W.B. Yeats

Thoor Ballylee was Yeats's monument and symbol; in both aspects it had multiple significance. It satisified his desire for a rooted place in a known countryside, not far from Coole and his life-long friend Lady Gregory.To live in a Tower complemented, perhaps, his alignment with a tradation of cultivated aristocracy which he had envied and a leisured peace which he had enjoyed.

The tower or castle that Yeats bought was a sixteeneth century norman castle built by the family de Burgo, or Burke. It consisted of four floors with one room on each, connected by a spiral stone stairway built into the seven-foot thickness of the massive outer wall. Each floor had a window overlooking the river which flowed alongside. At the top here was a flat roof reached by a final steep flight of steps from the floor below.

Visit www.GortOnline.com for more info.

W.B.Yeats