A taste of earthy grandeur

Rose Martin is impressed by a stylish old farmhouse in West Cork

SET on the edge of a smuggler's cove, Roaring Water House, between Ballydehob and Skibbereen, is thought to date back to the late 1700s, but has recently been given a 21st century makeover.

Now on the market with Martin Swanton of Ballydehob, the property carries a guide price of €1.3 million, which will hardly raise an eyebrow in a locality where monopoly money is paid for pre-famine holdings.