Natural beauty with a modern edge is easy on the eye (and ears)

Halfway between Ballydehob and Schull, this tastefully adapted home is a haven of tranquility, writes Tommy Barker

The last house down around Ballydehob way that the Irish Examiner visited with estate agent Martin Swanton was snapped up even before we got it into the paper — it went sale agreed to one of the first two viewers, within a week. It was an old farmhouse, done up with contemporary glazed extensions by a Dublin couple with design experience, on five acres with outbuildings, and had been guided at €280,000. As it turns out, its next occupants are also coming from Dublin, the surveys have been done, and it’s one of the quickest sales in a while locally.

Now, on the back of that positivity, Mr Swanton has another Schull/Ballydehob offering with strong visual appeal, but it’s more of a type, with romantic, sympathetic stone extensions and upgrades on the traditional farmhouse theme: the treatments, rather than look, are modern.

This Derryconnell home on a private acre of naturally contoured gardens is halfway between the West Cork pearls of Ballydehob and Schull, about three-quarters of a mile off the main road — and it’s quiet.

“You’d hear the water gurgling in the waterfall and pond by the time you get to the gate, and when you see the house, it makes an immediate strong impression, one that doesn’t let you down at any stage going through the house,” says the selling agent of the tasteful home.

It’s been owned for the past 30 years or so by a US academic couple, who initially holidayed here, and then retired to its glories, working subtle magic on the naturalistic gardens along the way: now, even though the acre’s fairly self-sustaining and maintaining, the owners want to downsize, possibly closer to the village.

Mr Swanton says it has been extended several times, combining old and new but with an old world character. It has a corner brick fireplace and steel flue in the large (17’ by 16’) ground-floor master bedroom, which is high-ceilinged with an over-sized A-shaped gable window, and another efficient, elevated fireplace in the 29’ by 14’ main living room, with exposed painted beams and joists.

One of the defining things about this house is the average room size and character: the lean-to sun room, for example, is 24’ long and nearly 10’ deep, with a slate floor and exposed stone side wall. The kitchen/dining room, meanwhile, is very country style with a pine look and part-painted pine units, with tiled worktops and a slate floor. The staircase to the first floor in this sloped ceiling rooms takes a low twist in this room and is a small visual feature in its own right.

There are three carpeted first-floor bedrooms, with timber-panelled ceilings, and the main bathroom is at ground-floor level with a bespoke tiled and timber-sheeted corner shower unit.

Outside, this pleasing-to-the-eyed home with its mostly-exposed stone walls is surrounded by greenery, has a pond with flagstone paving as a terraced surround, plus patios, and there’s also an attached garage, lofted, with a first-floor room and shower room, which could be upgraded for guest use.

VERDICT: The good life beckons.