Benbulbin

Ben Bulbin is a distinctive 527-metre carboniferous table mountain in County Sligo, its vertical limestone escarpments and flat summit plateau dominating the landscape north of Sligo Town. The mountain is woven into Irish mythology as the site where the hero Diarmuid was slain by a magical boar — the climax of the great Celtic love saga of Diarmuid and Gráinne, pursued by the warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill. The poet W.B. Yeats, who grew up in this landscape and is buried at Drumcliffe in the mountain's shadow, immortalised it in his final poem 'Under Ben Bulben', making the peak as much a literary landmark as a natural one. Walkers ascend via tracks along the northern flank to reach the broad summit plateau, where views extend over Sligo Bay, the Atlantic coastline, and the surrounding drumlin fields. The plateau supports rare arctic-alpine plant species that have survived here since the last Ice Age.