Page 239 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Ireland

NOR THWEST IRELAND  237

W B Yeats and Sligo
As a schoolboy in London, Yeats
(see p27) longed for his native Sligo,
and as an adult he often returned
here. He lovingly describes the
county in his Reveries over Childhood
and Youth, and the lake-studded
landscape haunts his poetry. “In a
sense”, Yeats said, “Sligo has always
been my home”, and it is here that he
wished to be buried. His gravestone in Parke’s Castle viewed from across the calm
Drumcliff bears an epitaph he penned
W B Yeats him self: “Cast a cold eye on life, on waters of Lough Gill
(1865–1939) death. Horseman pass by.” a Parke’s Castle
Road map C2. 6 km (4 miles) N of
Dromahair, Co Leitrim. Tel 071 916
4149. £ or @ to Sligo. Open late
Mar–late Sep: 10am–6pm daily (last
adm 5:15pm). & 7 limited. 8
∑ heritageireland.ie
J
This fortified manor house
Drumcliff dominates the eastern end of
Lough Gill. It was built in 1609
Enniskillen by Captain Robert Parke, an
English settler who later
became MP for Leitrim. It has
7 Parke’s Castle
This 17th-century fortified manor been beautifully restored by the
house commands a splendid view Office of Public Works using
over the tranquil waters of Lough 17th-century building methods
Gill. It is a starting point for boat 6 Glencar Lough and native Irish oak.
trips around the lough. “There is a waterfall … that all Parke’s Castle was erected
my childhood counted dear”, on the site of a 16th-century
wrote Yeats of the cataract tower house belonging to the
which tumbles into Glencar
Colgagh O’Rourkes, a powerful local
Lough Lough. A path leads down clan, and stones from this
J to it from the road. earlier struc ture were used in
the new building. The original
foundations and part of the moat
were incor p orated, but otherwise
Lough gill J 8 Isle of Innisfree Parke’s Castle is the epitome of a
Planta tion manor house (see p43).
“There midnight’s all a It is protected by a large en -
glimmer, and noon a closure or bawn, whose sturdy
purple glow”, is how wall includes a gatehouse and
Yeats once described turrets as well as the house itself.
Dromahair Innisfree. There is not Among the most distinctive
much to see on this architectural features of Parke’s
tiny island but it is a Castle are the diamond-shaped
romantic spot. In
Carrick- summer, a boatman chimneys, mullioned windows
on-Shannon and the parapets. There is also a
ferries visitors here.
curious stone hut, known as the
“sweathouse”, which was an early
Irish sauna. Inside, an exhibition
and audiovisual dis play cover
9 Dooney Rock Parke’s Castle and various his-
A steep path leads from the road to toric and prehistoric sites in the
Dooney Rock, from where glorious 0 kilometres 3 area. There is also a working forge.
views extend over the lough to Ben 0 miles 2 Boat trips around sights on
Bulben. Trails weave through the Lough Gill that are associated
surrounding woods and by the lake. with the poet, W B Yeats, leave
from outside the castle walls.

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