Overview
Despite the name, the Yeats Trail is a driving route, not a walk. It strings together fourteen signposted stops across County Sligo – lakes, mountains, woods and a graveyard – that turn up in the poems of William Butler Yeats, with a sculpture and the relevant verse waiting at each. It opened on 31 March 2023, built with around €500,000 from the Rural Regeneration Development Fund and more from Sligo County Council, close to €1 million in all once new car parks at Knocknarea and Gortarowey were counted in. You can do the lot in a long day, split it over two, or just pick the stops that pull at you.
The fourteen stops
The official route runs in this order: Knocknarea, Rosses Point, Drumcliffe, Lissadell, Ben Bulben, Glencar, Hazelwood, Deerpark, Innisfree, Slish Wood, Dooney Rock, Union Wood, Ballisodare and Glen Wood. You needn’t take them in sequence. If you only have time for a few, make them these:
- Drumcliffe – Yeats’s grave, under the bare head of Ben Bulben, with his own lines cut into the stone: “Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by.” The one stop most visitors come for.
- Glencar – the waterfall behind “The Stolen Child” (“Where the wandering water gushes / From the hills above Glen-Car”), a short drive on from Drumcliffe.
- Innisfree – the small Lough Gill island of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”. You see it from the shore; there is no landing.
- Knocknarea – crowned by the great cairn linked to Queen Maeve, and the site of Martha Quinn’s sculpture modelled on an ancient scraper tool found at nearby Carrowmore.
- Rosses Point – a coastal village looking out to Oyster and Coney Islands, tied to the wider Yeats family.
Other stops reward a poem read aloud on arrival: Dooney Rock for “The Fiddler of Dooney”, Ballysadare for “Down by the Salley Gardens”, and Lissadell, the house the poet knew well (open in summer only – see below).
The installations and the poems
The installations are the work of artist Martha Quinn. Her pieces include the scraper-tool sculpture at Knocknarea and, at Union Wood, an inkwell topped with swans and a feather quill – a nod to the poet’s craft. They are deliberately low-key, in stone and timber, meant to frame the view and carry a verse rather than compete with the scenery. The official website, illustrated by Annie West, has a downloadable trail map and route guides worth grabbing before you go, as the signal is patchy in the hills. Separately, the Yeats Society in Sligo town runs a free app with GPS, photographs and recorded poetry readings, and keeps a permanent Yeats exhibition at the Yeats Building year-round.
Practical Information
Access & cost – free and open year-round, with no tickets or seasonal closures.
Parking – free at the main trailheads, including the new and upgraded car parks at Knocknarea and at Gortarowey (which serves the Ben Bulben forest walk), plus the Lady Anne’s Walk car park at Lough Gill.
Walking & cycling – the forest sections around Knocknarea, Gortarowey and Lough Gill can be walked or cycled; between the stops, though, you are driving.
Accessibility – the installations sit on level ground where they can, but several stops involve uneven forest paths and steep climbs, Knocknarea and Ben Bulben especially, so sturdy footwear and reasonable mobility help.
Times to plan around – Lissadell House opens in summer only, 30 May to 30 August, Wednesday to Sunday, 10.30am–6pm, with guided tours; if it is on your list, go midweek in that window. Sligo Abbey, in the town, opens 17 March to 5 November, with an admission charge.
Dogs – welcome on a lead, in line with Coillte’s forestry rules.
What to pack – Sligo weather turns fast; waterproofs, a warm layer and proper shoes. Download the map first.
Nearby Attractions
- Benbulben Forest Walk – a 6 km family loop with more angles on the mountain, joining the trail’s Gortarowey stop.
- Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery – one of Ireland’s largest clusters of Neolithic tombs, a short drive from the Knocknarea trailhead.
- Carrowkeel Megalithic Complex – a hilltop passage-tomb complex with fine solar alignments and summer guided tours.
If you have only an afternoon, start at Drumcliffe under Ben Bulben, then drive on to Glencar and read “The Stolen Child” at the falls. That is the heart of the trail in two stops.