The Autograph Tree

The Autograph Tree stands in the walled garden at Coole Park near Gort, County Galway, on the estate once home to Lady Augusta Gregory. Writers and artists who stayed with her carved their initials into the bark of the copper beech, among them W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey.

The tree is now protected behind railings, but it remains one of the most direct physical links to the Irish Literary Revival. The surrounding parkland and woodland walks are open to visitors.