IRELAND, DAY 6: SLIGO'S YEATS TRAIL

July 9, 2024

After I spent a few minutes with the statue of Yeats in Sligo, we got on the "Yeats Trail," which takes visitors to several sites around Sligo that are somehow connected to the famous author.

Our first stop was Sligo Abbey, now in ruins but once a flourishing Dominican convent founded in 1253 and operating until 1760.

The Abbey is the setting for two short stories by Yeats: "The Curse of the Fire and of the Shadows" and "The Crucifixion of the Outcast."

Unfortunately, we arrived at 9:10 AM and it didn't open for tourists until 10:00--too long to wait.

It's not hard to imagine Yeats wandering around within these ruins, his imagination stirred by old walls.

We left the charming town of Sligo and headed north . . . 

. . . to St. Columba's Church of Ireland in Drumcliffe.

The church is relatively small, especially in proportion to its oddly out-of-proportion tower. The photo of the church (left below) is from Wikipedia because my attempts to get the church and its soaring tower in one frame were unsuccessful. I loved the swan door pulls, which I assume are a reference to Yeats's poem "The Wild Swans at Coole," the same poem we had seen a verse of written on the restaurant in Sligo.

Completed in 1809, the narrow church is an example of Neo-Gothic architecture.

I quite like this memorial on the church wall which reads: "Sacred to the memory of Roger Parke Esq. of Dunnally, who departed this life on the 11th day of February 1810 in the 90th year of his Age. This monument is erected as a just tribute to the affection and impartiality of a most beloved and respected parent and as a sincere, though small, mark of filial love." Love it.

So what does this church have to do with Yeats?

The grave is very simple, just a headstone and a cold bed of pebbles covering the tomb. The epitaph comes from the last three lines of a Yeats poem entitled "Under Ben Bulben."  Ben Bulben is a nearby flat-topped mountain close to this churchyard, which is where Yeats apparently chose to be buried. The poem was completed just a year before Yeats died, and the story is that he dictated revisions to it from his deathbed.

Most visitors approach the grave from the side, so the grave is identified with a marker on the side.

It isn't a particularly fancy burial spot for a man of Yeats's fame. You can see his grave bottom right in the photo below.

Beyond these few graves next to the church entrance is a larger graveyard, also not particularly fancy.

I found this art installation really intriguing. The words inscribed in the stone surrounding what looks to me like a despairing figure are the previously mentioned lines from  one of my favorite Yeats poems, "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven": "I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." Visitors seem to be invited to actually "tread" on the words.

There is also a small flower garden on the church grounds called the W.B. Yeats Garden at Drumcliffe, planted to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the poet's birth.

There are other sites on the Sligo Yeats Trail, and we started off to another one, Glencar Waterfall--the subject of one of Yeats's poems. However, after 15 minutes or so of driving down an unpaved road, we realized that we didn't have time for more detours if we wanted to make it to our next destination on schedule, so we turned around and headed back to the main highway that would take us to Northern Ireland.