Get on your bike to sample the great outdoors in Ballyhoura

This three-bed chalet could be the ticket to great outdoor living. Tommy Barker reports

Bike action on the Ballyhoura Trails.

There’s great outdoor living to be had around the Limerick/Tipperary/Cork Ballyhoura heartland — it’s now firmly on the map and GPS coordinates of those into hill-walking, mountain biking, fishing, kayaking, quad biking and horse-riding.

Though not a place you’d pass through on the way to anywhere major, Ballyhoura has become a destination in its own right in the past decade: its 90km of looped forest mountain bike trails are the biggest and best in Ireland, and attract visitors and positive vibes from abroad too.

To tie in with its appeal, several holiday homes schemes have been developed with green and eco-credentials, some as recently as 2009, and others now are about a decade old.

One of the pioneering schemes was the 16 timber-clad chalets built in the Ballyorgan Forest Homes development.

Now, No 10 is new to market with agents DJ Hayes & Co, who guide the three-bed, one en suite dwelling at €88,000. It has a high ceilinged main living space, linked kitchen/dining, and double glazing, with stone-breasted fireplace, and it has electric storage heating.

A new owner might like to upgrade the insulation and run radiators off a wood-burning stove.

VERDICT: If you are into the great outdoors, you’ll never be bored at Ballyhoura.