Yachtsman’s dream home

Rose Martin travels a back road to discover an impressive residence, combining an apartment and a one-bedroomed house.

IT’S slurry-spreading time down West, so quaint houses in quiet back roads should be approached with caution, or at least the required 40 km per hour limit.

And, on a road that runs all the way to Roaringwater Bay, you can meet a number of tractors to-ing and fro-ing.

Down almost to the water’s edge is an unusual property that’s newly up for sale at Ardralla.

This townland is just a couple of miles outside Skibbereen on the Schull road.

The property for sale with Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill is a combination of old farmhouse and cowsheds now converted into a main residence, an apartment and a one-bedroomed house.

And the lot are on offer with Caroline Maslin of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill for around €675,000 including a large site with water frontage onto the Ilen estuary.

In fact, it’s the water frontage which will sell this property and hold up its value, and it’s also the reason the vendors came upon the house in the first place.

They saw it from the sea, bought it and spent the last number of years converting the buildings.

It’s really quaint inside and very homely, with those arty touches that lift the house and garden above the predictable.

The grounds in early spring probably don’t do proper justice to the property: most of the beds are in herbaceous perennials whose full majesty is a high summer display. But there’s a lovely, leafy entrance way and an acre of lawn and beds which run down the estuary.

Here and there are some live, woven willow arbours with artistic flourishes and striking wire sculptures that could also have the practical effect of supporting climbers.

Closer to the water’s edge, there’s a large boathouse and a hand-built mooring that looks like it came off the set of Waterworld; however, it works and gives credence to the ‘yachtsman’s dream’ boast of the brochure.

And for those who don’t go to sea in boats, there’s all that paddling to be done and plenty of privacy.

With three distinct units, the house could also be viewed as a good investment - average rental rates in West Cork are strong in high season and demand is high.

Here you get the two to three-bedroomed house, (one room is currently used as a study), which comes with a south-facing living and dining room. The look is close to the vernacular except that all modern comforts are thrown in, including an en suite bedroom on the ground floor. The original part of the house has two, sloped and beamed bedrooms that look directly over the water.

Then to the side, and separated from the house by a bamboo door is a little one-bed apartment with a deck that turns into a bridge over stream that runs to the side of the house and brings you round to the front entrance.

The old cowshed forms part of a gravelled courtyard and this has a clever porch entrance in wooden sheeting. Inside, there’s a snug sitting room, an office/bedroom, a kitchenette and shower room.