Fodor's Expert Review Thoor Ballylee (Yeats’s Tower)

W. B. Yeats wrote some of his finest poetry, including "The Tower" and "The Winding Stair" in Thoor Ballylee, a small castle just an eight-minute drive from Gort. You can take the winding staircase that led the famous poet up to his writer's garret. A tablet with the words "I, the poet William Yeats, With old mill boards and sea-green slates, And smithy work from the Gort forge, Restored this tower for my wife George. And may these characters remain, When all is ruin once again" is mounted outside as a testament to the time he spent in his summer retreat. Fans of Hollywood's golden age will remember Maureen O'Hara's character, Mary Kate Danagher from John Ford's movie The Quiet Man (1952), rambling by the river at the foot of the tower house.

The tower house is susceptible to flooding so call ahead.