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

Gort Gort ( or ) is a town of around 2,800 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 road (Ireland), R458 and R460 ...

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

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

Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport () is a department of the Government of Ireland. The mission of the department is to promote and develop Ireland's tourism, culture, and art; and to advance the use of the Irish language, incl ...

. The park is in a low–lying karstic 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.

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 Theat ...

married Isabella Augusta Persse, who became Lady Gregory. 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 ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

, a pilot in the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

, inspired the poet

W B Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

to write works which included " An Irish Airman Foresees His Death." The walled garden contains an ''autograph tree'', a mature copper beech that is engraved with initials of many of the leading figures of the Irish Literary Revival 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 1905–1908. Early life Martyn was the elder son of John Martyn of Tul ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909), popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, essayist, and collector of folklores. As an important driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, Ir ...

, Mario Manlio Rossi and Seán O'Casey. Yeats' poem '' The Wild Swans at Coole'' was inspired by the beauty of the swans in the turlough at Coole Park. Yeats's home at Thoor Ballylee 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 was sold by Margaret Gregory, the widowed wife of Robert Gregory, 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. According to the

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

, the building fell into a ruin, a neglect deplored by

Micheál Mac Liammóir Micheál Mac Liammóir (born Alfred Lee 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 emig ...

in 1964, and was 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, fungal disease forced the felling of many trees in Coole Park for safety reasons, as confirmed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (Ireland).

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. 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 ap ...

(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 We ...

Protection for birds

A wildfowl sanctuary, where the shooting of game birds is not permitted, is designated under the Wildlife Act 1976. 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 cer ...

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 Dir ...

: 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/ "hooper swan"; ''Cygnus cygnus''), also known as the common swan, is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type species for the genu ...

. The SPA overlaps with a smaller

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

, Coole Park and Garryland complex.

Notes

External links

Coole Park WebsiteW.B. Yeats at the National Library
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810080125/http://www.nli.ie/yeats/ , date=10 August 2018
The 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