Eco-friendly lodge at the village where Michael Flatley may call

Rose Martin steps back in time at a thoughtfully restored Regency gem.

TAKE the left turn after Rathcormac in north Cork and you drive into a timeless landscape — a quiet, pastoral haven from the motorways, bypasses and frantic movement of modern Ireland.

The road over the mountains takes you to Ballyhooley, a village dominated by its Norman castle and built around a little crossroads with only a couple of pubs, a shop and a church to tip a cap at local amenities.