Enjoy Dutch style and art in the Muskerry Gaeltacht

Tommy Barker visits a uniquely-converted former hostel in Ballingeary.

NO Bearla? No Dutch? Any Irish? The chance to be Bean a’ Tí, or Fear an Tí, in the comfort and privacy of your very own Gaeltacht home has come up at Tuairin Dubh, in Cork’s Ballingeary.

Tuairin Dubh, or Tuirin Dubh, translates as the black reclaimed grazing land. This distinctive, visually inspired and wholly deceptive from the outside property has been fully reclaimed by its vendor, Dutch artist and woman of many talents, Carla Raadsveld.

A new market arrival, and newly done up in the past six months, this Muskerry Gaeltacht hideaway is a destination in its own right, likely to draw new owners and occupants from almost anywhere.

“The auctioneer, John O’Neill of Celtic Properties, calls it a ‘corporate house,’ says the multi-talented Carla Raadsveld, who came from Holland (population 17 million) via Italy, South Africa and elsewhere to Ireland six years ago seeking more breathing space in which to live and work. Her life skills and abilities clearly go far beyond her formal artistic training in Rotterdam’s Academy of Modern Art.

“Quite a name in Holland,” Carla Raadsveld is a strong art seller from her studio on the Belgian border, where her art (see the paintings in the house photo backgrounds) provides her income. But, she also has flexed her mind and muscle on building design, interiors, furniture design and more.

She’s a mean driving hand with a lorry, having driven a 20ft x 10ft truck back and forth to the Continent for furnishings and materials, she’s also a dab hand with a shovel for gravel, with a hammer for laying a floor, and worked side by side with a West Cork building crew through the latter half of last year to transform this former empty student hostel into a large, homely and comfortable, thoughtfully designed and well-executed house with scope for add-on commercial uses.

Even a brief conversation with this direct-talking woman would leave you feeling breathless and a bit on the indolent side. Carla worked 16 hour days on the Ballingeary project, in advance and after her daily work crew headed up by carpenter Mike Daly from the Goat’s Path near coastal Kilcrohane put in their nine and 10 hour shifts.

“I have lots of nick-names, they call me the Mad Woman and the Mighty Woman — among other things,” she remarks.

As she also bought the house adjoining the hostel from the former Bean a Ti, Eilish O’Leary (who took over the student mothering role from Maire McCarthy), she is now moving onto that next, next-door challenge, hence the sale of the impressive hostel conversion.

Split level and currently flat-roofed, it has full planning permission for a pitched roof with the rear roof pitch merging into a glass wall extension, which would add a further 1,300 sq ft and 350 sq ft roof garden.

As it stands, it has over 2,500 sq ft of interior high quality space, with no fewer than 29 windows making sure it is flooded with light and “every room has a view,” says Carla.

The split-level layout allows for a variety of living/working options, and the lower space is largely converted, and can be readily adapted and finished out for use as a shop, office, work-space, gallery or self-contained apartment.

It has had its bedrooms numbers cut from nine to six, with three bathrooms, and a big kitchen/dining space with hand-made contemporary oak units. There is also under-floor heating with access to a patio-deck. There’s also a very large 24ft x 18ft living space (the original hostel’s dining room) with five windows with views, each over 6ft wide, with original oak parquet flooring, open fireplace, which connects to the dining area with an arch.

The stylish main bedroom is almost 20ft x 10ft, with specially made beech bath surround in the en suite and shower, as does the main bathroom.

Selling agent is the enthusiastic John O’Neill of Celtic Properties in Bantry, who raves about the unique property in such a beautiful, gentle landscape, with Gougane Barra close-by, near Inchigeela and Ballingeary (one and a half miles) and Cork city and airport about a 45 minute drive by car.

He guides the property, on half an acre of grounds, at about €485,000, and the costing given for the roofing changes (there’s no pressing urgency to change it) is put at about 35,000.

Buyers can buy any or all of the furniture in the house and, yes, all the art is for sale too. Buy the hostel and you’ll have the hospitable Carla Raadsveld as a neighbour to look up to.