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COOTEHALL

CO. ROSCOMMON · IE

Cootehall
Cúil an tSáile, Co. Roscommon

The Ireland's Hidden Heartlands
STOP 07 / 07

Cúil an tSáile · Co. Roscommon

The village where John McGahern grew up, scattered around a triangular field on a quiet bend of the Boyle.

Cootehall is a small village on the River Boyle in the north of County Roscommon, set between Boyle and Carrick-on-Shannon and a few miles short of Lough Key. It was a hamlet for most of its history and is still small - 184 people at the 2016 census - but a clutch of houses went up during the property boom of the 2000s, arranged around the well-kept central triangle that the village has always been built on. Electricity did not reach the place until 1956.

The reason most people who come here have heard the name is John McGahern. His father Frank was the Garda sergeant, and the family lived in the barracks from 1937. McGahern set his first novel The Barracks in that building and returned to the village again and again in his writing, most directly in the Memoir of 2004. He described Cootehall as scattered randomly about a big triangular field - a church, a post office, the barracks, a presbytery, two shops, three bars and a few houses, no two of them adjoining, as if they had been dropped there on separate breezes. Read him before you come and the village rearranges itself in front of you.

The name is older than McGahern and older than English. The place was Urtaheera, or O'Mulloy's Hall, the seat of William, the Great O'Mulloy, until the war of 1641 brought it into the hands of the Coote family - Chidley Coote, nephew of the first Earl of Mountrath - and the new owners gave it the name it still carries. The blind harper Turlough O'Carolan, who travelled this whole stretch of the Boyle and the Shannon, is said to have stopped at the Coote house and composed tunes for the family.

It is river country. The Boyle is part of the Shannon navigation here, and the small marina fills with cruisers in summer working their way between Carrick-on-Shannon and Lough Key. Otherwise the village goes about its own quiet business. There is one pub, one museum, a bridge, and a bend in the river that McGahern spent a lifetime describing better than anyone else will.

Population

184 (2016 census)

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Renamed by the Coote family c. 1641; Garda barracks built c. 1840

Coords

53°59'04"N 8°09'30"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 writer

John McGahern's barracks, now a small museum.

The Garda station where Sergeant Frank McGahern raised his family from 1937 is the building behind the novel The Barracks and the Memoir. It is open as a community museum, but you have to book ahead - this is not a turn-up-and-walk-in kind of place.

Stories & lore → 02 The river

A 50-berth marina on the Boyle, between Lough Key and the Shannon.

The Boyle runs through Cootehall connecting Lough Key to the west with the Shannon system to the east. Boaters cruising up from Carrick-on-Shannon stop here. Oakport Lough beside the village is known to coarse anglers for its bream.

On the water → 03 The size of it

Under 200 people, one pub, one museum, a bridge.

A hamlet until the housing went up in the 2000s. Electricity only arrived in 1956. Do not come expecting a town - come for the river, the quiet, and the McGahern pilgrimage if that is your reason.

The pub →

02 / 07

The pubs.

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

M.J. Henry's

The village pub, full stop

Traditional family-run bar, beside the river

A traditional, family-run bar on the banks of the Boyle, popular with locals and a favourite of the boating crowd coming off the Shannon in summer. This is the pub in Cootehall - McGahern's village had three bars in his day, and the one that is left does the job for all of them. Pint, conversation, the river outside the window.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

John McGahern, 1934-2006

The Barracks

Sergeant Frank McGahern took charge of the Cootehall Garda station around 1937 and ran it with three gardaí under him until 1958. His son John lived there from boyhood, especially after his mother died in 1944, and made the building one of the best-known houses in Irish writing. The Barracks, his first novel, came out in 1963; the Memoir, in 2004, returns to the same rooms and the same village as fact rather than fiction. The station closed as a Garda post in 2012, and the Office of Public Works handed the keys to the community the following year. It now runs as the John McGahern Barracks, a small museum and reading room - but you must book ahead, ideally a couple of days out. It is a volunteer operation, not a staffed attraction.

1641 and the renaming

O'Mulloy's Hall becomes Cootehall

Before it was Cootehall it was Urtaheera, or O'Mulloy's Hall, held by William O'Mulloy - the Great O'Mulloy - at the start of the 17th century. The war of 1641 took it from him and gave it to Chidley Coote, nephew of the first Earl of Mountrath, and the village has carried the Coote name ever since. The Cootes built a house here that surveyors later rated the finest piece of English colonial architecture in the north of the county. It passed to Maurice O'Connor around 1725, then into the Kilronan Castle estate of the Tenison family in the 19th century. Renaming is how conquest signs its work; the family is long gone and the name is what stayed.

A president nearby, a minister born here

Two from the parish

Cootehall is small but it has put names into the national record beyond McGahern. Seán Doherty, the Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for Justice whose 1992 revelations helped bring down a Taoiseach, was born and raised in the village. And former President of Ireland Mary McAleese has a home close by. For a place of under 200 people, that is a fair share of the country's story passing through.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The bridge and the marina There is no waymarked loop in the village itself - this is a wander, not a hike. Walk down to Cootehall bridge and the 50-berth marina, watch the cruisers come and go, and read the Boyle the way McGahern read it. The Garda barracks sits on the river beside the old arched entrance to the Oakport estate. Combine it with a booked visit to the McGahern museum and you have your morning.

Short riverside strolldistance

20-30 minutestime

Oakport Lough angling Oakport Lough sits right beside Cootehall and is well known to coarse anglers - bream to around 5 lb, plus roach, rudd and hybrids, fishing into about ten feet of water. Not a walking route as such, but the reason a lot of visitors come. Bring your own gear or ask in Henry's.

Lakeside, by the villagedistance

A morningtime

Lough Key Forest Park Roughly ten minutes north toward Boyle. The proper walking is here, not in Cootehall: waymarked woodland trails, a tree-canopy walk, bike hire, boat tours and the ruins on the islands. If you want a day on foot, drive the short distance to Lough Key and save the village for the evening.

Various waymarked trailsdistance

Half a daytime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Boyle wakes up, the angling season builds, and the village is quiet before the summer boats arrive. A good time for the McGahern pilgrimage with the place to yourself.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The marina fills, the cruisers come up from Carrick-on-Shannon, and Henry's has the boating crowd in. The liveliest the village gets, which is still not very lively. Lough Key on the doorstep for the longer days.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The boats thin out and the river country turns. Fishing is still on. Probably the most McGahern-like season to read the place in - low light, empty roads, the Boyle going about its work.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Very quiet, short days, and the museum is a book-ahead volunteer operation so do not assume anything is open. Confirm before you drive out. The pub and the river do not close, but little else is guaranteed.

◐ 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.

Turning up at the barracks unannounced

The John McGahern Barracks is a community museum run by volunteers, not a staffed visitor centre. It needs advance booking - allow a couple of days notice. Drive out without contacting them first and you will likely find a locked door.

Expecting a town

Cootehall has under 200 people, one pub and a bridge. That is not a complaint, it is the point - but if you want shops, restaurants and a choice of beds, base yourself in Boyle or Carrick-on-Shannon and visit Cootehall for the morning.

Coming with no McGahern read

The village is genuinely lovely on the river, but its pull is literary. If you have never read The Barracks or the Memoir, half of what makes Cootehall worth the detour will pass you by. Read first, then come.

Getting there.

By car

Cootehall lies about 4 km off the N4 Dublin to Sligo road, signposted between the R284 and R285. Boyle is roughly 10 km northwest; Carrick-on-Shannon is about 15 km southeast. Lough Key Forest Park is around 10 minutes away toward Boyle.

By bus

No mainline bus serves the village. TFI Local Link route RR31A runs a limited service (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) linking Cootehall with Boyle, Knockvicar and Lough Key Forest Park. For most visitors a car is the practical option.

By train

The nearest station is Carrick-on-Shannon, about 15 km away, on the Dublin Connolly to Sligo InterCity line - services roughly every two hours. There is no public transport link straight from the station to Cootehall, so you will need a taxi or lift for the last stretch.