On the Edge of the Western Ocean

Sometime in the nineteenth century a small group of impoverished Irish joined the unending throng of Irish folk who were emigrating from their land. There were two families of Thorntons , whose English surname derived from the seventeenth and eighteenth century practice of certain Irish families of taking their landlord's surname, and their cousins, the Kavanaghs. From what port they went I know not, but as they were aiming for Manchester it was probably Dublin. Their journey would have been on foot, and slowed down  by the  the fact that one of the party was pregnant. Family traditions say that the emigration was due to rent rises on the unproductive land that was what was available in the land around Drumcliffe, in Sligo. How do I come to know these ordinary folk by name? They were my mother's ancestors. the infant in the womb on the journey was my great grandmother, Mary Agnes Thornton. I am commencing with this story because I want to establish a personal connection with the area about which I am writing.

This group of migrants were leaving  North Sligo, and they came from the area not far from Tully. The poet William Butler Yeats was a native of that area, though unlike my impoverished forebears he was from a wealthy ascendancy family. He is buried in Drumcliffe churchyard. "'Under bare Ben. Bulben's back, in Drumcliffe churchyard Yeats is laid. '"  Ben Bulben, which dominates the North Sligo landscape ,is a  reef of fossilized coral about twelve hundred feet high, which juts out of the coastal plain, along with its nearby companion Ben Wisken. Bulben is good hiking land, and there are several good footpaths ascending the mountain and other routes through the woodland  splendor of Ben Bulben forest. But the rocks of Ben Bulben are merely infants compared to the rocks of Slieve Gamph, the Ox Mountains, further south, but still in Sligo. The Ox Mountains are Precambrian shield rocks, part of an ancient continental landmass. The coral reefs which constitute Ben Bulben grew in the warm coastal seas that existed in what are known as the Precambrian epoch. The rocks are heavily leached, which means that over the millennia minerals have been washed out of them, leaving the soils that lie on them  mineral poor. The soils on the Ox mountains are low in fertility,  meaning that they are not good for growing crops. But fortunately that does not apply to the rest of the county, and  most parts can provide opportunities for farming.  The limestone soils around  Ben Bulben are good for soil fertility

Some years ago Maureen and I took a trip to the Rosses, near Drumcliffe and Tully, as I was keen to see where my maternal ancestors had lived. We had no time to take in the two towns, but we visited the tourist sites. As a gardener I  was sensitive to the soils around the Rosses, which means headlands, which stand at the entrance to Sligo Bay. The area has developed a tourist industry, more profitable than the subsistence farming that forced my ancestors to emigrate. There was no time to do Ben Bulben. That was one delight that has eluded me.

The Irish word lough is closely related to the Scottish Loch and the English word lake. There are attractive loughs in the county, one of which is Lough Gill, which is conveniently set near Sligo City, making it a pleasant recreational area. The lough is mainly  in county Sligo, but a part of it  lies in the neighbouring county of Leitrim. The circumambulation of the lough takes roughly an hour, but there are a range of footpaths allowing walkers to create their own diversions. The waters of Lough Gill are remarkably clean and free from pollution, making Lough Gill a good place for swimming. But a word of warning is apt: the lake bed is rocky, so diving is not advised. A word of advice. Do not confuse Lough Gill in Sligo with Lough Gill in Kerry.

Lough Gill has literary affiliations, for it  was Lough Gill that provided the inspiration for Yeats' poetic fantasy of retreating as a solitary to the idyllic Isle of Innisfree. It is possible that Yeats was inspired by the remains of crannogs still to be found in Irish loughs. These were artificial islands built out into lakes and marshes to provide security from assailants there are some of these crannogs in Lough Gill but while the islets remain the wooden structures in which people dwelt have rotted away. It is worth noting that crannogs occur in Britain as well as Ireland, so they are a feature of ancient life in these Isles.   There are archaeological traces of some crannogs in Lough Gara, which straddles the boundary of Sligo and neighbouring Roscommon.

Another Sligo lough is Lough Talt up on  the Ox Mountains, back in Febuary 1970  I visited Lough Talt. The weather was memorably cold and the vegetation around the lough was sparse. But the lough and its stony environs  had a stark and  lonely beauty to their feel, we saw no human habitation, but we knew that there was  some. 

The lough is home to certain endangered species. There is a population of the rare European eel, and very importantly the Arctic char, which used to be common in the British Isles, but as to be protected in its rare haunts.

The loneliness of the mountains has a positive side, for wild birds have a safe home in the area. This has resulted in the Lough Talt area being included in a wider conservation centred on Lough Hoe, which stretches through Sligo and into Mayo.

Sligo is a place with a charming character. I have enjoyed my visits there.  Do ancestral voices still call?

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