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Gort, County Galway

Things to do in Gort

Coole Park, Thoor Ballylee, Kilmacduagh, the Gregory museum, the Square and the river walk.

Plan of Gort with the main sights labelled

The sights as pins on the model; tap one for its page and directions.

8 things to see

  1. Coole Park
    01

    Coole Park

    3.1 km north of the Square

    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 Ballylee
    02

    Thoor Ballylee

    5.0 km north-east of the Square

    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. Kilmacduagh Monastery
    03

    Kilmacduagh

    5.0 km south-west of the Square

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

  4. 04

    Kiltartan Gregory Museum

    3.6 km north of the Square

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

  5. 05

    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. 06

    Canon Quinn Park and St Colman's

    Queen Street · 148 m south of the Square

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

  7. Lough Cutra Castle
    07

    Lough Cutra Castle

    4.9 km south of the Square

    The castle on the lake the Gort family moved to from Bridge House.

  8. 08

    The Gort River Walk

    Three kilometres in a loop along the river that disappears underground, opened in 2022 with a new bridge.

Things to do

Hurling

Gort GAA, founded in 1884, is above all a hurling club. The Gort Gladiators play rugby, Coole FC and Gort United play soccer, and there is a golf club. Cliona D'Arcy of Gort was the first Irish woman to win heavyweight gold at the youth world boxing championships, in 2022.

The Cooley Collins Festival

Traditional music at the end of October; the Wild Swans stage plays in St Colman's Hall, the arts collective of forty artists runs a St Brigid's Day festival, and the Gort and District Show has given prizes for everything from photographs to ponies since 1981.

The Burren and the lowlands

The town sits between the limestone of the Burren and the peat hills of the Slieve Aughty; Coole, Kilmacduagh, Thoor Ballylee and the Kiltartan museum are the destinations the Burren Lowlands group promotes.

By train

Gort is on the Galway to Limerick line, reopened in 2010, with connections to Cork and Tralee.

Castles, abbeys and old churches nearby

  1. Stables
    Ruins
    145 m
  2. 2.3 km
  3. 2.3 km
  4. 2.7 km
  5. 3.3 km
  6. 3.4 km
  7. 3.6 km
  8. 4.9 km
  9. 5.0 km
  10. 5.0 km
Ringforts and sites6Holy wells6Castles14Abbeys1

Parks, beaches, lakes and views

  1. 148 m
  2. 1.9 km
  3. 3.0 km
  4. Coole Park
    Attractions
    3.1 km
  5. 3.1 km
  6. 3.2 km
  7. 3.3 km
  8. 3.4 km
  9. 3.6 km
  10. 3.6 km

Sport and leisure

  1. 519 m
  2. St Colmans Park
    Sports centres
    705 m
  3. Gort GAA Grounds
    Sports centres
    2.7 km

Photographs: Dr Charles Nelson, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; Dr Charles Nelson, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons; Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons; National Library of Ireland on The Commons, no restrictions via Wikimedia Commons.

The descriptions summarise Wikipedia, "Gort" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-19); positions and the lists are OpenStreetMap. Opening times and admission are not on record here; check before a visit.