The old name of Drumcliff was Cnoc na Teagh (trans. Hill of the House). The village is one of several possible locations in County Sligo for the settlement of
Nagnata as marked on
Claudius Ptolemy's early map of Ireland. The name Codnach means placid or even tempered river. A battle was fought on this river in A.M. 3656 (1538 BC) by the legendary
Milesian monarch Tigearnmas. An ancient topographical poem in the
Dinnsenchus (Lore of Places) tells how the baskets in the name refer to the wicker frames of a fleet of boats that was once made here. The poem is part of a lost epic story involving the Fomorians in a raid on an island in the western ocean. Drumcliff formed the western extremity of the kingdom of
Bréifne (the eastern end was
Kells), and the northern extremity of
Tir Fhiacrach Múaidhe (Tireragh). The
Battle of the Book took place near Drumcliff between 555 AD and 561 AD. The historian
Mac Firbisigh mention a "Fort of Codhnach", known to be a fort near Drumcliff, although its location now is unknown.
The Monastery St.
Colmcille founded a monastery in Drumcliff in about 575. The monastery was of such importance that it gave its name to the territory of
Cairbre Drom Cliabh in which it resides. The first abbot was St. Mothorian. The annals mention that in 1225, Amlaib Ó Beólláin,
erenach of Drumcliff
, a man eminent for generosity and for his guest-house, died this year. The Ó Beólláin family were hereditary keepers of Drumcliff monastery. All that remains of the monastery now is an
Irish High Cross dating to c. 1100, and a ruined 10th or 11th century round tower, the only one known in County Sligo, The round tower was struck by lightning in 1396. Further decorated cross slabs are built into the walls of the current church. ==William Butler Yeats==