Thoor Ballylee

Yeats bought this fifteenth-century de Burgo tower in 1917 for thirty-five pounds, restored it with the architect William Scott, and used it as a summer home with his wife George through the 1920s. It became central to his work: The Tower and The Winding Stair take their titles from it, and a stone he had set into the wall carries lines he wrote about the restoration and its likely ruin. Four storeys connect by a spiral stair to a roof with a view over the Streamstown river and the flat Galway countryside. He left in 1929 and the tower fell derelict again; it was restored as a museum in the 1960s. The river floods it regularly - severe floods in 2009 and 2015 closed it for years at a time - and reopening has depended on volunteer effort and fundraising, so opening hours are genuinely uncertain and worth confirming before driving out.

History

The tower house was built in the 15th century by the de Burgo, or Burke, family and was part of the great estates of the Earls of Clanricarde. It is also known as Yeats's Tower, after the poet who owned it, and Seamus Heaney called it "the most important public building in Ireland" (Wikipedia, Thoor Ballylee).

What you'll find

• The four storeys - connected by a spiral stair to the roof.
• The inscribed stone - Yeats's own lines about the restoration set into the wall.
• The river setting - the Streamstown alongside, and the reason for the flooding.
• The cottage - the adjoining thatched building, part of the property.

When to go

May to September, and only after confirming it is open - flooding has closed it for extended periods and the season depends on volunteers. Check the current status before travelling.

Practical notes

Opening is unreliable due to flood damage and volunteer staffing. The spiral stair is narrow and steep. Furnishings are partly reconstructions. It is small - an hour at most.

Nearby

Coole Park is close; Kilmacduagh and Gort are south.

Key facts