Leaving Ballina, the next stop is Killala where Mariyo Yagi’s first of two sculptures ‘The Inter-Communication Park’ in Killala Harbour is behind the Coast and Cliff Rescue Station. Continue along the coastline through Lacken to Ballycastle where Tony Murphy’s work, inspired by Megalithic monuments, entitled ‘Court Hence’ sits in front of Ballycastle Cottages. A set of earthen embankments form a seating area within their circumference. En route to Belderrig, Eilis O'Baoil’s beautifully conceived ‘Wind Trees’ is like a set of five fingerprints marked by dry stone walls surrounding trees.
This unique project was conceived by artist Marian O’Donnell who took inspiration from the discovery of the neolithic site at Céide Fields, the oldest field system in the world which had been buried under blanket bog for thousands of years. Its discovery revealed an ancient civilisation with dwellings and walls and evidence of farming methods and which captured imaginations locally and raised new awareness of our ancient forebears. In an effort to acknowledge continuity between the past, present and future, and to honour the imprint made on the land by ancient people, the sculptures on the trail draw on natural elements
The art along the coastal route of North Mayo shines a light on the existing landscape, helping us see it anew, through fresh eyes, reconnecting us to the wilderness. As Henry David Thoreau said in Walden:
“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.
We can never have enough of nature.”
The sculptures work in the landscape to enhance our experience of nature. Participating artists were required to work within fairly strict guidelines, in order that their work have an organic quality, rather than the out of place quality of transplanted work. To that end, they were limited in their use of specific limited organic materials which would enliven without utterly altering the sites which included an old quarry, small fields, agricultural land and sand dunes. The sculptures explore ideas of folklore, mythology and early settlement.
Niall O'Neill’s ‘Stratified Sheep’ at Ballinaboy Visitor Farm uses granite and sandstone to create the most commonly sighted animals in the county, reflecting the inherently rural culture of the place. Other works include Japanese Sculptor Mariyo Yagi’s two sculptures: ‘The Inter- Communication Park’ in Killala Harbour and ‘The Echo of Nawascape’ in Lacken Bay. Further west on Palmerstown Bridge is Alan Counihan’s ‘Tearmon na Gaoithe,’ a shelter or sanctuary built out of quarried stones which lay in the environment.
The Tír Sáile trail ends in Blacksod at the base of the Mullet Peninsula, where Michael Bulfin’s piece entitled ‘Deirble's Twist’ forms a spiral of granite boulders which were found on site into a spiral sculpture.
The Sculpture Trail is in place since 1993, when it opened as part of a year long celebration of 5,000 years of humans inhabiting rural Mayo. Some sculptures blend so seamlessly with the environment, it’s as though nature itself arranged it.