<h3 class="post-title entry-title"></h3> <div class="post-header"></div> <p></p> <table class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-perHfeZSSP8/TvsemMiu8GI/AAAAAAAAEoI/ppdaxbG-gS8/s512/Thoor_Ballylee_-_geograph.org.uk_-_67589.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-perHfeZSSP8/TvsemMiu8GI/AAAAAAAAEoI/ppdaxbG-gS8/s400/Thoor_Ballylee_-_geograph.org.uk_-_67589.jpg" border="0" width="263" height="400" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Thoor Ballylee</strong></span></td> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><br /></strong></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;"><strong>(By Dr Charles Nelson - CC A-SA 2.0)</strong></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The 16^th century Ballylee Castle stands near the town of Gort in County Galway. The castle originally belonged to the De Burgo (Burke) family before becoming part of the estates of the Earls of Clanrickarde.</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>William Butler Yeats purchased the castle and its adjoining cottage in 1917, He renamed the property Thoor Ballylee (&ldquo;Thoor&rdquo; is Irish for tower.) Yeats and his family lived there during the summer for 12 years.</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Ballylee was abandoned and fell into ruin in the 1930s. However it was fully restored for the centenary of Yeats's birth in 1965 when it was reopened as a Yeats memorial and heritage centre.</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Ballylee inspired Yeats to write &ldquo;The Winding Stair&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Tower&rdquo; poem collections. On the first floor of the four-storey tower a steep spiral staircase hewn from stone winds to the upper floors about which he wrote,</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>"I declare this tower is my symbol; I declare</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>This winding, gyring, spring treadmill of a stair is my ancestral stair.&rdquo;</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-size: small;">As part of his restoration Yeats had this short verse carved on a slate and embedded into the tower wall</span>.</span></div> <table class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R-x5c6GBJfs/Tvsenhv8j4I/AAAAAAAAEoM/FCCb2nH_g2E/s512/398px-Inscription_at_Thoor_Ballylee_-_geograph.org.uk_-_948487.jpg"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R-x5c6GBJfs/Tvsenhv8j4I/AAAAAAAAEoM/FCCb2nH_g2E/s400/398px-Inscription_at_Thoor_Ballylee_-_geograph.org.uk_-_948487.jpg" border="0" width="265" height="400" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Yeats's Verse</strong></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;"><strong>(By James Yardley - CC BY-SA 2.0)</strong></span></span><span> </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span>&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I, the poet William Yeats</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>With old mill boards and sea-green slates,</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>And smithy work from the Gort forge,</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Restored this tower for my wife George,</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>And may these characters remain</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>When all is ruin once again.</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Yeats believed in ghosts and thought that the tower was haunted by an Anglo-Norman soldier. </span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>A curator was reluctant to climb the winding stair at the end of a day; she was convinced a spectral form wandered the worn stairway. Her dog frequently appeared terrified of something in the downstairs rooms.</span></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>In 1989 a photographer took some pictures in Yeats&rsquo;s sitting room. When his film was developed there was a ghostly silhouette of what appeared to be a young man standing in front of the camera; no one else had been in the room at the time the photo was taken. It has been suggested that the ghostly boy may have been Yeats&rsquo;s own son.</span></span></div> <table class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8JV620ZSPCU/TvseoXsWyxI/AAAAAAAAEoQ/FnfoOegeOok/s512/398px-Thoor_Ballylee_-_T%2525C3%2525BAr_Bhaile_U%2525C3%2525AD_La%2525C3%2525AD_-_geograph.org.uk_-_948467.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8JV620ZSPCU/TvseoXsWyxI/AAAAAAAAEoQ/FnfoOegeOok/s400/398px-Thoor_Ballylee_-_T%2525C3%2525BAr_Bhaile_U%2525C3%2525AD_La%2525C3%2525AD_-_geograph.org.uk_-_948467.jpg" border="0" width="265" height="400" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Thoor Ballylee</strong></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: small;"><strong>(By James Yardley - CC BY-SA 2.0)</strong></span></span></div>