Charming three-bed Lake House is cream of the crop

THE creamery is long-gone, but the real remaining cream at Ballinlough is the lake – and right next to it is Lake House.

Up for sale in this west Cork setting just a couple of miles inland of Leap, Union Hall and Glandore harbour is this traditional house, which was for many years the home of the local creamery manager.

The creamery itself ‘went west’ back in the 1990s, with its large building and site lying idle since, and although bought by a duo for development, nothing has come of it yet. The creamery manager’s house subsequently changed hands, though, has been carefully minded and has lots of charm, all on a three-quarter acre site, and now is offered for sale again, ideal as country-bolt-hole or holiday home, with the adjoining lake a bit of a bonus. Estate agent Ray O’Neill of Sherry FitzGerald seeks offers around €195,000 for the three-bed property mix -and reassures that yes, even in the recent deluge and floods, the place stayed unaffected by any change in lake levels.

Ballinlough lake itself has been under the remit of the South Western Regional Fisheries Board, and used be stocked with brown trout by a local angling club and joins the likes of Sheperton Lake and Corran Lake as popular local fishing spots.

Ballinlough lake is even big enough for a small boat, dinghy, windsurfer or kayaking, and the joy here is that it all be can be done from a gap in the garden hedge. The single-storey house, with double-hipped roof has two reception rooms, kitchen, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with pvc double glazing, while outside the three-quarter acre site is mature, with a garage.

A downside for some will be the fact it is accessed via the currently disused creamery yard with a right of way at either end, but once inside the residential and lake side end, all is private and removed from it.