The last weekend of December 2024, we did a short weekend trip up to County Leitrim for a change of scenery after all the holiday shenanigans of December. Generally it’s a dark, chilly time of year, but we were graced with pretty decent weather. Unfortunately a couple key things we wanted to see were closed for the season, so we’ll need to come back in the summer (mainly: the Gore-Booth’s Lissadell house, about which Sally has read a children’s historical fiction series, and Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery).
On Saturday we drove first to Sligo. We were going to stop at Carrowkeel passage tombs, but it’s a bit of a hike up a mountain and the mountain was enshrouded in fog and it was misting so we skipped that one. Next time. We had a short walk around Sligo town and some lunch. Sligo was very festive still, in the post-Christmas period, and we saw the Lady Erin monument commemorating the 1798 uprising (see my notes about Enniscorthy for more on that), walked past the closed Abbey, and appreciated the river walk before eating some pizza and chips and hitting the road.
This is Yeats territory, so next we drove to Drumcliffe Church to see the gravesite of William Butler Yeats (though disputed that it’s actually him) and the Drumcliffe High Cross. Yeats was apparently quite taken with Benbulben, and the graveyard lies just below this mountain, though it was too misty to see much of it on this particular day.
Next we took a scenic route along the coast near Mullaghmore (where David took out his drone for a few quick photos of Classiebawn Castle) then headed to our charming 200+-year-old airbnb cottage in Derrynasser, overlooking Lough Melvin, which straddles the UK-Ireland border.
The cottage was very cozy, with some lovely Christmas lights and impressive plaster work. After some exploration, drone time (David and Sally) at sunset, a family game of Uno, and a lasagna dinner, we had a quiet night. A couple of times the clouds cleared and the stars were incredible - with two bright planets rounding out a gorgeous dark sky.
On Sunday the sun rose very late (being in the far west of Ireland, it was about 9 am), but we were treated to a nice sunrise (and David's drone captured it very nicely!).
Then we started in the stiff wind at the Fairy Bridges and wishing chair by Tullan Strand (actually just in County Donegal). The interesting rock formations have created a series of natural “blow” holes that allow the seawater (when the tide is up) to crash through and blow water upwards. Since the 1700s locals thought these were haunted by the fairies. The Wishing Chair had a specific ritual for sitting in it, which we all took turns (though it was wet so we kind of awkwardly squatted). The Atlantic Ocean views were stunning, and we even got a brief moment of some blue sky and sunshine. This part of the coast is a global surfing mecca and it was easy to see why.
From there we headed to Glencar Waterfall, some 50-feet high and with lots of cool geologic features. This inspired Yeats’ poem, “The Stolen Child":
“…Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star…
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand.”
We followed along Glencar lake to the Forest Walk of Benbulben, where David and Sally flew his drone for some amazing photos, then we did a short hike to take in the beautiful mountain. This was the site of a monastery in the early 1st century, and now home to many adventurous sheep.
Finally, we drove past Lissadell house (definitively locked up for the season), chatted with some well-kept donkeys, delighted at driving past Constance Markievicz’s house (revolutionary, hands-on philanthropist, and politician [first woman elected to the British Parliament in 1918]), and had a very local lunch before heading back to Dublin.
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