Located near the border with County Clare, the town lies between the Burren and the Slieve Aughty and is served by the R458 and R460 regional roads, which connect to the M18 motorway.

[3] Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes ringfort, souterrain and holy well sites in the townlands of Gort, Ballyhugh, Cloghnakeava, Cloonnahaha and Lavally.

[4] In 2022, a large Bronze Age fort, located in Coole Park near Gort, was dated between 800 and 1200 BCE during archaeological work in the Burren lowlands.

[7][8] He was the patron of his first cousin St. Colman MacDuagh (giving him the land for Kilmacduagh monastery)[9][10] During the Middle Ages the chiefs of Cenél Áeda na hEchtge, the O'Shaughnessys (Ó Seachnasaigh, a clan descended from Guaire Aidhneach), had their principal stronghold in Gort, a castle on the island site which later became a cavalry barracks.

[13] The centre of the town was built at this time (the late period in Georgian architecture) according to Lord Gort's plans.

[18] Coole House, Lady Gregory's home, served as a base for the Irish Literary Revival in the late 1800s and early 20th century.

A young woman, Eileen Quinn, was shot dead while holding her infant just outside of the town by the Auxiliary Division of the RIC on 1 November 1920 – in what has been described as "essentially a drive-by shooting".

[22][23][24] On November 26 the Loughnane brothers were interrogated in the Gort barracks before being "tied to the tailgate of a lorry and dragged to Drumharsna Castle" and killed by the RIC.

[citation needed] Starting in the early 2000s, there was an influx of Brazilian immigrants to Gort, and in 2006 they made up around 30% of the town's population.

According to Claire Healy's Irish Migration Studies in Latin America, a "large community of Brazilians now live, work and attend school in Gort, gradually altering the appearance and the character of the town".

Jobs were lost with the closure of Duffy Meats, a factory in which many Brazilians had been working, and also when the construction industry imploded".

[41][42][43] In December 2022, An Bord Pleanála overturned a Galway County Council planning decision and permission was granted for a biogas plant near the town.

[47] The websites of Fáilte Ireland and the "Burren Lowlands" destination marketing group, list nearby tourist destinations as The Burren, Coole Park Visitor Centre & Gardens, Kilmacduagh cathedral churches and round tower, Thoor Ballylee, and Kiltartan Gregory Museum.

[49] The Wild Swans Theatre Company is a local group of actors which put on plays in St. Colman's Hall.

[55] Since 1981, the town hosts the annual Gort and District Show, a community event which awards prizes in a number of categories from photography and crafts, to flowers and ponies.

[58] Gort has a number of buildings of architectural interest, being a well preserved planned Georgian period market town.

[14] There is a mid-19th century Weigh House in the centre of the old square, as well as a 1933 marble sculpture of Christ the King by the Irish sculptor Albert Power.

[71] Cliona D'Arcy, of Gort, won the heavyweight gold medal at the 2022 IBA Youth World Boxing Championships, becoming the first Irish woman to do so.

[86][87] Local director Keith Walsh and producer Jill Beardsworth made the film When All is Ruin Once Again, a "highly personal documentary essay" shot in, and about, Gort and neighbouring village Crusheen, in 2018.

It won several awards and was considered in an RTE review to be a "masterpiece of cinema" and "beautiful but philosophically shaky" by The Irish Times.