Fairy Valley in Durrus, West Cork €1.2m
Durrus, West Cork €1.2m
Size: 211 sq m plus 91 sq m
Bedrooms: 3 plus 2
Bathrooms: 4 plus 2
BER: Pending
Private world, land and houses in glorious West Cork
THE name suggests it, and, yes, the winsomely-titled Fairy Valley is indeed a hidden, enchanted place, a sanctuary a short remove from the woes of the world.
This fair Fairy Valley is folded into the contours of West Cork’s hills, near Durrus, within a short strike of Schull, Skibbereen, Ballydehob and Bantry, a place where you will have to take time to tot up the many ‘sums of it parts’ to fully appreciate and value this quintessential peninsula package.
It’s not sited - it’s grounded. It’s primarily a farm, one with 84 acres, of which 50 are in maturing forestry, a mix of oak, ash, larch, alder and pines.
There’s grazing for cattle or, more likely, sheep, and it all comes with views over its folds of sward and ponds, down over magical Dunmanus Bay, out to none other than the Sheep’s Head peninsula.
It all has the utmost privacy, a fairyland fiefdom, a place that is variously an organic farm, retreat for extended family and guests, and, occasionally, counselling centre, too.
After two separate, committed ownerships by two German nationals, each of whom built here in different decades, it’s up for sale, listed at €1.2m by joint selling agents, Maeve McCarthy, of Charles P McCarthy, in Skibbereen, and Michael O’Donovan and Catherine McAuliffe, of Savils, in Cork City and beyond.
There’s not just one, but two superbly-built homes, one at the romantic end of the rustic spectrum: it’s a recently-built two-bed of near 1,000 sq ft, with lofty interiors and a magnificent thatch up top (and extra-high chimneys for safety’s sake) for maximum visual appeal.
It’s a charmer, with cheery-red sun room, detached garage, sylvan-set wood-fired hot-tub, and a back-up bank of white hydrangeas ready for shameless summer blooms.
That thatch is up by the entrance to Fairy Valley’s 84 acres. The other house is more grounded, a stone-built, 1980s three-bed dormer, which utilises the best of materials in a low-key, unobtrusive manner, surrounded by themed gardens and a glazed garden room, from vegetable patch to woodland, to seating bowers, Monet-like lily ponds and Mediterranean terraces with palms and a sheltering olive tree.
Romance beckons in these naturally landscaped and wooded grounds, as exemplified by a cute gypsy-style caravan, hand-built in the UK (see www.shepherd’s-hut.co.uk, for c £10,000 worth of whimsy) for guests and nights glamping out by the stars, set by a tiny stream, amid several barns and outbuildings.
Oh, and there’s also a compost loo that looks like a sentry-box, with chimney-vent, a garden gazebo (another import) with bell-shaped copper roof, and double-glazing, linking to the house and other sections of scenic grounds by way of wending stone and cobbled paths.
The several, large barn buildings are ideal for animals of any size or hue, but also are clean enough and dry enough for private parties.
They’ve hosted 60th birthday parties, weddings, barn dances, and sheepdog agility training, for the fun of it. Of far higher quality is an upgraded garage, that once housed precious cars for a previous owner, but in latter years has been used as a studio, with beamed ceiling, for music, for meditation, for therapy weekends, and a lot more — very bijoux and cosmopolitan West Cork.
This adaptable, airy and multi-purpose suite of rooms (heated by a powerful wood-burning stove) opens to a sheltered patio, sunken vegetable and herb beds, and even a recently built, small, stone folly tower, “because every place needs a ruin,” quips Fairy Valley’s imaginative owner, as well as to a sandy court laid out for playing boules....because West Cork is nothing if not cosmopolitan.
Of course, there’s native wildlife aplenty, animals and birds and finches in droves, who just get the sanctuary nature of this special spot: if there’s a hint of alternative lifestyles (and West Cork runs the gamut), well, it’s of the tranquil sort. If this is opting out, it’s opting out but without doing without.
As Fairy Valley comes to market for its hospitable German owner (she’s going to family and grandchildren in New Zealand, and to more adventure), there’s the chance for any fortunate new owners to be self-sufficient, 90 minutes from Cork City and airport, and the rest of the world.
There are back-up electricity generators, deep wells for water
supply and huge storage tanks. There are organic vegetable and fruit gardens, bracing freshwater ponds to dip into and out of, as much wind as you’d ever want for a windmill, and sheep grazing in the pasture.
There’s an income of almost €10,000 a year in forestry premiums, as well as income to be had from letting any or all of the houses and outbuildings, for holidays or longer-terms. Firewood? Enough for centuries — it grows faster than you could burn — in any of the myriad of stoves dotted throughout this property’s buildings mix.
Not all wood is for burning: the main evening room, in the main, 2,300 sq ft rock-solid house, is a with-drawing space, a 20’ by 16’ embracing room entirely walled in cherry-wood bookshelves, with open fireplace for large logs. For bookworms, this is a womb in wood.
Other rooms include a large central hall with stairs, sun room with patio access, kitchen/dining room with Lacanche French range, and mezzanine office over, with extra heat pumped in via a cast-iron stove, with heat-retaining soapstone inserts.
There’s also storage, pantry, utility etc, and overhead are three bedrooms, two with views, two with en suites, and a main family bathroom. Presentation is quite pristine, with personality and arty quirks.
: Earn your wings at Fairy Valley. Hard to find, harder to leave, it’s a West Cork tonic.
