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.

“We re-roofed it, rebuilt the walls, and replaced the doors and windows, including installing a traditional half-door,” said Vivian, who farms 200 acres at what is now officially known as the ‘Ford Farm’ at Crohane, near Ballinascarthy.

“Henry Ford’s grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great grandfather were all born on this farm. The connection goes back to the early 1700s, when the family arrived as tenant farmers in West Cork from Somerset in England.

“They rented 44 acres to begin with. The first settlers were Thomas Ford and his brothers in the 1700s,” said Vivian, adding that over the centuries the farm increased in size to over 200 acres.

Henry Ford’s father John, however, was born not at the farm but at Madame, a village near Ballinascarthy. During the Famine John Ford, then 21, emigrated to the US.

The Ford farmhouse now sports a slate and corrugated iron roof, and will be opened to visitors for the first time at 11am on Sunday, September 13 as part of a charity fundraiser, the Ford Heritage Event, sponsored by Henry Ford & Sons Ltd and organised by the West Cork Vintage Ploughing and Threshing Association.

“This is the first time the Ford family homestead has been opened to the public since we completed the renovations earlier in the summer,” said Vivian, who revealed that in the coming years, the family hopes to furnish the old cottage with traditional furniture from the 1700s and 1800s.

This is the sixth year of Ford Heritage Event, which is held on different farms in the area and typically attracts more than 4,000 spectators. It features old-style ploughing, corn-cutting, silage-cutting, and threshing, with vintage farm machinery dating from the early 1900s. There will also be displays of vintage Ford vehicles and a talk on the life of Henry Ford.

Proceeds will go to West Cork Rapid Response and West Cork Cancer Connect.