Benbulben Mountain
Benbulben is Ireland’s table top mountain made famous by W B Yeats’s Poem Under Benbulben…
Benbulben is a majestic mountain that overlooks the beautiful North Sligo countryside known as Yeats Country. Benbulben means Jaw Peak and the mountain was shaped that way by glaciers during the Ice Age.
The mountain is also the setting of several Irish legends. It is believed to have been one of the hunting grounds of the Fianna and the resting pace of Diarmuid and Grainne.
Benbulben features prominently in the poetry of W. B. Yeats, after whom Yeats Country is named and County Sligo is considered integral to the poet’s work.
Yeats wrote the following in The Celtic Twilight:
“But for Ben Bulben and Knocknarea,
Many a poor sailor’d be cast away.”
Yeats’s famous poem, Under Ben Bulben sets out his wish to be buried under the mountasin in Drumcliff:
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”
— Under Ben Bulben, W.B. Yeats
If you wish to climb Benbulben Karen & Stephen will be happy to advise you on the best route to take.
