Benbulben (Binn Ghulbain)

The dramatic flat-topped 'table mountain' of County Sligo, at the heart of Yeats Country and Irish legend.

Benbulben (Binn Ghulbain), a great flat-topped rock formation in County Sligo, is one of Ireland's most distinctive mountains, carved by ice into a sheer-sided 'table'. Its name may recall Conall Gulban, a son of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

Benbulben looms over 'Yeats Country'. The poet W. B. Yeats loved this landscape and is buried in its shadow at Drumcliffe churchyard, beneath his famous epitaph. In legend, the mountain was the scene of the death of the hero Diarmuid, gored by an enchanted boar.

At a glance

• A distinctive flat-topped 'table mountain' in Co. Sligo.
• The heart of 'Yeats Country'; the poet is buried nearby at Drumcliffe.
• In legend, the place where the hero Diarmuid met his death.
• Its name may recall Conall Gulban of the royal Uí Néill.

In County Sligo

Benbulben is in County Sligo, Sligeach in Irish, which means “shelly place (abounding in shells)”.

More in Sligo

• Carrowmore (An Cheathrú Mhór): One of the largest and oldest megalithic cemeteries in Ireland.
• Lough Gill (Loch Gile): A wooded lake immortalised by W. B. Yeats and his 'Lake Isle of Innisfree'.

Other places of this kind

• Carrauntoohil (Corrán Tuathail): The highest mountain in Ireland, standing at 1,038.6 meters.
• Croagh Patrick (Cruach Phádraig): Ireland's holy mountain, climbed by pilgrims for over a thousand years in honour of St Patrick.
• Slieve League (Sliabh Liag): Among the highest sea cliffs in Europe, rising almost 600 metres from the Atlantic in County Donegal.
• The Mourne Mountains (Beanna Boirche): A range of granite peaks in County Down, and the inspiration for songs and for the land of Narnia.
• The Sperrin Mountains (Sléibhte Speirín): A sweeping range of rounded hills across counties Tyrone and Derry, and one of the largest upland areas in Ireland.
• Mount Leinster (Stua Laighean): The highest peak of the Blackstairs Mountains, rising on the Carlow-Wexford border.

The Irish name

The Irish form of Benbulben is Binn Ghulbain. You can hear it spoken, and take apart names like it, in the Placename Explorer. The authoritative record for any Irish place-name is logainm.ie.