Renovated farmhouse on west Cork’s lovely Toe Head

ALREADY extended and renovated, this three-bed farmhouse/holiday home conversion is at Lickowen, on west Cork’s stunning Toe Head.

The 1,200 sq ft two-storey house is an unusual plot size for the area, with 4.5 acres, for a price of €290,000, via Skibbereen agent, Maeve McCarthy, of Charles P McCarthy.

The period cottage has kept its traditional look at the front, with blue windows contrasting with fresh, white paint. Its original ground floor area is just two rooms: to the right, a 14’ by 11’ open sitting room with inglenook fireplace, slate floor and timber stairs; to the left, a smaller, 9’ by 11’ study, with front and two side gable windows, either side of the chimney breast.

Out the back, a more modern feel applies to the long, T-eed extension, home to a kitchen, porch, and a bright, 14’ by 13’ second living room, with sliding patio doors and two more, rear gable windows, again either side of another fireplace, home to a wee pot-bellied stove.

This extension’s glazing is bigger and bolder, with, consequently, brighter space inside, and this back living room has a second stairs leading up to a third, rear bedroom and a bathroom.

The newly added bathroom has two doors, effectively linking the two, original, front, pitch-ceilinged bedrooms with the new one to the back.

This privately-set, Lickowen property looks over hills and coastline at Tralagach beach, out the Coast Road from chic and cheerful Castletownshend. Other, nearby beaches include Sandycove and Tragumna.

This farmhouse is low-set into its rocky, outcrop site, with an adjoining, stone lean-to as a buffer, and the 4.5 acres it comes with is mostly paddock grazing, with some rough, rocky outcrop, and the land slopes easily towards the beach and inlet.

Location is five miles from Skibbereen and three from Castletownshend, with Cork city, ferry and airport less than an hour and a half away.

Glazing at this property is an interesting mix of traditional and modernity, and heating is electric, with storage heaters, but the floors have been piped for central heating.