Western Ireland Tour, Day 5:  Thoor Ballylee and Coole Park

For the student of Modern Irish Literature, there are fewer places of greater importance than Yeats's Tower, Thoor Ballylee, and Lady Gregory's Estate, Coole Park.  These are the twin symbols of the Irish Literary Renaissance.  Yeats transformed his tower into the monument to all he wished to celebrate and preserve in Irish culture; and Lady Gregory's house was the birthplace of so much of the writing of the Renaissance, from Yeats's poetry to Synge's dramas to Gregory's writings in folklore, mythology, and drama.  Today these two sites remain places of power and wonder, evoking memories of what once was, and still enchanting the visitor of the present.

Thoor Ballylee

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