Starter home: Ardmore, Waterford €100,000

Sqm 75 (802 sq ft)

OOD place to hide out from Oliver Cromwell — that was the Lincoln family’s reckoning when they fled Waterford City in 1650 to Grange, on the Cork county boundary near Ardmore.

Lincolns had been Lords Mayor of the city, and while the wealthier ones fled by ship, the less-well-off family members went by road, to tiny Grange in West Waterford, and have maintained links there since the two Cromwellian Waterford sieges.

In 1850, a John Lincoln built Lios an Uisce, a thatched farmhouse and stone buildings that are only now set to leave family hands, being sold by his great great-grandson, Richard Lincoln, who lives a few miles away in seaside Ardmore.

It is now being offered minus the acres of land its occupants once farmed, and with 1.5 acres included in the offer, it is priced at €100,000 via agent Eamonn Spratt, of REA Spratt, in Dungarvan.

Utterly traditional, and well-cared-for, it has old whitewashed outbuildings and views from its high-up setting over the sea, scanning from Mine Head to Youghal harbour. Beaches, such as Whiting Bay, are nearby.

The main house is thatched, with half-door entrance and a fire bellows (though the inglenook fireplace now houses a more efficient wood-burning stove) and rooms include a main living room with high ceiling, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms, one en suite.

VERDICT: Slice of history