Exploring the church and cemetery at Drumcliffe

We drove to Drumcliffe twice that day, first on a misty morning, but then again after dinner after the clouds dissipated and the sun shone.

Drumcliffe is a village in County Sligo in northwest Ireland. It has roots to the sixth century, when St. Colmcille founded a monastery here.

A church and cemetery stand near Drumcliffe, and that’s what we went to see. We were mostly interested in the site’s great view of the giant rock formation Benbulben, and we also wanted to see an 11th-century Celtic high cross that’s here.

But Drumcliffe is also well known as the gravesite of William Butler Yeats, the well-known early-20th-century poet. Yeats spent part of his childhood in County Sligo.

Margaret and I got our best photographs here during our evening visit. We even enjoyed, and took full photographic advantage of, several minutes of golden light as the sun began to set. It beautifully lit the church, ravens circling its tower.

The church has large, lovely, and unusual swan door handles.

This 11th-century Celtic cross is in line of sight of the church.

I was starting to lose this delicious light. It lasted such a short time.

We paid a moment’s respects to W. B. Yeats, who is buried here.

His grave has a lovely view of Benbulben.

Here’s a panoramic shot of the famous rock formation.

Canon PowerShot S95, except for the panorama, which is Apple iPhone 6s

8 thoughts on “Exploring the church and cemetery at Drumcliffe”

Interesting proportions to that church. Maybe it’s just the angle of your photo, but it sort of looks like an impressive tower waiting for the rest of the church to arrive.

I particularly like the shot with just the top of the tower peeking over the trees.

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5 December 2016 at 5:16 am Reply

Jim Grey says:

There is a lot of tower there. I can’t remember offhand whether I edited that photo to correct keystoning or not, because if I did, it would have exaggerated the height of the tower a little bit.

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5 December 2016 at 6:45 am Reply