Yeats Tour "Day 2"
Depending where we stay in Sligo, our second day of Yeats
Tour begins either with a drive through the Gleniff Horseshoe Valley
or at the Rosses Point.
The north-facing Gleniff Horseshoe Valley is a beautifully austere, scarcely
populated valley with about 25 residents now, (compared to
at least 100 people in the 1800s). The mines
once sustained a whole community here--entrances to the mines are still
visible. The valley hosts some rare Alpine
flora, but, most importantly, there is a cave
called Diarmuid and Gráinne's
bed, "the legendary
lovers' final resting
place" (Discover Sligo Brochure),
pictured on the left.
One of the
few households in the valley featured this
sign
Only after we saw a film "The Field" later that night at the house of our Discover Sligo hosts, Keith and Debbie, did we
understand the IMPORT of its message. Well,
you've been forewarned!
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On the left of the first photograph--and in the middle of the second--there are black spots: click for enlargement to view the entrances to the old mines that once supported the inhabitants of Gleniff Horseshoe Valley.
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The
lovers' cave with
the dark entrance to
the
Diarmuid and Gráinne's
bed.
Directly under the cave there are the ruins of the old school--a proof
of once a vibrant community.
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A
picturesque drive along the coast
takes us
to
Rosses Point
,
mentioned in Yeats' poem, "The
Stolen Child:" Far off to farthest
Rosses we foot it all the
night"...
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Right in the middle of this
photo, framed
by woods, is a gray
rectangular spot: it indicates
the Lissadell House to be visited next, after a stop at the Yeats' grave
(see
below) |
Before we tour the Lissadell House, we stop by Drumcliffe (or Drumcliff), to pay our respects to W. B. Yeats. Both my 2003 and 2004 students do their best to look pensive .
2003 |
2004
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2003
2004
Two attempts to capture both the Yeats's grave and Ben Bulben in the same shot: a matter of luck in terms of weather AND trimmed branches.
The
final resting place of William Butler Yeats as of 1948, nine years after his death in Roqueburn, France. However, the final chapters of Brenda Maddox's biography, Yeats's Ghosts, cast a shadow of a doubt as to whether it is, indeed, Yeats who in buried here ..read on... |
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My favourite sight during Study Abroad programs--students plunging into books. In this case, since we were on our way to the Lissadell House, Bliss and Lindsey didn't want be caught off guard: they were reading about the Gore-Boothe family.
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Lissadell was once the house of the Gore-Booth family. The Gore-Booth sisters, Eva and Constance, became famous for their political involvement in struggle for Ireland's independence. Constance, later Countess Constance Markievicz, is remembered and revered by the Irish as "The People's Countess."
The Lissadell
mansion with a view
from the "great windows open to the south." The photo on the right looks out to the Rosses Point, with one's back to the bay windows. Yeats frequented this house in the 1890s, admiring the young sisters and, years later, in 1933, he paid tribute to the acquaintances of his youth, in the poem "In Memory of
Constance Markievicz" and their home: “The light of evening, Lissadell, great windows open to the south, two girls in silk kimonos, both beautiful, one a gazelle…”
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Glencar, a spectacular waterfall
from Yeats's poem,
"The Stolen Child," where the poet
refers to the "wandering water"
that "gushes from the hills above
Glen-Car," whose pools "could scarcely bathe a star..." |
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Another beautiful drive takes us to a house tucked among the hills, a house that offers this view
from its living room--a house that is a gracious home of our hosts, Keith and Debbie McNair of Discover Sligo: Thank you so much!
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