The Garden
Mr John McCullen, M.Agr.SC. (Hort) advised the Francis Ledwidge Committee on the garden design and landscaping for the half-acre garden to the rear of the cottage. With the help of voluntary workers it was tansformed to a haven of tranquillity where the visitor can find peace and solace.

The Trysting Stone where Francis Ledwidge and his sweet heart Ellie Vaughey met, was moved from the Hill of Slane farm where she lived, to the cottage garden. On a limestone plaque beside the stone is inscribed the poem "To One Dead" the first of many elegies he was to write for Ellie.

A blackbird singing
On a moss-upholstered stone,
Bluebells swinging,
Shadows wildly blown,
A song in the wood,
A ship on the sea.
That song was for you
And the ship was for me.

A blackbird singing
I hear in my troubled mind,
Bluebells swinging
I see in a distant wind
But sorrow and silence
Are the wood's threnody
The silence for you
And the sorrow for me.

Also in the garden, you will see a replica of the original Monument which was erected by the City of Ieper, Belgium in 1998 to mark the exact spot where the poet was killed at the third battle of Ypres on 31st July, 1917.

The replica was unveiled in July 2001 by Mr Joe Ledwidge (the poet's nephew) and Pearl Baxter, founder member of the Francis Ledwidge Museum Committee.

<< back