Galway

Thoor Baflylee in County Gort, Galway is a sixteenth- century Norman stone tower complete with narrow stair cases worn down by the passage of time. It stands four storeys high and its original windows still survive in the upper part of the building.The castlewaS originally part of the huge estates of the Earls of Clanrickarde and was known as ls Castle castle was almost in ruins when it was bought and restored byW B who lived there from 1921 to 1929, His residence there is commem orated by a stone tablet with some lines of verse written by him castle now contains a museum with memen tos of the poet, including the first edition of his works.

Yeats was a firm believer in the afterlife and was cofl vinced that the tower was haunted by the ghost of an Anglo-Norman soldier. Several years later a curate was also convinced that an apparition wafted up and down the tower stairway, and was afraid to use the stairs at night. The curator’s pet dog seemed to share this fear as it would cringe as if seeing 50 terrifying in the downstairs rooms. One summer’s afternoon in 1989

<>br> David Blinkthorne and his family arrived at Thoor Ballylee just as it was closing. They asked if they could photograph Yeats’s sitting room and the curator obliged and reopened the shutters of the room so that they could take their picture and explore the building.

When Mr Blinkthorne developed his prints the ghostly figure of a young boy could be seen in front of the camera. It has been suggested that the presence may have been Yeats son but to this day the boy’s identity remains unknown.

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