Trading up: Macroom, Co Cork

Out in mid-Cork countryside, about 40 minutes from the city near Kilnamartra is this heart-warming five-bed family home — it has a sauna with room enough to accommodate five persons as well.

Location is five or six miles west of Macroom, off the Cork-Killarney road if you turn off by the Mons bar, and auctioneer John O’Mahony of O’Mahony Walsh seeks offers around €290,000 for the two-storey detached house, on good grounds.

He says it’s only a couple of minutes from Kilnamartra village, has got lovely rural views and setting, is very well finished inside with lots of hardwood joinery, and has its good grounds fringed with West Cork stone. It’s set on a sloping site, with an attached double garage, which is plumbed.

Internally, it fits in three reception rooms, the kitchen has an old, countrystyle solid fuel stove with back boiler and oak units, and there’s also a ground floor guest WC, plus utility.

The first floor has a family bathroom, with that wood-panelled five person sauna, along with three bedrooms with one en suite, and the top floor has two further bedrooms, with Velux windows to the rear.

VERDICT: A quiet country setting, 40 minutes from Cork City and less than that from Killarney and Kenmare.