POSTED FROM

KILTYCLOGHER

CO. LEITRIM · IE

Kiltyclogher
Coillte Clochair, Co. Leitrim

The Northwest Leitrim
STOP 07 / 07

Coillte Clochair · Co. Leitrim

A remote upland village on the Fermanagh border, birthplace of Sean Mac Diarmada - the only 1916 signatory whose home cottage still stands.

Kiltyclogher is a tiny upland village in the far north of Leitrim, pressed up against the Fermanagh border. The Irish name, Coillte Clochair, means the stony woods, which is the honest description. The electoral division held around 233 people at the last full count, down from 254 before that, and the village itself is a square, a statue, a couple of pubs and the road out. In 1925 it had 38 houses and seven of them were licensed to sell drink. Make of that what you will.

You come here for one man. Sean Mac Diarmada was born nearby in 1883 and grew up in a three-roomed thatched cottage above Upper Lough MacNean. He became the organiser at the centre of the 1916 Easter Rising, the second name on the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and was executed in Kilmainham at thirty-three. His cottage is the only original homeplace of any of the seven signatories still standing, kept in its old condition by the Office of Public Works. A stone statue of him - slight, country, a sad set to the face - stands in the village square inscribed with his last written words.

There is not much to consume here, and that is the truth of the place rather than a complaint. Two pubs, the Cosy Corner and McGowan's, a heritage centre that tells the Mac Diarmada story, and the community-run Holiday Centre that the village built to keep itself alive. The American ambassador Jean Kennedy-Smith opened it in 1996. Every summer the Sean Mac Diarmada Summer School brings politicians and historians up the back roads for a weekend of talks. The rest of the year it is quiet in the way only a border upland can be.

Population

~233 (electoral division, 2011)

Pubs

2and counting

Coords

54.3564° N, 8.0378° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The signatory

Sean Mac Diarmada's cottage, the last one standing.

Of the seven men who signed the 1916 Proclamation, only one homeplace survives in its original condition. It is a three-roomed thatched cottage above Upper Lough MacNean, a National Monument minded by the OPW. A statue of him stands in the village square below.

Stories & lore → 02 The border

Coillte Clochair, the stony woods, hard against Fermanagh.

The R281 runs through and the county line is a field or two away. Upland country, 76 metres up, the Black Pig's Dyke earthworks to the west and a 4,000-year-old court tomb out the Glenfarne road. This is honest-scarcity country and it does not pretend otherwise.

Walks & outings →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Cosy Corner

Small, local, proper pints

Village pub

One of the two surviving pubs in the village. A small local bar of the kind that holds a place like this together. There is a coffee-bar side to it as well for the daytime.

McGowan's Bar

Old-school local

Village pub

The other village pub, on the square. A traditional border-village bar. Between the two of them and the Holiday Centre, this is the village's social life.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The last signatory homeplace standing

Sean Mac Diarmada's cottage

Sean Mac Diarmada was born in 1883 and reared in a small thatched cottage in the townland above Upper Lough MacNean, a couple of kilometres from the village. He left to work the trades and the politics, became Sinn Fein's organiser in north Leitrim by 1907, and rose to the inner circle of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He sat on the Military Committee that planned the Easter Rising, signed the Proclamation second after Tom Clarke, and was shot by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol in May 1916. The cottage is the only one of the seven signatories' homes to survive in its original condition - three rooms, thatched outbuildings, rhododendrons grown up around it. It is a designated National Monument, owned and maintained by the OPW, and the view from the door over the lough has not changed much in a century and a half.

Prince Connell's Grave, 2nd millennium BC

Corracloona Court Tomb

Out the Glenfarne road from the village sits the Corracloona court tomb, known locally as Prince Connell's Grave. It is a megalithic monument dating to the second millennium BC, older than anything human in the parish by thousands of years. The chamber and its facade survive in the field. There is no ticket office and no fanfare; you find it, you stand at it, and you work out for yourself how long people have been living and dying on this hard ground.

Gleann na muice duibhe, the ancient frontier

The Black Pig's Dyke

West of the village run the remains of the Black Pig's Dyke - Gleann na muice duibhe, the glen of the black pig - a prehistoric linear earthwork that once marked a frontier between the old provinces of Ulster and Connacht. Archaeologists read it as a defensive line, thrown up against invasion or cattle-raiding. The folklore says a magical black pig rooted it out of the ground. Either way, the border instinct that the modern frontier expresses is far older than any modern map.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Sean Mac Diarmada's cottage approach From the village, follow the signs to the homestead a couple of kilometres out. The setting above Upper Lough MacNean is the point - quiet upland, the lough below, the cottage as it was. Check OPW opening before you rely on getting inside; the exterior and the view are there regardless.

short, signposteddistance

30-45 minutes with the cottagetime

Corracloona Court Tomb Out the Glenfarne road. The 4,000-year-old court tomb in its field. Boots after rain. A standalone reason to take the back road rather than the main one.

roadside, shortdistance

20 minutestime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The rhododendrons around the cottage come into colour and the upland greens up. Long quiet days before any visitors arrive.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The best window. Longest days, the cottage and heritage centre at their most likely to be open, and the Sean Mac Diarmada Summer School brings the village to life for a weekend.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Mist on the lough and colour on the hills. The crowds, such as they ever are, have gone. Good light for the cottage.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, cold off the border uplands, and most things shut. The pubs keep going. For the determined only.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting restaurants or a hotel

There are none in the village. Two pubs and a community centre is the offer. For a proper meal or a hotel bed, Manorhamilton is the nearest town. Come to Kiltyclogher for the history and the quiet, not for dining.

Turning up at the cottage without checking

The Mac Diarmada cottage is an OPW National Monument with seasonal and limited opening. The exterior and the lough view are always there, but if you want inside, confirm the hours and the heritage-centre arrangement first.

Getting there.

By car

A car is the realistic way in. The R281 runs through the village. Manorhamilton is about 15 km south; Sligo around an hour west. Back-road country - the borderland lanes are narrow.

By bus

Bus Eireann route 470 serves the village on Fridays and Saturdays only, linking Manorhamilton, Sligo, Rossinver and Glenfarne. Outside those two days there is effectively no public transport.