A walk-in retirement dream

YOU forget how gorgeous Ballingeary is – the Derrynasaggarts rear up behind it and in the foreground there are swaying rushes and glimpses of black water between bright green drumlins.

This is Cork’s Lake District and a couple of minutes north-east from the village is Bawnaneel, where a small holding in the fastness of this Gaeltacht area has been colonised by the English.

Well, two anyway, a couple of downsizers who have toiled long and hard to make a paradise of this neglected farm on the side of a hill.

Chris and Pauline Daniels came over in the ’80s on a whim, found the house and lived in a caravan while restoring it completely.

Now, it’s a neat, cosy home with enough room left over for the family and other visitors, but mostly, it’s sufficient for two.

Not that they spend much time indoors: a quick look at the garden tells you this is where the work goes on – there’s a polytunnel, greenhouse, vegetable beds, fruit bushes and trees, bee hives, a fish pond, pleasure gardens, lawn, new woodland and a coniferous planting that was supposed to bring in a few bob in Christmas tree sales.

They’s tried it all: Chris and Pauline have run sheep, raised chickens, grown vegetables all year round and have killed, cured and preserved.

“It got to the stage where everything on our plate was home-produced – and it was a very smug feeling, wasn’t it?” Chris says to Pauline “now it’s down to the veg.”

And what vegetables – the drills of potatoes are soldier-smart with two varieties to see the couple through until next spring.

There are double beds of onions, followed by carrots and peas and cabbages. There are no hoity-toity veg here, just the sensible stuff, like broccoli and then, rows of gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants.

The cold greenhouse has an espaliered nectarine, a lemon tree heavy with fruit, and a datura which blooms in summer. Inside too are early strawberries, delicate flowering plants and more seed trays ready to go out when hardy.

The old farmhouse faces full south across the valley and its main doorway is wreathed in wisteria, at the side, a flight of steps lead to the guest bedroom.

Inside, it has a fitted ash kitchen with Stanley, an impressive marble fireplace in the parlour and a bright white inglenook in the dining room. This has a working crane in the stone hearth and is surrounded by cast iron pots and frying pans.

Chris and Pauline are selling up to buy a barge – they’re planning to tour the canals back home and that’s why the house and three acres of land is up for sale.

It’s on the market with Tom Heffernan of Sherry FitzGerald Hinchion for offers in the region of €375,000.

And if you want a walk-in retirement dream – this is it.