasing pace of change, places like Riverstown Folk Park are an important link with the past. There's also plenty of variety, space and things to do, so it's ideal if you want to bring the kids out for an afternoon during the nice weather. And as for the Heritage Trail itself- at 2km it's short enough for more or less any level of fitness and age group. So a few hours in Riverstown, followed by an ice cream, will be an afternoon well spent during the Summer holidays.
As for the Entente Florale, the results will be in by September when a few bus loads are expected to leave Riverstown for the trip south to Carlow for the announcement. And if they get the win, it will probably take a few days - if not weeks - for the Riverstown community to make their way back to Sligo. Best of luck to all involved.
For a link to the Riverstown Heritage Trail, visit SligoWalks.ie.
