My Home: Sligo

Myles and Jane Lamberth owners of Shells Café in Strandhill and Baker Boys in Sligo share everything they love about living in this part of Ireland.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN SLIGO?

We are here 12 years now. We opened Shells in 2010 and literally moved here one month before we opened. So we came here pretty uninformed. We had spent one weekend surfing here and a few years later, we uprooted it all and moved lock, stock and barrel. We came here as a pair of surf bums, looking to open a café. Twelve years later а we have had two children and opened a second business in Sligo too - Baker Boys. Here is 100 per cent home for us now.

HOW DOES SLIGO COMPARE TO OTHER PLACES YOU HAVE LIVED?

It's all about people at the end of the day. We had lived in California for a year and wow the climate, the surf and the food! But to be a honest, we just couldn't settle there. We didn't fully connect with the culture and that was a real eye opener for us – it's not just ticking boxes on the ideal life'. When we moved to Sligo we were blown away by the number of outdoor things to do and not just surfing. There's a really cool skate scene here, mountain biking and of course hiking. Really it's the people, the friends we have made here that make it extra special. I was thinking of all the businesses in Strandhill and all are owner run – there are no franchises, no investors as such. That creates a pretty special village where the businesses and the community cares and the support is huge and that has been so widely felt during the last couple of years. Winters are tough, of course, but they are also magic. Everyone slows down, the village empties out a bit and there is a sense of space and calm and the sea comes alive in a whole new way. There's never a season here that we don't love.