D1 YC Dooney Rock

Season 1, Episode 6,   May 24, 2022, 05:37 PM

Enjoy Day One of the Yeats Country Guide
https://www.racontour.com/yeats/

Dooney Rock
GPS Location: 54.239091, -8.42733
Narrators: Mary Murphy and Sean McMahon

You are now at Dooney Rock, a huge rock covered in foliage and trees. This was a favourite spot for dancing and romancing and Yeats would have seen a blind fiddler who regularly played here on Sundays. "When I play on my fiddle in Dooney, Folk dance like a wave of the sea." The panoramic views from the top of Dooney are well worth the stiff flight of steps, and show the magnificent brow of Benbulben in the straight distance, and to the left, Knocknarea.

When I play on my fiddle in Dooney,
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet, My brother in Moharabuiee.
I passed my brother and cousin:
They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs I bought at the Sligo fair.
When we come at the end of time,
To Peter sitting in state,
He will smile on the three old spirits,
But call me first through the gate;
For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance:
And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With a ˜Here is the fiddler of Dooney!'
And dance like a wave of the sea.

Next up, there's an option to make your way to the famed Lake Isle of Inishfree. Well, by the banks of Lough Gill and in full view of it at least! Be warned, it is at the end of a windy 4 kilometre narrow road, so don't do this in an SUV/Winnebago! There is parking on the right just before the slipway that is the closest vantage point of this hallowed spot. The waterbus option of seeing the lake isle is the more sensible and enjoyable option!

Turn off point for getting to the lake isle: GPS Location: 54.215204, -8.350232