Coole Park is a nature reserve of approximately located a few miles west of

Gort Gort ( or ) is a town of around 3,000 inhabitants in County Galway in the west of Ireland. Located near the border with County Clare, the town lies between the Burren and the Slieve Aughty and is served by the R458 and R460 regional roads, wh ...

, County Galway, Ireland. It is managed by the Irish National Parks & Wildlife Service, part of the

Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media ( ga, An Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meán) is a department of the Government of Ireland. The mission of the department is to promote a ...

. The park is in a low–lying

karstic Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

limestone area characterised by seasonal lakes, known as turloughs, which are almost unique to Ireland. It has extensive woodlands. There are 6 kilometres of signposted nature trails plus a formal late 18th century

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate ...

History

Woodland path - Coole Demesne Townland - geograph

The park was formerly the estate of the Gregory family. Coole House was built in the late 18th century for Robert Gregory: a three-storey house with a square porch and as principal rooms a dining room and drawing-room with bay windows facing out to Coole Lough and the Burren Hills, and a library in between them. In 1880, Robert's great-grandson,

William Henry Gregory Sir William Henry Gregory PC (Ire) KCMG (13 July 1816 – 6 March 1892) was an Anglo-Irish writer and politician, who is now less remembered than his wife Augusta, Lady Gregory, the playwright, co-founder and Director of Dublin's Abbey Theatre, ...

married Isabella Augusta Persse, who became

Lady Gregory Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (''née'' Persse; 15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932) was an Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, ...

. The death in World War I of their only child,

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

, a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, inspired the poet

W B Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became ...

to write works which included " An Irish Airman Foresees His Death." The walled garden contains an ''autograph tree'', a copper beech that is engraved with initials of many of the leading figures of the

Irish Literary Revival The Irish Literary Revival (also called the Irish Literary Renaissance, nicknamed the Celtic Twilight) was a flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century. It includes works of poetry, music, art, and literature. O ...

who were personal friends of Lady Gregory including Yeats,

Edward Martyn Edward Martyn (30 January 1859 – 5 December 1923) was an Irish playwright and early republican political and cultural activist, as the first president of Sinn Féin from 1905–08. Early life Martyn was the elder son of John Martyn of Tullira ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play ''The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly r ...

Mario Manlio Rossi is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...

and

Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...

. Yeats' poem ''

The Wild Swans at Coole ''The Wild Swans at Coole'' is the name of two collections of poetry by W. B. Yeats, published in 1917 and 1919. Publication history ''The Wild Swans at Coole'', a collection of twenty-nine poems and the play ''At the Hawk's Well'', was first p ...

'' was inspired by the beauty of the swans in the turlough at Coole Park. Yeats's home at

Thoor Ballylee Thoor Ballylee Castle (Irish ''Túr Bhaile Uí Laí'') is a fortified, 15th-century Anglo-Norman tower house built by the septs de Burgo, or Burke, near the town of Gort in County Galway, Ireland. It is also known as ''Yeats' Tower'' because it ...

was just 3 miles away; he also wrote "Coole Park, 1929", a poem that describes the park as a symbol for the revival of Irish literature: "Here traveller, scholar, poet, take your stand, / When all these rooms and passages are gone / When nettles wave upon a shapeless mound / And saplings root among the broken stone." Coole House may have been damaged in the Irish Civil War (1922–23). Margaret Gregory, the widowed wife of Robert Gregory, sold the estate to the Irish state in 1927, with life tenancy for her mother-in-law. Lady Gregory died in 1932 and the furnishings were soon auctioned off. By the 1960s the state had allowed the Gregorys' former house to fall into a ruin, a neglect deplored by

Micheál Mac Liammóir Micheál Mac Liammóir (born Alfred Willmore; 25 October 1899 – 6 March 1978) was an actor, designer, dramatist, writer and impresario in 20th-century Ireland. Though born in London to an English family with no Irish connections, he emigrated ...

in 1964. Indeed, according to the National Archives, the building was actively demolished by the state in 1941. Today, all that remains is the plinth on which it stood.

Today

The grounds are open to the public all year round (free admission). A visitor centre located in the former outbuildings (late 18th century) operates during high season (April to September inclusive). The centre offers tea rooms, an audio/visual presentation on Lady Gregory and the literary history of Coole Park, and also a multi-media exhibition called "Coole Park through the eyes of 'Me and Nu', Granddaughters of Lady Gregory". In 2014, disease forced the felling of many trees in Coole Park for safety reasons, as confirmed by the

National Parks and Wildlife Service (Ireland) The National Parks and Wildlife Service () manages the Irish State's nature conservation responsibilities. As well as managing the national parks, the activities of the NPWS include the designation and protection of Natural Heritage Areas, Special ...

Ecology

The ephemeral nature of turlough hydrology gives rise to a characteristic ecology. Turloughs have been designated as a Priority Habitat in the EU

Habitats Directive The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...

. Coole Park is part of the Coole-Garryland Complex, a candidate

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...

(site code SAC 252). Since 1990 Coole Lough & Garryland Wood has been protected as a Wetland of International Importance under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on W ...

Protection for birds

A wildfowl sanctuary, where the shooting of

game birds Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often ...

is not permitted, is designated under the

Wildlife Act 1976 The Wildlife Act 1976 is an Act of the Oireachtas protecting certain wildlife (including game) and flora in the Republic of Ireland. With the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000, it is the principal national legislation for the protection of wildlife ...

. The park is included in a

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certa ...

for birds under the EU

Birds Directive The Birds Directive (formally known as Council Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds) is the oldest piece of EU legislation on the environment and one of its cornerstones which was unanimously adopted in April 1979 as the Dire ...

: this site of 520 ha (site code SPA 107) was designated in 1996 because of its importance for wintering waterfowl, notably

whooper swan The whooper swan ( /ˈhuːpə(ɹ) swɒn/) (''Cygnus cygnus''), also known as the common swan, pronounced ''hooper swan'', is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type speci ...

.{{cite web, url=http://www.coolepark.ie/nature/index.html, title=Coole Park and Gardens :: Nature and Wildlife :: Information for Coole Park, Galway, Ireland : W.B. Yeats : Lady Gregory : Turlough (Disappearing Lake) : Abbey Theatre : Whooper Swan, work=coolepark.ie, accessdate=19 January 2015, archive-url=https://archive.today/20140805003550/http://www.coolepark.ie/nature/index.html, archive-date=5 August 2014, url-status=dead The SPA overlaps with a smaller Important Bird Area, Coole Park and Garryland complex.

Notes

External links

Coole Park WebsiteW.B. Yeats at the National LibraryThe Lady Gregory and Yeats Heritage TrailNational Inventory of Architectural Heritage: Coole Park (Garden Survey)

National Inventory of Architectural Heritage: Coole Lodge (former gatehouse)
Geography of County Galway Birdwatching sites in Ireland Forests and woodlands of the Republic of Ireland Important Bird Areas of the Republic of Ireland Nature reserves in the Republic of Ireland Parks in County Galway Tourist attractions in County Galway Ramsar sites in the Republic of Ireland