Day 1 on our own - desperately seeking Mr. Yeats

                 Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
                 Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
                 My child sleeps on.  There is no obstacle
                 But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill
                 Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
                 Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
                 And for an hour I have walked and prayed
                 Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.

                              ~W.B. Yeats, from A Prayer for My Daughter

Storms were not howling as we arrived at Thoor Ballylee, Yeats' tower. However, we were here because of our daughter and found the poem "A Prayer for My Daughter" displayed in Yeats' office within the tower. It seemed appropriate as we were merely surrogates and our daughter was much on our mind as we wandered into the museum.

While Sligo was his home, William Butler Yeats spent summers near Gort in County Galway. His "summer" home in this renovated tower house (and attached cottage) sits at the edge of the Streamstown River which floods - regularly. It was probably a nightmare in Yeats' time and is certainly a headache for the people involved with the Yeats' Museum located there now.

We tried to visit in 2014, but could not talk our way inside (renovations and cleaning were in progress). YC (we were traveling with her - she was doing research) can generally talk her way into any place, but no luck that time.

The tower, Thoor Ballylee, was reopened in 2015 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Yeats' birth.* Then it was damaged again by flood waters and reopened in June 2016, just in time for our visit. Our greatest regret was that YC was not along to climb the winding stair and gaze out from the top of the tower.

Even the sign bears witness to damaging floods.

The road over the Streamstown River.

Thoor Ballylee (and thatched cottage just beyond). You can easily see the marks of the last flood waters.

"May we go in?" we asked. "Of course, you may," they replied.

We walked through the arched doorways into the first floor - a living and dining room with a large hearth and table.

The sun poured through the open window.

A view out the window of the first floor of the tower.

Then it was time to climb the winding stair...

And climb we did.

This floor was thought to be Yeats' study and where he wrote many of his most important poems (or so claimed the County Galway contingent).

A smaller hearth in the office/study.

A chair by the window.

The view from this floor.

A small room off the main one.

One father reading another's prayer,

The "lazy" Streamstown appeared harmless this day.

Once again up the winding stairs**

The bedroom on the third floor

Third floor hearth ready for a peat fire.

Out the window, wallflowers cling to the wall and window frame.

Looking down at the bridge across the Streamstown.

A chair next to the fire.

Once more up the stairs.

The  narrow windows let in just enough light.

It is located in another one of those small odd rooms. This one on the fourth floor.

An odd little chair in the corner.

This fourth floor was to be a guest room, but was never completed.

Finally, out the little green door to the roof...

 Looking down from the parapets:

Woods and river below.

Looking out on the countryside:

All too soon we had to leave...down, down, down, the spiral stairs and out to the garden and woods below.

A shutter is latched open.

The banks of the Streamstown.

Another view of the Streamstown.

Wallflowers growing on the tower.

Moss-covered walls with brambles blooming.

Blooms in the woods.

A final look back.

NOTES:

We met with enthusiastic employees at the tower. They told us of the flood recovery efforts. Rena McAllen, who is on the board for Thoor Ballylee and who runs the Kiltartin Cross Museum down the road, made us a cup of tea. We later saw Kiltartin Cross (more to follow) and visited with Rena about Yeats and Lady Gregory. She shared with us her father's experience of Yeats (mentioned in the New York Times article sited below). Yeats would wander the lanes and cut through the countryside to visit at Coole Park, the Gregory property, and was often observed chanting lines of poetry to himself.

*http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/arts/design/the-tower-that-enchanted-yeats.html?_r=0

**I must admit that this mother could only shiver at the thought of children running up and down these uneven narrow stairs.