Just beyond the red gates of the Walled Garden at Coole Park stands a 200-year-old beech tree. The wind blows through the branches, animating the leaves. The canopy of the tree bends down and encloses visitors underneath, ushering them into this sacred tent of story and reflection. Etched on the soft bark of the magnificent copper beech are over a dozen signatures; some from artists and political figures, others from prominent Irish literary giants.
William Butler Yeats, John Millington Synge, Sean O’Casey and George Bernard Shaw are only a few of the house guests invited by Lady Gregory of Coole to carve their signatures into the trunk of the tree. A living guestbook of sorts, the tree has an incredible history that is deeply rooted in the story of Coole Park, as well as Lady Gregory herself.
An adamant and longtime patron of the arts, Lady Gregory was enamoured by the Irish Literary Revival of the early 20th century. Lady Gregory and a young W.B. Yeats met in the 1800s and later became lifelong friends and collaborators in the Irish literary community. Lady Gregroy was an early supporter of Yeats. The two, along with others, co-founded the Abbey Theatre in an effort to write, produce, and perform plays for and about Irish people. Yeats was a regular guest at Coole House, drawing immense inspiration from the serene landscape.
In 'Coole Park', Yeats writes:
“I meditate upon a swallow's flight,
Upon a aged woman and her house,
A sycamore and lime-tree lost in night
Although that western cloud is luminous,
Great works constructed there in nature's spite
For scholars and for poets after us,
Thoughts long knitted into a single thought,
A dance-like glory that those walls begot...”
Yeats was the first of many to inscribe the tree with his signature. Other prominent autographs include; Theodore Spicer-Simson, George Bernard Shaw, Countess of Cromartie, Elinor Monsell, Jack B. Yeats, John Millington Synge, Lady Gregory herself, and many more. It was Lady Gregory who asked selected guests to leave their autograph upon the bark. During her time living at Coole House, she invited artists to stay and draw inspiration from the wooded literary landscape she fostered. Her love for the arts, as well as arboriculture, was integral to creating a landscape that invited all to absorb and shape stories. With this collection of signatures, Lady Gregory cemented Coole Park as a living testament to the Irish Literary Revival. Today, you can still make out many of the signatures left on the tree. Although time has warped and worn some of the signatures, what remains is the impenetrable sense of story behind each etching that enchants every visitor.
The same year that W.B. Yeats signed the tree, Lady Gregroy wrote in The Irish Homestead; “We find the little seedlings we had put down in faith are over our heads and acting as our protectors. And even if we do not live to sit under their shade, yet nonetheless, they will grow whilst we are sleeping, that long sleep in which we may so easily be forgotten. And we are not likely to have more lasting moments put over us, and we cannot have more gracious ones than the living, rustling trees that we had planted and that we had loved.”
To see the Autograph Tree and explore the grounds these literary giants once walked, visit Coole Park Nature Reserve in Gort, County Galway.
Published on Updated on
