The Ham Nomads

13 Jun 2014. <IE> Lough Gill, Co. Sligo; Donegal, & Mullaghmore, Co. Donegal, & Drumcliffe, & Sligo, Co. Sligo —

THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Waking on the shores of Lough Gill, looking out onto the Isle of Innisfree — what better way to start Yeats Day. William Butler Yeats is celebrated on this his birthday, and we meant to do the same.

Our next intent was to drive up to Donegal. The weather wasn't perfect, but a lovely day for a drive. We took what you might call a back route, driving alongside Lough Melvin at one stage, and into the car park outside the Tourist Centre, right between Donegal Castle and the old Abbey, now a graveyard nestled among its ruins.

Donegal Castle Tower

Susie in Manor Section

The Banqueting Hall

Donegal Castle is magnificent. The 10th century viking fort, Dún na nGall (Fort of the Foreigners), burnt by Muircheartach Ua Lochlann in 1159, gave the town its name. The O'Donnell clan is intimately tied up with the castle, which was built (probably) by Red Hugh II of the O'Donnells before 1505. A later Red Hugh (Hugh Roe, 1572-1602) apparently burned his own castle to prevent it falling into the hands of the invading English before departing for Spain as part of the "Flight of the Earls"! The old tower was modified by Sir Basil Brooke in the early 1600s, and an English-style manor house was added to the side of the tower. Because Brooke's castle was not well defended, he rebuilt the old Bawm Wall, parts of which are still standing. The Tower, the oldest part of the castle, has been renovated, and the attached manor section is just a shell, although conservation work has been carried out. The interior of the tower is superb!

We then went down to the old Abbey to look around — little to see of the abbey, but it is a really moody graveyard — especially with the weather lowering about us!

We then set off southwards towards Sligo. On the way, we dropped off at Creevykeel Court Cairn, one of the finest court cairns in Ireland, dating to the 3rd millennium BC. It's a wedge-shaped mound, with a burial chamber opening off the open central court. There are two more passage graves near the narrow end of the mound. The central court was used in the early Christian period to smelt iron.

A little further south, and a continuation of our Yeats Day! We called in to Drumcliffe, the site of a 10th century monastery, with the remains of a round tower and a rather magnificent high cross. But, more relevant to today's efforts, the graveyard of the current church contains the grave of William Butler Yeats! We went in and paid homage!

I must mention that, as we drove along, we were reading selections from "The Collected Works of W B Yeats".

We then got down to Sligo and drove out to the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery. This is a large site, with numerous tombs roughly contemporary with the Creevykeel grave. There are cairns, stone circles, dolmens — a varied range of tomb types, and some of the most photogenic! We wandered the site for at least an hour, just enjoying the walk and marveling at what ancient man was capable of achieving. The largest cairn, Listoghil, has been reconstructed, as it had been severely disturbed before the OPW took it over. They have reconstructed it, but in a sort of cutaway view, so you can walk in to the central chamber, which would have been completely covered by a huge pile of loose stones. This cairn is about 2.5m high, but is a dwarf when compared with Maeve's Cairn, on Knocknarea Mountain a short distance away. Folklore suggests that 'Miosgan Meadhbha' is the tomb of the mythical Maeve, the Iron-Age Queen of Connaught. It is the largest undisturbed passage tomb in Europe. We were going to go up to it, but unfortunately the entire mountaintop was wreathed in cloud, so there was little point.

Listoghil

Susie by Listoghil chamber

We adjourned to Macca's for tea and to do a little blogging, then moved to the carpark we had found near Sligo Abbey. We walked in to town to pay our respects to the WB Yeats statue — and found that someone else had already done so! And there were people fly fishing in the Garavogue River in the heart of town! Then back to the Abbey, where tonight there was a special event — "Magic Music at Dusk", where the musicians Felip Carbonell, Ian Bordley and Ray Coen were giving a concert to mark the end of Yeats Day. It's hard to push these three into any specific genre — there were elements of Irish traditional music, of Spanish song (Carbonell is Catalan), and even shades of Leonard Cohen. They sang settings of poems by Yeats, but also by Tennyson and others. Ian Bordley sang this quirky song, 'Four Frogs' which he claims is a paraphrase of a short story by Kahlil Gibran. And they performed a wonderful setting of Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott".

While we were at the concert, a lady we got into conversation recommended a local pub and gave us a drink coaster from it. Would you believe that our favourite Yeats poem from our day's reading was printed on the back...?

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

... a wonderful way to end Yeats Day.

Distance driven — today, 100 miles ( 161 km ); to date, 2,473 miles ( 3,980 km )