{"id":701,"date":"2013-12-14T00:10:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T23:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=701"},"modified":"2013-12-14T01:08:17","modified_gmt":"2013-12-14T00:08:17","slug":"slieve-gallion-co-derry-n-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=701","title":{"rendered":"Slieve Gallion, Co Derry, N. Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Slieve Gallion was Seamus Heaney&#8217;s home mountain, a bulky familiar in the childhood countryside that shaped his poetry, &#8216;one of the dream boundaries of my imagination&#8217; as he put it himself. <script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.onload = setupZoom; function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=880,width=1210,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/>\nFirst published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('SlieveGallion.gpx');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3722\/10342401165_4b1009c4af.jpg\" title='farm road'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3722\/10342401165_4b1009c4af_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5492\/10342588693_e840254db1.jpg\" title='view from farm road 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5492\/10342588693_e840254db1_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7440\/10342407186_efb4828e81.jpg\" title='looking back north-east from Iniscarn Forest'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7440\/10342407186_efb4828e81_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5502\/10342383655_980e393266.jpg\" title='forest fungi'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5502\/10342383655_980e393266_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3830\/10342570923_5ce3e2c66b.jpg\" title='view east from the top of Iniscarn Forest 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3830\/10342570923_5ce3e2c66b_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2840\/10342389296_912179b3db.jpg\" title='Heaney Country from the top of Iniscarn Forest'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2840\/10342389296_912179b3db_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7328\/10342361705_7bec7eed84.jpg\" title='Heaney Country from the top of Iniscarn Forest 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7328\/10342361705_7bec7eed84_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5500\/10342375076_023ccb3cb3.jpg\" title='home-made sign'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5500\/10342375076_023ccb3cb3_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5503\/10342349025_197e9ae767.jpg\" title='view from Slieve Gallion'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5503\/10342349025_197e9ae767_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3823\/10342327914_2c40363e56.jpg\" title='Sperrin Hills from Slieve Gallion summit cairn'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3823\/10342327914_2c40363e56_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5501\/10342337546_a23b2f15f8.jpg\" title='view south from the road 1'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5501\/10342337546_a23b2f15f8_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3700\/10342304384_63d8686876.jpg\" title='view south from the road 4'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3700\/10342304384_63d8686876_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7310\/10342487803_2ce9551708.jpg\" title='rock outcrops'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7310\/10342487803_2ce9551708_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7439\/10342285965_04c64932d5.jpg\" title='looking east from the farm road'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7439\/10342285965_04c64932d5_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2858\/10342301446_f3de5f74f6.jpg\" title='twisty tree - what is it?'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2858\/10342301446_f3de5f74f6_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3759\/10342294136_6533f3432f.jpg\" title='looking east from the farm road 2'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3759\/10342294136_6533f3432f_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=701\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\nBut today I found it hard to see the mountain clearly. Heaney had died less than a month ago, and my head was crammed to spilling point. <\/p>\n<p>Yesterday at Laurel Villa, Magherafelt&#8217;s own House of Poetry, the &#8216;On Home Ground&#8217; poetry festival had turned into a wake and thanksgiving for Ireland&#8217;s greatest poet since W.B. Yeats, Nobel Laureate and local boy. Everything seemed Heaney-coloured this cloudy midday on Slieve Gallion: the blue-fingered spruce trees, the birdsong in Iniscarn Forest, the tin-roofed farms and sedgy fields that he so brilliantly brought to new life with his pen, &#8216;snug as a gun&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>A long muddy track carried us up through the forest, where long-tailed tits sent their needly thin cries through the treetops. Up near the crest of the hill we broke out of the spruce and pine into open country. A path beaten into the heather led to the summit cairn, a solid flattened dome of stones, burial place of Callan, grandson of one of the High Kings of Ireland 1700 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>We stood by Callan&#8217;s grave, savouring the hundred-mile view. In the east, Heaney Country lay along the shores of cloud-like Lough Neagh &#8211; the green meadows around the poet&#8217;s birthplace of Mossbawn, Church Island\u2019s spire beside Lough Beg, Castledawson and Magherafelt. Away beyond, Slemish Mountain, a pale grey cardinal&#8217;s hat under cloud; the Mourne Mountains sharp and clear in the south; and in the west the whole graceful spine of the Sperrin Hills, green and grey, with tiny fields raked up in converging lines of hedges rising toward their foothills.<\/p>\n<p>A curling tarmac road led down from Slieve Gallion&#8217;s peak, handing over to a rough farm track that descended through the rushy fields of small farms with rain-faded green corrugated barns. No grand images or thundering metaphors here today, but drifts of Heaney&#8217;s lines going in and out of the mind, along with a snatch of the beautiful old air of &#8216;Slieve Gallion Brae&#8217;:<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;May good fortune shine upon you when I am far away,<br \/>\nAnd a long farewell to bonny, bonny Slieve Gallion Brae.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Start: Iniscarn Forest car park, near Desertmartin, Magherafelt, Co Derry (OS NI ref H832908)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: A6\/A31 to Magherafelt, B40 to Desertmartin; B40 towards Draperstown. In 3 miles, left at crossroad up Iniscarn Road. Parking place on right in 3\u00bd miles, signed &#8216;Iniscarn\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Walk (5\u00bd miles, moderate, OSNI Sheet 13. NB &#8211; online map, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): Pass gate, up forest track. In a \u2153 of a mile at ruined house, left (827905) past gate &#8216;2&#8217;. Keep ahead. Where track narrows keep uphill; keep to path that&#8217;s been trodden bare and muddy, climbing through spruce to reach open mountain and fence 1\u00bd miles from start (814891). Right along fence; left over stile to masts and cairn beyond (813896). Back to mast; follow road (stony, then tarmac) for 1\u00bd miles. Pass between rock outcrops; in 200m, on sharp right bend (820885), left along stony track. In \u00bd mile, at top of farm drive (824891), left along stony road, descending for a little over a mile to road (835905). Left to car.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch: Bradley\u2019s Bar, Desertmartin (028-7963-2377)<\/p>\n<p>Dinner: Church Street Restaurant, Magherafelt (028-7932-8083) \u2013 fabulous Irish cooking<\/p>\n<p>Accommodation: Laurel Villa, Magherafelt, Co Derry, BT45 6AW (028-7930-1459) &#8211; supremely hospitable and helpful &#8216;House of Poetry&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Downloadable instructions: <a href=\"http:\/\/walkni.com\">walkni.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/discovernorthernireland.com\">discovernorthernireland.com<\/a>; <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.satmap.com\/\">www.satmap.com<\/A> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Slieve Gallion was Seamus Heaney&#8217;s home mountain, a bulky familiar in the childhood countryside that shaped his poetry, &#8216;one of the dream boundaries of my imagination&#8217; as he put it himself<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}