Ben Bulben Up Close

IMy story this month may appeal not only to new and returning visitors to the Irish north west this summer but also to those interested in matters geological.
In many years of travelling the N15 national trunk road skirting the coast between the “gateway city” of Sligo and the busy seaside resort of Bundoran in County Donegal, I have never ceased to be awe-struck by the sight of a spectacular rock formation, comprised of limestone and shale, which completely dominates the landscape in this area of County Sligo known as “Yeats Country”.
The large outcrop to which I refer, and with an elevation of over 1700 feet, is Ben Bulben or, in Irish, Binn Ghulbain, which means “Gulban’s peak” or “jaw-shaped peak”. It is a “ben”, a name in Ireland for a large, glacier-carved, rock. During Earth’s “Ice Age”, when large areas of the planet were covered by glaciers, enormous moving masses of ice shaped from accumulated snow, Ben Bulben was formed. Originally, it would have been a large ridge of rock, but with the action of moving glaciers cutting into the earth a large “ben” was left in their wake, thus fashioning the feature now known as Ben Bulben.
It has been characterised as a “brooding” mountain, rising steeply from the ground below, and “conjuring up tales of enchanted maidens, warriors and spells”!
In fact, one might possibly describe what is easily Ireland’s most distinctive mountain as being the nearest that Ireland gets to having its own version of Ayres Rock, in central Australia, or Table Mountain near Cape Town, South Africa!
Travelling the main road through this part of County Sligo enables one to view, virtually, three sides of the loaf-shaped Ben Bulben and, in particular, its “nose” proudly facing out to the Atlantic Ocean .
It is possible to climb Ben Bulben, and ideally during the summer months only, however, if ascended by its north face it can be a perilous climb and not one for the faint-hearted. This side gets the full force of the high winds and storms coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. The south face of Ben Bulben offers an easier climb in that this side has gentler slopes. Notwithstanding, if I was ever to seriously contemplate scaling this ridge I think that a little practice on County Mayo’s holy mountain Croagh Patrick might first be appropriate!
I am told that upon reaching the flat top summit of Ben Bulben, from whatever side, the intrepid climber is rewarded with magnificent views of “Yeats Country”, the surrounding counties, the city of Sligo and the Atlantic Ocean.
On previous occasions, I have turned off the main road, near the County Sligo village of Cashelgarran, to take the lane running up to the foot of the slopes lying immediately below the “nose” of Ben Bulben just to view this geological phenomenon ”up close and personal”. It is a daunting sight indeed. One concedes that man with all his great ingenuity could never create something like this and, once again, nature triumphs.
Ben Bulben did gain some unlooked for notoriety at the height of the “troubles” in “the North”, locals awakening one morning to discover that under cover of darkness someone had affixed to the “nose”, in prominent white letters and visible to all for miles around, indeed for some time
after, the words “Brits Out”. A popular expression of the time north of the Border, and with some resonance in “the South”, it essentially gave expression of a wish to see an end to British rule in
“the North”, and with some immediacy at that.
I believe that there was some concern expressed at the time amongst tourist interests here that this “slogan” was capable of misinterpretation and, as such, was not conducive to efforts to promote with neighbours “across the water” an interest in holidaying in Ireland! Nonetheless, the words remained in situ for some time.
Eventually removed, they were later replaced, just as clandestinely, with the lettering “H Bloc”, a reference to prisoner “dirty” protests taking place at the time in the Maze Prison, based at a former RAF station at Long Kesh, near Lisburn in Northern Ireland.
“Yeats Country”, over which Ben Bulben presides so majestically, of course, takes its name from that great poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), born in County Sligo and one of its greatest sons. He described his birthplace as the “land of heart’s desire” and is also quoted as saying “that the place that has really influenced my life most is Sligo”.
His famous poem “Under Ben Bulben”, and one of the last written by him, in 1939, is basically a description of the sights that he saw in that area of Sligo that was to become “Yeats Country”. The final part of this poem reads:

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!

Yeats is indeed buried in Drumcliff churchyard, under Ben Bulben’s head. Poignantly, the last three lines of the above poem are engraved on his gravestone.