Sweet €275k poet's house was once home to the Silver Tongue of Munster

Sensitive renovations helped retain the historic character of this winsome Clonakilty property 

The Poet's House/Teach an Fhile, Rossmore, Clonakilty

Clonakilty, West Cork
€275,000
Size	101 sq m (1087 sq ft)
Bedrooms	2
Bathrooms	1
BER	F

THAT the ‘Silver Tongue of Munster’ once resided in the cottage they bought in a ruinous state in 2003 was not known to its owners until a bus full of university students showed up, enquiring about “the poet’s house” (teach an fhile, as Gaeilge).

“That’s how we found out. When we were renovating the cottage, some UCC students came down and said a poet had been born there,” the couple say.

The pretty porch at Teach and Fhile

They made further enquiries and locals confirmed that the man who once lived there was, indeed, an Irish poet and scribe called Seán Ó Coileáin,
born in 1754. He had his own Gaelicised take on the British Romantic movement and among his better-known works are Machnamh an Duine Dhoilíosaigh (Contemplations of a Melancholic Man, a lament on viewing the ruins of Timoleague Abbey) and An Buachaill Bawn (Bán). The website durrushistory.com sheds further light on this man of “high poetical character”, consigned to a life of drudgery as village schoolmaster in order to support his wife and large family. It seems he was a rake too, given to drinking, and, when his first wife left him, he formed a new partnership with her sister.

Cosy living

Whatever about the soap-opera lifestyle — or perhaps because of it — he was known throughout the South of Ireland as the Silver Tongue of Munster. His literary achievements have been acknowledged by scholars, and the owners of The Poet’s House have named it in his honour.

 You will find Teach an Fhile, in Cloncorban, Clonakilty, at Bealad Cross Roads.

Teach an Fhile is a fairytale version of how you might imagine a poet’s house to be: a two-storey, traditional stone building with a medieval feel that its owners did enough to make habitable without compromising its winsome originality. 

Reclaimed timber was used to build the basic kitchen, sweet chestnut sourced in Castletownshend was used in roof beams and window sills, stones were repointed, walls painted, and new windows installed. 

The house — where downstairs split-level living is open-plan — was re-roofed too.

 Old French doors open into the porch, new French doors open into the pretty, rambling gardens. 

Reclaimed French doors

Modern French doors to the garden

The couple used direct labour to restore the property — as well as enlisting their children — and the project took a couple of years. But it’s worked well for them ever since as a long-term rental.

On a 0.8-acre site, full of nooks and crannies, with a suntrap patio and rose garden, and lots of native Irish trees planted by the couple, there’s an irresistible charm to the setting. 

It has a host of intriguing features such as a small raised platform used to dry sheaves of corn in bygone days, and the shells of old stone outbuildings — maybe indicative of a famine settlement — now with perhaps potential for further development. 

There’s a view towards Clonakilty, too, since the couple cleared a little pathway through the informal gardens, which includes c 0.5 acres of rewilded land.

Selling the 101 sq m, two-bed home is auctioneer Martin Kelleher and he says the setting for the property is as serene as you will see but not isolated as it shares a laneway with two other homes. 

Moreover, Clonakilty is less than a 15-minute drive away, while it’s just a four-minute spin to Knockskeagh National school and a Co-op shop/hardware store.

Mr Kelleher says early indications are of strong interest from first-time buyers in this storybook home. The guide price for Teach an Fhile is €275,000.

VERDICT: Will appeal to those looking for an idyllic West Cork hideaway and a simpler, back-to-nature lifestyle. A house that has retained its authenticity thanks to a sensitive restoration. A kitchen upgrade is most likely on the cards.