It’s your call as former pub comes up for sale

AUSTRALIAN Colin Breen went looking for a period-style home when he made the move to Europe/Ireland and more narrowly Co Cork — and you could say he stumbled across a place that many before him had stumbled out of.

The mythically-titled Cuchulainn House, near Innishannon and within easy strike of Cork city, the airport, Bandon and Kinsale, was known as May Nan's for many years, but time was called on its licensed days in the 1960s when it went from public house to private home.

Now, the nearest bar for thirsty travellers back along these quiet country backroads is the Rising Sun (along the back route to Kinsale), and all is peace and serenity at roadside Cuchulainn House at Kilminogue Cross, just off the main Innishannon road.

Even though it is roadside, it's a little used one, and the house is on a site of a third of an acre with mature hillside gardens, which include a sturdy pine deck, pond (with koi fish) and waterfall, the latter adorned by a sculpture piece done by an Australian artist friend of the owner's, Brenda Anshaw, who stayed here while preparing for a London exhibition last year.

The same artist also fashioned the highly distinctive and unusual porcelain fire surround in the family room, a frieze of female nudes framing the cast iron fireplace. It adds a new meaning to the expression 'chimney breast' and must make sweeping the chimney quite a surreal experience too.

"It's not everyone's taste for sure, and that's why it isn't specifically included in the sale, but if a buyer likes it we can talk about it," says Colin.

Elsewhere about the house, the traditional look dominates, with an inglenook fireplace in the central lounge, with a cast iron solid fuel stove kept company by a retained old fire bellows to the right.

This room, with one of the house's two fireplaces tucked into its corner, has exposed wood beams, laminate wood floor and a stone-flagged hearth, and is very much the heart of the single-room wide long home.

Cuchulainn House has over 1,900 sq ft of space, and comes with four first floor bedrooms, one with a wall of built-in wood wardrobes.

Already under active viewing with Ann O'Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald, the place has a modest-seeming 335,000, modest given the difficulty of getting new one-off housing in this sought after rural area so close to Cork city.

Colin's input into Cuchulainn House during his tenure here includes upgraded bathrooms (two), the deck and pond area, a decorative overhaul and a new kitchen.

Units are in elm, with a Belfast sink, range gas cooker (although the heating is oil) and Colin's friend Brenda hand made the chunky tiles bull-nosed tiles for the worktops.

The property has porch, hall, utility, kitchen/dining, large lounge, family room, garage, four bedrooms, bathroom and shower room, while the gardens include an old stone outbuilding and roses and rhododendrons.