|
Madman's Window - Ballygally Northern Ireland |
 |
 |
 |
|
Several miles from Ballygally, about one mile from Glenarm on the Coast Road is a large rock with an opening at the top. It is referred to as the ‘Madman’s Window’. The name goes back nearly two centuries ago, to the time when a young girl was drowned in Glenarm Bay. Her sweetheart was so deeply moved by her death that he lost his sanity. Each day he would sit at the rock, gazing through the hole or ‘window,’ waiting for his girlfriend to return from the waters to him. A poem called ‘The Madman’s Story’ was written some time afterwards, a portion of it is as follows: “I sit at the window all day long
Gazing out at the sea,
Waiting, waiting, waiting
For my girl to come back to me,
They tell me that I need not wait:
They tell me she is dead;
But whenever they say such things to me,
I simply shake my head.
For I know that she is still out there,
Alone out there in the bay –
I have often seen her gliding past
In the midst of the spume and spray.”
|
