Seeogue, Moate, Co. Westmeath

Kearney Auctioneers are delighted to bring one of the Midlands most iconic and charming cottages on c.0.5 acres to the market. Known locally as Conlon's Cottage and familiar to many not only for its prominent position on the old Dublin Galway road but for the elegant peacocks often found spanning their wings to the delight of many American Tourists who stopped their bus for photographs with Tom and Pat. The Conlon brothers spent their long lifetime working the land and tending to their much loved home.
This traditional Irish Cottage is centrally located just a minute from Exit 7 off the M6 Motorway, 4km west of Moate and 12km east of Athlone. Dublin Airport and Galway City are approximately 1 hour away.
The cottage is based on a simple rectangular plan, the walls were built with local stone pieced together in interlocking fashion, then covered with a mud plaster before being white washed.
The cottage retains many of its original features, its only advancement into the twentieth century was the insertion of a Stanley 8 range in the kitchen and a tiled fireplace in the parlour.
Accommodation includes a kitchen, bedroom and parlour. All rooms have double aspect.
Irish thatched cottages boasted few windows. This helped limit heat loss in winter and kept the interior of the cottages cool in the summer months.
However, one of the main reasons for this limited number of windows was the infamous "window tax" imposed by the British government from 1799 to 1851.
This ludicrous tax was imposed on any homeowner whose house had more than six openings. This penalty came to be called the "typhus tax" because of the increased incidence of respiratory problems related to poor air quality in these thatched cottages.