Charming cottage in Ballymakeera, Co Cork, renovated by imaginative owner
The timber barns around it look a bit like ones used for storing hay and wintering animals in the pioneering tales of Laura Ingalls Wilder, while the cottage, set amidst mature trees at Rath East, might instead qualify it as a Little House in the Big Woods, the title of the first book in the writer’s series.
Located two miles from Ballymakeera on the Reinaree Road, this roadside cottage has been renovated, extended and turned into a quirky and original home by an imaginative owner who is quite clearly skilled in both carpentry and stone masonry.
The old-world interior of the 1,040 sq ft cottage has traditional latched doors, rough plastered walls, timber paneling and flooring and roof beams.
In fact, the 21st century isn’t hugely in evidence and if were not for the presence of central heating radiators and some appliances and furniture it might be mistaken for a property at an earlier time.
Accommodation in the cottage includes two sitting rooms, including one with a wood burning stove and one with a fireplace as well as a small utility area and a kitchen dining room with an old style dresser.
Upstairs there’s a bathroom with a cast iron bath and two bedrooms with timber paneled ceiling. The cottage has timber single glazed windows, oil fired central heating and an E2 energy rating.
The owner who bought the property in the 1990s has built an open, lofted barn with a slate roof at a distance from the cottage.
He also worked on converting and extending an old stone outhouse.
Adding a barn-style timber extension with a slate roof he plumbed and wired it, putting in a small kitchen and a ladder stairs.
Inside some of the stone walls are exposed, some are roughly plastered while the floor and the ceilings are timber panelled. Although the major share of the work is done, the conversion needs finishing and a bathroom.
Surrounded by mature trees, the cottage is on a site of over an acre and a half. There’s an area of paddock behind the house and across the road adjacent to a river there are two separate fields.
Guiding at €195,000 the house is on the market with Sherry FitzGerald Hinchion in Macroom.
They say the property‘s traditional charm and scenic rural location may appeal to an overseas buyer in search of a rustic Irish cottage.
: Almost a step back in time.
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