Cottage under Ben Bulben
WB Yeats has been a godsend to tourism interests in Sligo, and never more so than in death. Coachloads of visitors pull up at Drumcliff cemetery every year to peer at the epitaph on his gravestone (‘Cast a cold Eye On Life, on Death. Horseman, pass by!’) and afterwards to spend some money in the craft shop.
Yeats died in France in 1939, having expressed a wish to be buried in Drumcliff “under bare Ben Bulben’s head”. War broke out, however, and made repatriation impossible. His remains were finally removed there in 1948 or perhaps — there’s reason to believe — they weren’t. French records suggest the bones that were gathered after the war were those of several different people.
Although this evidence might appear to tread on the dreams of Sligo tourism promoters, tourists haven’t been deterred. There’s still a grave, after all, and there’s still a craft shop.
This detached cottage is about 300 metres from Drumcliff Cemetery, an easy-peasy journey for a horseman, and has a garden backing on to the Drumcliff River.
It’s bigger than it looks from the front, at 1,876 sq ft, and has an unexpectedly grand entrance hall about 14ft square, with an openstring quarter-turn stairs and a chequerboard tiled floor.
There are two main ground-floor living rooms — a sitting room with an open fire and patio doors, and a dining room with steps up to a raised, dual-aspect kitchen. (The utility room is separate).
There’s a studio on the ground floor as well, which might be used as a third bedroom. The other two bedrooms are upstairs, along with the main bathroom, where there’s a corner Jacuzzi bath. For hastier ablutions the ground floor has a shower room.
The cottage is for sale for €210,000 with Sherry FitzGerald Draper in Sligo town (071) 914 3710.