liquidstarlight photography

The Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaeae) is called the Buachalan Buidhe by the Gaelic Irish, pronounced “bouckalhan buiee”, and this lovely poem and the Gaelic name was provided by Margaret Reynolds, Earnley Nature Photographer, class of 1997.

The Buachalan Buidhe

All over the hills and the valleys so green
The buachalan buidhe in its glory is seen
Some call it a weed, and a weed it may be,
But not to the fairies, the buachalan buidhe

For when you and I are asleep in our bed
The buachalan tosses its yellow tressed head
And then 'tis a charger with mane flowing free
For fairies to ride on, the buachalan buidhe

In the dark of the moon when the breezes are still
There's a rustle and stir in the heart of each hill,
Where wee folks slip out from the halls of the sidhe*
To go for a ride on the buachalan buidhe

With bridles and saddles and stirrups of gold
They travel through Erin with few to behold
Till the first spears of dawning steal in from the sea
Then homeward they jog on the buachalan buidhe

So when on the hillsides and valleys so green
The buachalan buidhe in its glory is seen,
Don't call it a weed - though a weed it may be -
But the horse of the fairies, the buachalan buidhe

Attributed; Teresa Brayton