Century-old West Cork farmhouse is hot property

Tommy Barker admires a solid, century-old West Cork farm house which has been updated, and even includes a sauna.

SCANDINAVIANS are known for their hearty hot-and-cold approach to the rigours of their climate: there’s nothing they enjoy as much as running from their saunas to roll in fresh, icy water or snow, and then charge back to the heat of their homes, saunas and/or steam rooms to warm up once more. Then, they do it all again. And again.

Well, when you live that far up north, you pretty much have to make your own winter entertainment. Yet this bodily-bracing stretch from one end of the temperature scale to the other isn’t just confined to the Finns, Swedes and Norwegians.