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The Sligo Spur is a nine mile branch of the Redbank Valley Trail in Clarion County. It leaves the main trail at Lawsonham, at mile 6 on Redbank Creek, and climbs north along Wildcat Run past Rimersburg to Walker Farm Road, a mile south of Sligo borough. This is the hilly cousin of the main trail. The old railroad grade climbs steadily through woods and farm country, with the high points near the Route 861 crossing at Rimersburg and again near Sligo. The surface is crushed limestone the whole way. Rimersburg's business district sits about a mile off the trail by Mill Alley Road, and the Lawsonham end has parking and a portable toilet but no other services.
Sligo Spur
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Sligo Spur has about 105 to 150 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, biking, birding, and walking, with May, September, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Sligo Spur!
In half of past years, color along the Sligo Spur peaks October 16 to 28, typically around October 21. The trail has 39% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, black cherry, and northern red oak.
Iron came before the rails on Wildcat Run. Lawson and Flick built Wildcat Furnace on the run about a mile from Rimersburg in 1843. Two years later a second charcoal furnace went up at Sligo. Sligo shipped its iron by boat down the Clarion River to Callensburg. Wildcat Furnace closed in 1863. The Allegheny Valley Rail Road graded its Low Grade Division along Redbank Creek in 1872 and finished it in March 1873. A branch from that line at Lawsonham up Wildcat Run to Rimersburg and Sligo followed in 1873, built to move lumber and coal out of Clarion County. The Sligo Branch Coal Company opened its mine east of Rimersburg in 1874 and shipped its first coal the next year. The branch carried pig iron, tan bark, hoop poles, iron ore, timber, coal, and stock. The Pennsylvania Railroad bought the Allegheny Valley in 1900. Service on the Sligo Branch ended before the main line did. The last train on the Redbank Valley corridor ran on November 5, 2007, pulling up its own rails as it went. The Allegheny Valley Land Trust bought the corridor on June 25, 2010, and the Redbank Valley Trail Association began building the trail that August. Volunteers surfaced the full nine-mile Sligo Spur with crushed limestone, finishing in August 2019, with parking improvements at the Route 861 trailhead in Rimersburg.
