Rossbrin and buy

HOUSES in the west Cork “lifestyle cove” of Rossbrin rarely come up for sale, they get handed down through the generations, and there’s little surprise about that.

If you’ve had an idyllic childhood in a place like this (boating, horse riding, walking, swimming), you’ll want it for your own brood, says estate agent Maeve McCarthy, as she brings a rare Rossbrin house to the market.

Stone House is one of the more subtle new-ish arrivals along the shoreline at scenic Rossbrin, built in the late 1990s in stone and with a natural slate roof.

And, while stone has been a material of choice in the last decade or so in sensitive settings, few examples are quite so low key and, well, just right, as this house on two acres.

A quiet road separates the grounds from the sea, and nearby is a popular yacht marina, so there’s always the comings and goings of boats (out to Horse Island, Cape Clear, or the rest of Carbery’s 100 Isles) to watch at this sheltered inlet, half-way between Schull and Ballydehob, on the lesser used coast road.

The UK-based owner isn’t getting the use out of Stone House that she’d like, and joint selling agents are James Lyons of Keeffe, in Schull, and Charles P McCarthy of Skibbereen have a guide price of €1.45 million on the quality property, with its gardens just professionally re-landscaped.

The builder was local man Vincent Coughlan, who helped ban boring bungalows from the local landscape when he reinterpreted the vernacular building style for a modern era. It is traditional on the outside, save for the full-length windows catching the views to the south-west, along the inlet and out to the 12th century Rossbrin Castle, with exterior steps up one gable wall to a bright studio room at first-floor level.

Inside, all is cooly modern, with the quality of materials paramount.

It has three first-floor bedrooms plus bathroom and study, and downstairs is a small selection of big rooms, mostly one-room deep, with a 31’ by 18’ sitting room, with gable fireplace in stone.

The kitchen has painted units and integrated appliances. The kitchen floor is in black flagstone, while the rest of the floors at ground level are in Irish ash. Paints are soft hues of Farrow & Ball colours, and some of the designer touches include a Phillipe Starck bathroom suite in the guest cloakroom: other plumbing provisions include en suite bathrooms in each of a ground floor and first-floor bedrooms, plus a shower room. Comfort levels are high, with high insulation levels, lots of rads and recessed lighting, and a general relaxed feel.

There’s also Sky TV and wireless broadband.