Trading Up: Ballingurteen, West Cork €195,000

There’s been a really smart, contemporary style makeover done to the home called Carraig Cottage, Ballingurteen, a few miles north (and inland) of Clonakilty.

The once-traditional stone built cottage on an acre was extended up to over 2,200 sq ft, with modern glass and materials touches and finishes, with oil heating, solar panels, broadband, wood-burning stove and a balcony off a rear gabled en suite master bedroom, with hardwood double glazed windows.

It’s now effectively double the depth of the traditional one-room wide cottage form, has front and rear reception rooms (each with fireplaces) with one running into a sun room, smart kitchen with timber-topped painted units and Belfast sink. There’s also an optional ground floor bedroom, utility and guest WC, and a pretty, sheltered porch.

Agents Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill guide the decent-size cottage on an acre at €195,000, and it would be many tens of thousands of euro dearer again if on the far, coastal side of Clonakilty town where a new Lidl has just opened, while almost equidistant is Dunmanway. There’s a local national school within a mile of this Ballingurteen retreat. which is a walk-in job, with both charm and comforts.

VERDICT: Carraig Cottage has roadside appeal from its entrance, and the interior doesn’t disappoint either.