Talk to the lenders and become a borrower at Kilcoe

THE Borrowers may be coming back to Kilcoe Rectory, and in more ways than one.

The west Cork period house was formerly home to writer Mary Norton, who has stories and movies like The Borrowers and Bedknobs and Broomsticks to her credit.

The talented writer of classic children’s tales was born in the UK, and lived there as well as in Portugal, the US and west Cork.

She and her second husband Lionel Boncey, also a writer, moved to Ireland in the 1970s, taking advantage of tax concessions offered to writers and artists. Two of her novels were amalgamated in the 1971 Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. However, locals in west Cork recall her saying she’d sold the rights years beforehand for just £300. Coincidentally, the 1971 movie starred actress Angela Lansbury, who has an Irish home, in east Cork.

During her time in Ireland, Mary Norton wrote Are All the Giants Dead? published in 1975, and The Borrowers Avenged, published in 1982. (Her previous Borrowers titles go back to the 1950s.)

The Borrowers movie, adapted from the books about little people who live secret parallel lives to ‘human beans’ and who ‘borrow’ from them, came out in 2005: the last book title sees the borrowers safe and sound in a new home, called the Old Rectory.

Shades of Kilcoe Rectory which was one of several west Cork homes for Mary Norton (she died in the UK in 1992, aged 89 years) and Lionel Boncey and has since changed hands several times.

It is now up for sale for its current owners who are moving abroad, and has a €595,000 asking price via estate agent Charles P McCarthy of Skibbereen, who says it is a real period gem of about 2,000 sq ft, with outbuildings on a site of 1.5 acres.

Location is about three miles from Ballydehob, seven from Skib, and the area has numerous coves and tiny beaches, with actor Jeremy Irons’ restored and colourful castle a local landmark.

Kilcoe Rectory is reached up a grassy, hedge-rowed avenue, grounds are nicely planted and accommodation within the long, low two-storey house includes hall, study, living room and dining room, each with wood-sheeted ceilings, and fireplaces, the kitchen has a solid fuel Stanley stove, and there’s a front and back porch, cloakroom and workshop.

Overhead are three bedrooms, all with wood-sheeted ceilings. There are two en suite bathrooms with baths, and there are two further attic rooms as well.

Overall condition is excellent and “there’s an enchanting ambience,” say the agents. Time to get on to the lenders, and become a borrower.