Benbulben & Glencar Waterfall

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Benbulben is the name of a mountain in the Dartry Mountains just north Sligo in western Ireland. Benbulben has an elevation of 1722 feet and is an inspiration to poet William Bulter Yeats, who is buried at the foot of the mountain in Drumcliff. Benbulben is also home to Glencar Waterfall, or sometimes know as Yeats Waterfall because he made it famous in his poem "The Stolen Child". You can read this Yeats poem on the ensuing pages.

Benbulben Mountain County Sligo Glencar Waterfall from the trail A closeup of Glencar Waterfall

Benbulben was formed during the last ice age, when geomorphological processes began to shape the impressive plateau. Ice began creeping through the valleys and cracks in the rock, the underlying shales were eventually eroded by the movement of the ice above. The shale was eroded faster then the limestone above. This caused the slopes to become steeper and left large overhangs of limestone at the top of the valleys. As the ice began to recede, support for the slopes failed and the land began to slip into the valleys below. source