The Sunday Times September 3, 2017 15 COLIN MCPHERSON; PAUL MCERLANE A trip to the Sunday Travel birthplace of Seamus Heaney leaves Yvonne Gordon well versed in the late poet’s life

t’s a chilly morning by the Moyola river at Castledawson in Co Derry. A light, white frost covers the grassy Ibanks and there’s a sprinkling of snow on a wooden bench overlooking the water, which has rushed downstream from the Sperrin mountains on its way to Lough Neagh. It gushes beneath O’Hara’s bridge, past an old linen mill with a redbrick chimney. It is a picturesque, if ordinary, Irish riverside scene: fit for a poet who was made Nobel Laureate for works “which Travel exalt everyday miracles”. I am on the home turf of Seamus Heaney, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature and one of the most important poets of the 20th century, who died four years ago last week. Although his poems are read around the world by those who have never set foot in Northern Ireland, it is the people and the places of this area that formed the

To hear a local poet talking of things you have experienced . . . he recorded a way of life that’s no longer there

writer and shaped his verse, and I soon discover that a visit to experience first hand the places he wrote about brings 24 a new insight into, and appreciation for, his work. IN THE EXTREME Heaney was born at the family farm at nearby THE PLANET’S Mossbawn in 1939, the eldest TOUGHEST Heaney, born and raised in Co Derry, drew on his memories of Castledawson, Bellaghy and Magherafelt for inspiration of nine. He played beside ENDURANCE the Moyola as a child, later recalling that this part of the EVENTS river once had a trail of stepping stones that linked the thatched cottage-filled parish of Bellaghy, where his father’s family was from, to Something the working-class terraces of Castledawson, birthplace of his mother. The fields, rivers and The everyday scenes here featured prominently in Heaney’s work. In his first published poem, to write Tractors (1962) he described how the vehicles “ache across mud”. The Forge (1969), with its “door into the dark” refers to Devlin’s forge, which he passed many times as a child plan home about Continued on page 17→ et’s The Sunday Times September 3, 2017 17 Sunday Travel

but never dared to go inside. The little forge is still there, a tiny white-washed stone building at Hillhead near Bellaghy, but its blacksmith Barney Devlin passed away last year, aged 96, having outlived Heaney by three years. Heaney wrote, too, of the “midge-veiled, high-hedged side-road” on the way to his neighbour Rosie Keenan’s cottage (At The Wellhead, 1996). The cottage now sits empty, though when I pass it the front door appears ajar, as if its long-gone occupant has just popped out for a moment. In the town of Magherafelt is the building that housed PJ Loudan’s, the butcher a young Heaney visited with his father to buy the Sunday roast, its “red beef, white string, brown paper” immortalised in The Nod (2006). These locations are brought to life by guide Eugene Kielt, a local who has run tours of “Heaney Country” for more than 20 years. When he plays recordings of Heaney reading his poetry — in the very spots described in the poems — the words come alive off the page. You can almost see and hear the characters. Kielt and his wife Gerardine rubbings, flip books and block run Laurel Villa, a guesthouse puzzles. Many of the displays in Magherafelt. On the walls have audio recordings of EXAMINE WRITERS’ ROOTS of the dining room, Heaney’s poems and a small overlooking a large table with space in front of a print of 1996 PATRICK KAVANAGH CS LEWIS TRAIL, BELFAST candelabra, are huge framed work A Sofa in The Forties RESOURCE CENTRE, The author Clive Staples broadsides of Heaney’s poems, invites young visitors to “jump CO MONAGHAN Lewis (1898-1963), best lined up like observers at a on board” and recreate the The rolling hills and drumlins known for The Chronicles banquet. The broadsides poem’s imaginary train. There of Monaghan were the key of Narnia, was born and (limited edition prints of the is a creative corner with art inspirations for the work of raised in east Belfast. Fans poems, printed on linen and projects for youngsters and poet Patrick Kavanagh of his work can explore the framed) are to be read, but shelves of his poetry books for (1904-1967), although he CS Lewis Trail and visit also admired as works of art. anyone to read. described it as “the stony the places that influenced “The beauty of this is that Touchscreens give access grey soil” that “burgled my him as a boy. people who wouldn’t normally to tributes from the former bank of youth”. Like Seamus The trail begins at the go out and buy a poem can be American president Bill Heaney, Kavanagh was born CS Lewis Square on exposed to the beauty of Clinton, former Irish president into a farming family. He was Newtownards Road, which them,” says Kielt. By the fire in “We had been studying the interactive exhibition that Mary Robinson, and Prince one of 10 children and began features seven bronze the building’s cosy backroom, English poets — Shelley and takes the visitor through Charles, as well as local writing at the age of 12. sculptures of Narnia Kielt looks off into the distance Wordsworth — but to hear a Heaney’s life and literature. schoolchildren and family The parish church at characters, including the as he recites The Forge, while local poet talking of things you There’s a large map of his friends. The first floor Inniskeen, where the poet is lion Aslan and Mr Tumnus. wind and sleet whip and tap have experienced, like duties home in the centre, with an exhibition examines Heaney’s buried, is now the site of the Other stops on the trail on the window pane. around the farm, how people old schoolbag and desk on inspiration, with large Patrick Kavanagh Resource include St Mark’s Church, Kielt grew up on a 30-acre like the blacksmith did things display. There are family windows giving visitors a view Centre. It is packed with where an ornate door farm nearby and first heard and how they made things . . . photos and poems from of the landscape Heaney memorabilia, including handle in the shape of Heaney in the 1970s. His He recorded a way of life that’s different stages of Heaney’s life would have written about, large-format prints of his a lion’s head is said to have poetry had huge resonance no longer here.” from childhood through to the while a café, theatre and poems, maps and books. influenced the character of with the then schoolboy At the Seamus Heaney birth of his grandchildren — seminar rooms play host to a You can take a tour of Aslan, and Lewis’s alma because it described scenes, HomePlace in Bellaghy, the even the family dog features. busy programme of music, Kavanagh country from the mater Campbell College, people and places he could cultural centre dedicated to the Children have not been poetry and readings. centre and see the sites he which has a single gas identify with. “I was drawn poet’s life and art that opened neglected in this literary Heaney’s Nobel Prize immortalised, including the lamp in its grounds that is into his language,” says Kielt. last September, I explore an landscape: there are brass was awarded “for works of dance hall at Mullaghinsha, thought to be the inspiration lyrical beauty and ethical Billy Brennan’s barn, and for the lamp in Narnia. depth, which exalt everyday Rocksavage Fort, where he There’s also a CS Lewis miracles and the living past”. worked the land and wrote exhibition at Belmont Tower The HomePlace Hearing the words of his some of his earliest verse. on Belmont Church Road. in Bellaghy, left, poems come alive off the patrickkavanaghcountry.com discovernorthernireland.com is a centre page, while standing at the dedicated to very places that inspired his Fans can visit the late poet work, is an experience that the childhood that features will reward any visitor to homes of interactive Heaney’s birthplace and Kavanagh, exhibits, above, leave his words echoing far left, and and insights into long after. Lewis, left, his childhood, top to see first- For information on the Seamus hand the Heaney HomePlace, visit places that seamusheaneyhome.com. influenced To book a stay at the Laurel their writing Villa guest house or a tour of Heaney country, visit laurel-villa.com