Renovated ancestral home of Henry Ford in West Cork to open to public

A three-year €20,000 renovation project on the ancestral home of carmaker Henry Ford has been completed and the West Cork cottage is to open to the public next month.

More than 4,000 visitors are expected to view the traditional stone-built, single-storey cottage which is believed to date from the 1700s or earlier, and in which Ford’s grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great grandfather were born.

The four-room dwelling near Ballinascarthy had been in a very poor state — dilapidated, roofless, its walls severely damaged by heavy rain — until Ford descendant and farmer Vivian Buttimer and his family took it in hand a few years ago.