Drumcliff
or Drumcliffe () is a village in
County Sligo
County Sligo ( , gle, Contae Shligigh) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the Border Region and is part of the province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in the county. Sligo County Council is the local au ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
. It is 8 km (5 miles) north of
Sligo town on the
N15 road on a low gravel ridge between the mountain of
Ben Bulben
Benbulbin ( ga, Binn Ghulbain), sometimes Benbulben or Ben Bulben, is a large flat-topped nunatak rock formation in County Sligo, Ireland. It is part of the Dartry Mountains, in an area sometimes called "Yeats Country".
Benbulbin is a protect ...
and Drumcliff bay. It is on the Drumcliff river, originally called the "Codnach", which drains
Glencar Lake.
Drumcliff is the resting place of the Irish poet
W. B. Yeats.
History
The old name of Drumcliff was Cnoc na Teagh (trans. Hill of the House). The village is one of several possible locations in Co. Sligo for the settlement of
Nagnata as marked on
Claudius Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
's early map of Ireland. The name Codnach means placid or even tempered river. A battle was fought on this river in A.M. 3656 (1538 BC) by the legendary
Milesian monarch Tigearnmas.
An ancient topographical poem in the
Dinnsenchus (Lore of Places) tells how the baskets in the name refer to the wicker frames of a fleet of boats that was once made here. The poem is part of a lost epic story involving the Fomorians in a raid on an island in the western ocean.
Drumcliff formed the western extremity of the kingdom of
Bréifne (the eastern end was
Kells), and the northern extremity of
Tir Fhiacrach Múaidhe (Tireragh).
The
Battle of the Book took place near Drumcliff between 555 AD and 561 AD.
The historian
Mac Firbisigh mention a "Fort of Codhnach", known to be a fort near Drumcliff, although its location now is unknown.
The Monastery
St.
Colmcille
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is tod ...
founded a monastery in Drumcliff in about 575. The monastery was of such importance that it gave its name to the territory of
Cairbre Drom Cliabh
Cairbre Drom Cliabh (meaning "Ui Cairbre (the descendants of Cairbre) of Drumcliff"), was an Irish ''túath'' in the ancient confederation of Íochtar Connacht (Lower Connacht), now County Sligo in the west of Ireland. It is now represented by th ...
in which it resides. The first abbot was St. Mothorian.
The annals mention that in 1225, Amlaib Ó Beólláin, ''
erenach'' of Drumcliff'','' a man eminent for generosity and for his guest-house, died this year. The Ó Beólláin family were hereditary keepers of Drumcliff monastery.
All that remains of the monastery now is an
Irish High Cross dating to c. 1100, and a ruined 10th or 11th century round tower, the only one known in County Sligo, The round tower was struck by lightning in 1396.
Further decorated cross slabs are built into the walls of the current church.
William Butler Yeats
Drumcliff is the final resting place of the poet
W. B. Yeats (1865–1939), who is buried in the graveyard of
St. Columba's Church of Ireland. Although Yeats died in
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin,
France in January 1939, his remains were brought home to Ireland by the
Irish Naval Service
The Naval Service ( ga, An tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh) is the maritime component of the Defence Forces of Ireland and is one of the three branches of the Irish Defence Forces. Its base is in Haulbowline, County Cork.
Though preceded by earlier m ...
and re-interred at Drumcliff in 1948 in the presence of a large number of local people and dignitaries which included the Minister for External Affairs,
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera (, ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was a prominent Irish statesman and political leader. He served several terms as head of governm ...
and
Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 19 ...
, who represented the
Government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
.
His famous epitaph, written in the poem "
Under Ben Bulben
"Under Ben Bulben" is a poem written by Irish poet W. B. Yeats.
Composition
It is believed to be one of the last poems he wrote, being drafted when he was 73, in August 1938 when his health was already poor (he died in January 1939).
Publica ...
", reads:
Yeats paternal great-grandfather was rector in Drumcliff, as
John Butler Yeats
John Butler Yeats (16 March 1839 – 3 February 1922) was an Irish artist and the father of W. B. Yeats, Lily Yeats, Elizabeth Corbett "Lolly" Yeats and Jack Butler Yeats. The National Gallery of Ireland holds a number of his portraits in o ...
remarked in a letter to his son William in 1913:
Gallery
File:WBYeats.JPG, The grave of W. B. Yeats in Drumcliff Cemetery
File:drumcliffe tower.jpg, The round tower in Drumcliff
File:Drumcliffe cross (higher resolution).JPG, Celtic High cross
A high cross or standing cross ( ga, cros ard / ardchros, gd, crois àrd / àrd-chrois, cy, croes uchel / croes eglwysig) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval traditi ...
in Drumcliff Cemetery
Drumcliffe cemetery.jpg, Drumcliff cemetery
See also
*
List of towns and villages in Ireland
References
{{County Sligo
Towns and villages in County Sligo