Yeats Unwrapped in Sligo | Get close to WB Yeats in Sligo
In July 2021, The Yeats Society Sligo launched their new mobile app ‘Yeats Unwrapped’, a digital trails app which aims to link Nobel winning Irish Literary W.B. Yeats’ poetry to a series of experimental trails set out in the beautiful Sligo. It currently features six scenic trails, with more to follow. The Yeats Society Sligo is a Sligo-based appreciation society, founded in 1960, that celebrates the life and work of poet laureate .W.B. Yeats along with his talented family. The organisation also hosts the world’s longest-running annual literary summer school and offered a series of Masterclasses in May of this year as part of the ‘Yeats Unwrapped’ series. The app helps users in learning about the influence that Sligo’s history and landscape had on Yeats’ work and provides key information, along with videos, photos and poetry recitals along the trail routes, to create an all-round immersive experience.
The ‘Yeats Unwrapped’ app recently featured in an episode of RTE’s Nationwide programme in October where presenter Mary Fanning, accompanied by Yeats Society Director, Susan O’Keeffe, visited some of the locations featured in the six trails, meeting locals along the way. Locations included Ballisodare, Aughris Head and Dooney Rock. The trails featured in the app are as follows: Classic Trail: A trail of ten stops that enables users to visit all the well-known places associated with the Yeats family. Lough Gill Trail: The lake at the heart of Yeats’ most famous poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree is the central focus of this trail, which has eight stops. North Sligo Trail: This trail of nine stops features the landmark of North Sligo that is Benbulben mountain, with which Yeats had a spiritual connection. Rosses Point Trail, Sligo Town Trail and Sligo Town Trail and South Sligo Trail.
The app was developed during the Covid 19 pandemic by Yeats Society Sligo, built by At-Creative by Kevin Connolly and Grace Murray and funded by Sligo Leader Company. It is available to download for free by visiting www.yeatssocietysligo.com. or from Google Play and the App Store at the following links;
