69. Yeats Country

Where: County Sligo, Ireland
When: February 3, 2018
With: Dave

While Dublin is a wonderful city, the part of Ireland I am obsessed with is the countryside. So after a day and a half in the capital, we braved left-side-of-the-road-driving and set out on a journey through Ireland. The first day would include a stop in County Sligo, known as the summer home and inspiration of the Irish author W.B. Yeats, hence the title of the entry. However, County Sligo was also the home to my ancestors, so we had a couple of personal stops along the way. A win-win!

The road trip started off well, with a rainbow showing us the way. 

Halfway there, we made a brief stop for breakfast in the town of Granard, in County Longford. This is where I believe my great-great-grandmother's family comes from. 

The focal point of the village is a large hill on top of which sits a massive church. While I later discovered this church was built probably a year or two after my great-great-granny left, it was still very pretty to see. 

Some good old County Longford countryside.

A caveat to the rest of the post: Dave and I thought we were a little hungover from the evening before, and unfortunately, our Granard breakfast wasn't sitting well with either of us. This led us to believe that we had caught a bug. The rest of this day occurred in a sort of dreamlike trance of hallucinations, wooziness, stomachaches and nausea for the both of us. 

However, more rainbows leading us on. 

As we got to County Sligo, the countryside finally opened up into the rolling green hills I'd been searching for. I worried that in the dead of winter, they wouldn't be as green, but lo and behold, my ancestral home delivered. 

Before we hit the Yeats sights, we decided to another ancestral sight, mainly the town where my great-great-grandfather's family came from, Riverstown. This time, the church IS the church that my ancestors would have been baptized in (at least from 1811 and on when it was built). This was really crazy to see. 

And unlike Granard, Riverstown still looks much like I imagine it did when my family left it in the 1840s while escaping the famine. 

This concluded our ancestral tour of Sligo, and with that, we started the Yeats tour. Our first stop was at Knocknarea, a famous "hill" in the county. When we parked our car in the lot, a sign post said it was only 1.2 kilometers to the top. I don't know if I agree with that, but okay, sure. 

The hike with an upset stomach was...not easy. But the views whenever I'd turn around made me want to keep going. As we got higher and higher, we saw more of this countryside that inspired Yeats to write many of his famous stories and poems. 

Eventually,  we passed through a cattle gate (that Dave wasn't going to let me through) and the trail became more of a slippery crop of stone steps to be climbed. 

But once again, those blue skies and green valleys dotted with lakes kept me moving. 

And as we got higher, more of the cliffs and mountains in the distance could be seen.  

By the brown foliage around me, I could tell we had almost reached the top. 

And indeed, I could finally see the cairn the marks the top. A cairn is a Neolithic tomb, and this one is probably from about 3,000BC. It is the largest one in Ireland outside of the larger burial complex in the Boyne Valley, and is famed to hold the remains of Queen Meabh, a warrior goddess famous in Irish mythology. 

From up here, we got our first view of the most famous rock formation in Sligo, Benbulbin, and the bays that lead out to the Atlantic Ocean. One of Yeats' poems states "But for Ben Bulben and Knocknarea, many a poor sailor'd be cast away" and from up here, it's clear to see that sailors could very much use these two formations to help guide them home. 

So then I don't know if we angered Queen Meabh or my ancestors, but as we wandered the top of Knocknarea, we could see a massive rain cloud heading our way. Dave asked whether we should get out the umbrellas, but it seemed pointless. The winds were gathering strength and there was no escaping it. 

So we turned our backs to the onslaught and laughed hysterically as we were pelted. However, it wasn't rain that hit us, but hail! It stung, but at least it was dry! So crazy!

Watching as the storm disappears. 

And just like that, the blue skies appeared again, and we had a clear walk down the mountain, though a significantly colder one. 

Then the views got even prettier as the sun broke through. 

With my nausea mixed with hunger in full force, we were feeling a bit woozy as we descended. But the positive side was feeling like a hobbit walking in the Shire. No wonder this landscape inspired the writing of Yeats. 

Thankfully, the next stop on our drive was at the Glencar Waterfall, which conveniently had a rest stop and some food. We both thought, this will be the ticket to feel better! And look at these views!

Sadly, the ham and cheese toastie we split didn't help too much. By this point, I was taking photos as a means of distraction, while simultaneously only half paying attention to what was going on. 

Well, thank goodness for the photos then. The cool part of Glencar was that we could see its starting point from the drive, no more than a trickle, way high above us in the cliffs. It wasn't visible from this vantage point, but cool to know it's there. 

Glencar Waterfall. 

Across the street is Glencar Lough, fed by the waterfall. 

And then we had these views on the drive back. I mean, seriously, where are we?? Benbulbin is just otherworldly. This formation is also heavily featured in Irish mythology, particularly as the main hunting grounds of the Fianna warriors. 

Well, it turns out, we weren't the only ones fascinated by Benbulbin. One of W.B. Yeats most famous poems is "Under Ben Bulben" where he describes all of County Sligo and its main sights. The last lines of the poem are as follows:

Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.

Horseman, pass by! 

Well, Yeats called his shot. His grave lies in the Drumcliffe cemetery at St. Columba's church where his great-grandfather had been the rector. Within view of Belbulbin, his limestome tombstone read the last three lines of his poem. Ironically, horseman don't necessarily pass by anymore, but other than that, his wishes have been fulfilled. 

And with that, we completed our tour of Yeats Country. While I was falling off into a nausea-induced nap, I did happen to catch one more view of Benbulbin and a rainbow, waving goodbye from my ancestral home of County Sligo.