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Gort
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Gort is a rapidly
expanding market town on the Galway to Ennis Road, situated in a gap
between the Slieve Aughty Mountains and the Burren to the south. The
town has been designated a heritage town and its street-plan and
shop-fronts are the main reason for this. Gort Heritage Centre
located on Church Street is an invaluable resource for visitors. The
area around the town is notable for its landscape of grey stone
walls and stone-strewn fields. The eighteenth century weigh-house in
the Town Square has recently been restored. There is a strong
tradition of Irish music in the locality and many pubs stage
sessions at night.
Coole Park outside Gort was the home of Lady Augusta Gregory,
dramatist and co-founder with Edward Martyn and W.B. Years of the
Abbey Theatre. The area is also a National Nature Reserve due to its
great wildlife importance - its native woodlands and turloughs.
Thoor Ballylee near Gort is a four story 16th century keep which was
bought and restored by W. B. Yeats, who lived there from 1921 to
1929. His residence there is commemorated by a stone tablet with
some lines of verse by him. The castle now contains a museum with
mementos of the poet, including the first edition of his works.
The countryside around Gort is geologically interesting, being a
porous limestone; the Gort River disappears and reappears a number
of times before going underground for good just below the town.
There are several turloughs (disappearing lakes) in the vicinity,
which fill and empty with the rise and fall of the water-table in
the ground.
Designed by Ryder Cup star, Christy O' Connor Junior, and officially
opened in August 1996, Gort Golf Club is an 18 Hole Championship
Golf Course, set in 160 acres of picturesque parkland on the edge of
the world famous Burren.
Gort has the largest proportionate population of Brazilians in the
country. The first arrivals in 2000 have been well received by the
local
community and have made a positive and valuable contribution to the
area. A once quiet rural Irish market town has been transformed by
the colours, emotions and sounds of South America with a traditional
Brazilian Festival held annually, called the ‘Quadrilha Festival’.
Gort is ideally located to explore the Burren and South Galway/North
Clare. |
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Gort Holiday Homes - County Galway, Ireland