Self-Catering Cottages & Holiday Home Rentals

Area:

• Nearest shop; 5 mins

• Nearest pub; 5 mins

• Nearest town, Gort; 3 mins

COOLE PARK, COUNTY GALWAY

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Coole Park is a nature reserve of approximately 1,000 acres (4 km) located a few miles west of Gort, County Galway, Ireland. It is operated by the Irish National Parks & Wildlife Service, part of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

 

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.

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Coole House may have been damaged in the Irish Civil War (1922–23). Lady Gregory sold the estate to the Irish state in 1927, but retained life tenancy. She 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 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.

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Drive Times:

• Galway Airport (distanced approximately 24 km) 

• Tullahoma Arnold AFS Airport (distanced approximately 47 km) 

• Birr Airport (distanced approximately 53 km) 

• Connemara Airport (distanced approximately 54 km)

• Shannon Airport (distanced approximately 56 km)

Nearby:

• Lough Cutra Castle has a long and varied history. The countryside surrounding Lough Cutra contains much evidence of a history dating back to the Tuatha Da Danaans.

• Evidence of old churches, cells and monasteries are prolific in the area and a number of the islands on the lake contain the remnants of stone alters. The history of the estate can be traced back as far as 866 A.D.

• Coole Gate Lodge is the ideal base for exploring west of Ireland highlights including Connemara, the Burren, midlands and Galway city.

• Cloghan Castle has stood on these lands for over 800 years. Originally built as an out-post fortification in the 12th century, the castle was last inhabited by Hugh deBurgo in the 15th century, one of the most ancient and influential families in Irish history, a son of Walter de Burgo, Earl of Ulster. For centuries the castle stood derelict, until a meticulous and historically accurate restoration programme was completed in the December of 1996.