Drumcliff or Drumcliffe () is a village in County Sligo, Ireland. It is north of Sligo town on the N15 road on a low gravel ridge between the mountain of Ben Bulben 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. Drumcliff is in a civil parish of the same name.

The Monastery

St. Colmcille 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 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 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 and Seán MacBride, who represented the Government. His famous epitaph, written in the poem "Under Ben Bulben", reads:

Yeats paternal great-grandfather was rector in Drumcliff, as John Butler Yeats remarked in a letter to his son William in 1913:

<gallery widths="150" heights="220">

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 in Drumcliff Cemetery

Drumcliffe cemetery.jpg|Drumcliff cemetery

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See also

  • List of towns and villages in Ireland

References