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County Galway · Connacht · Gort Inse Guaire

About Gort

Gort is a town in County Galway, 28 km south-east of Galway city, with 2,870 people at the 2022 census. King Guaire's island in the river, an O'Shaughnessy stronghold, Lord Gort's Georgian triangle, and the countryside where Yeats and Lady Gregory made a literary revival.

Population
2,870 (2022 census)
Where
28 km from Galway, 173 km from Dublin
Position
53.0670° N, 8.8195° W, 43 m above sea level
In Irish
Gort Inse Guaire
On the model
1,550 buildings, 40 streets, 186 places in 41 kinds
Read more
Gort on Wikipedia
The 3D model of Gort with every named place pinned
Church Street Gort looking north
Church Street Gort looking north
Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Church Street Gort, looking south
Church Street Gort, looking south
Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Gort - Church Street
Gort - Church Street
Desmond Ryan, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Hennellys Bar & Off-licence, Georges Street, Gort
Hennellys Bar & Off-licence, Georges Street, Gort
P L Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

  1. 800 to 1200 BC
    A Bronze Age fort at Coole. Ringforts, souterrains and holy wells lie in the townlands around the town, and in 2022 a large Bronze Age fort at Coole Park was dated to between 800 and 1200 BC during work in the Burren lowlands.
  2. Middle Ages
    The O'Shaughnessys. The chiefs of Cenél Áeda na hEchtge, descended from Guaire, had their main stronghold on the island site, a castle that later became a cavalry barracks.
  3. Late 1600s
    Lord Gort's town. The O'Shaughnessy lands were confiscated and granted to Sir Thomas Prendergast, whose grandson became the first Viscount Gort.
  4. 1806
    The mill. A four-storey flour mill with a wooden wheel went up by the river in 1806 and worked until 1966; sold to the co-operative mart, it was pulled down in 1985.
  5. 1869
    The railway. The station opened on 15 September 1869, closed to passengers on 5 April 1976, and reopened in 2010 on the Western Rail Corridor between Galway and Limerick.
  6. 1920
    The barracks years. As a barracks town Gort had a heavy presence of RIC and Black and Tans.

The full history, 14 moments in order

What to see

  1. Coole Park3.1 km

    Lady Gregory's demesne, with the autograph tree signed by Shaw, Yeats, O'Casey and Synge, the walled garden, the nature reserve and the Bronze Age fort dated in 2022.

  2. Thoor Ballylee5.0 km

    The fifteenth-century tower house Yeats bought from the Gregorys and restored for his summers in the 1920s; the Yeats society keeps it open with tours, events and a studio.

  3. Kilmacduagh5.0 km

    The monastery St Colman MacDuagh founded on land from King Guaire, with its churches and round tower, south-west of the town.

  4. Kiltartan Gregory Museum3.6 km

    The museum to Lady Gregory in an old schoolhouse at Kiltartan.

  5. The Square

    The Georgian market triangle Lord Gort laid out, with the mid-nineteenth-century weigh house and Albert Power's Christ the King of 1933.

  6. Canon Quinn Park and St Colman's148 m

    The park behind St Colman's church of 1825; the old Church of Ireland church of about 1820 is now the library.

All the things to see and do

Population since 1821

7641,5282,29218211851190119511971200220222,870

Source: Wikipedia article 'Gort', Historical populations template, citing the CSO census.

Questions people ask

Where is Gort?
In County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 28 km south-east of Galway city and 173 km west of Dublin, on the R458 and R460, joining the M18.
What is the population of Gort?
2,870 people at the 2022 census, up from 2,994 in 2016.
What is there in Gort?
On the map, 186 named places in 41 kinds: 11 places to eat and drink, 12 shops, 10 schools, churches and public buildings, and 138 things to see within 12 km.
What is Gort known for?
Lady Gregory's Coole Park and Yeats's tower at Thoor Ballylee, the birthplace of the Irish Literary Revival; Kilmacduagh's round tower; its Georgian market square; hurling; and the Brazilian community that made it one of the most diverse towns in Ireland.
What is the history of Gort?
King Guaire's island residence in the seventh century, the O'Shaughnessy stronghold burned by Cromwell in 1652, Lord Gort's planned town of the late 1700s, the Famine that cost it a third of its people, the railway of 1869, the literary revival at Coole, the barracks years of 1920, and the Brazilian arrivals of the 2000s.

Getting around

Gort sits on the R458 and R460, joining the M18. 3 bus stops and 0 car parks are on the map.

History, sights and civic facts summarise Wikipedia, "Gort" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-19). Population is the CSO census as listed there. Distances and everything on the model are OpenStreetMap.