Grave of W.B. Yeats

The grave of the poet William Butler Yeats in the churchyard of St Columba's at Drumcliff, about ten kilometres north of Sligo town, under the great limestone scarp of Ben Bulben. The plain slate slab bears Yeats's own self-composed epitaph: "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by."

The church itself is a small Church of Ireland building on the site of a 6th-century monastery — the high cross in the churchyard predates the present church by a millennium. There is a café and visitor centre. A short and necessary stop for anyone interested in modern Irish literature.

things to do sight
A story
Yeats died in southern France in January 1939 and asked to be buried in Drumcliff with the verse "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by" on his stone. The Second World War delayed the repatriation until 1948; the remains that arrived were of disputed identity, and the controversy still rumbles in academic literature.