The Family Trail
An easy 1.75 km waymarked walk past the site of the vanished house and through the walled garden, then on through woodland overlooking the river and turlough to the Visitor Centre and red deer enclosure.
Coole Park
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About
Coole Park is the old Gregory estate that became the heart of the Irish Literary Revival — now a 400-hectare NPWS nature reserve of woods, turloughs and lake where W.B. Yeats wrote, and where the Autograph Tree still carries the carved initials of Ireland's great writers.
Things to Do
Walled Garden & Autograph Tree
In the walled garden a copper beech carries the initials of Yeats, Shaw, Synge and O'Casey, carved at Lady Gregory's invitation from 1898; a plaque helps identify the fading signatures. Remnants of the old hothouses now shelter picnic tables.
The Seven Woods Trail
A 4.5 km route linking the woods made famous by Yeats, with a viewing point for Coole Lake, 18th-century stone walls, the stable yard and a limekiln.
Coole Lake and the turloughs
The reserve sits at the centre of a rare glacio-karstic wetland; the lake is a turlough whose water level can swing by over 10 m, making it the most important turlough in Ireland.
Visitor Centre and Cobblestone Café
The visitor centre beside the main car park covers the reserve's ecology and history, while the Cobblestone Café serves breakfast and lunch, soups, quiches, sandwiches, salads, teas, coffees and home-baked cakes.
Wildlife watching
Red deer are kept in an enclosure beside the trail, and the woods and lake hold red squirrels, pine marten, jays and treecreepers, plus swans and other wetland birds in winter.
Literary Coole
Displays and the landscape itself recall Lady Gregory's hospitality to the writers of the Literary Revival; Yeats, who first came here exhausted in 1897, called Coole the most beautiful place in the world.
Plan Your Visit
- Hours: Park grounds: summer (daylight saving) 08:00-19:30, winter 08:00-18:00. Visitor Centre and Cobblestone Café: 10:00-17:00 daily.
- Admission: Free admission - there is no charge for the park, trails or Visitor Centre.
- Parking: Three car parks on site (the car park closest to the Walled Garden, the middle car park and the main car park), recently upgraded with new layouts and EV charging points; wheelchair-accessible parking is available.
- Food: Cobblestone Café, next to the Visitor Centre by the main car park, open 10:00-17:00 daily: breakfast and lunch, soups, quiches, sandwiches, salads, teas, coffees and home-baked pastries and cakes.
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