Galway Ireland

Address: Spiddal, Co. Galway

500 metres from the Atlantic at Galway Bay, amidst an ancient landscape, of tiny stonewalled fields and wild bogs is the thatched cottage known to the generations who lived there as An Sean Teach (the old house).

Seven generations of a local family were born here. It was the small home of a Gaelic speaking family, subsistance farmers and fishermen, knitters, turf cutters who lived in special harmony with the wild nature of their place. Within the thick walls of this happy home, riches were counted in song, music and story. The culture of this community at the western edge of Ireland was one of the few places where traditional Gaelic culture survived. Today, that culture is thriving in what is the greatest period in Irelands history. The Sean Teach is still standing today with it’s white-washed walls shining whiter and it’s thatch as tight and cosy as ever before. Today, it is one the finest, restored homes of it kind in existence.