Tasty Ballymaloe holiday homes up for grabs

YOU mightn’t have to cook the books to see a tax advantage in an East Cork holiday home development — it plans to make the adjoining Ballymaloe Cookery School a source of rental income.

A €10 million scheme of 32 holiday homes is being built in what was part of the grounds of the world-famous cookery school. Developers Rick Fitzgerald and Owen Little of Orchard Partnership/Oran Properties acquired six acres of land from the Allen family/dynasty over a year ago for around €1.5 million.

Ballymaloe House, now 40 years in business, is a couple of miles away, while the period family home of Tim and Darina Allen, Kinoith, is near to the cookery school, which attracts student from around the world for its up-market residential courses. Students at the courses, some of which go on for several months, are among the anticipated users of these 32 houses.