300-year-old pub to become showroom for Cork eco-build products company

Former owners Alan and Mary Barry at the Ramble Inn, Halfway, Ballinhassig, Cork.

A Cork-based company that sells lime construction products has applied to turn the former Ballinhassig Agricultural and Transport Museum and The Ramble Inn into a wholesale warehouse with offices and sales facilities.

The three-centuries-old former pub and museum at Halfway, Ballyhooleen, Ballinhassig, Co. Cork, was sold for close to of €1m earlier this year.

It was purchased by Novyrelka Limited, a company registered in April 2026, and directed by Richard, Valarie and Harry Good-Stephenson, according to filings with the Companies Registration Office.

Harry Good-Stephenson is also a director of Roundtower Building Products Ltd., which submitted the planning application. He said the Ramble Inn would be the company's new headquarters as they are expanding "big time" in the eco-building trade. 

The company supplies premium lime-based products and natural building materials for conservation and building projects around the world. It is currently based at The Forge, Innishannon, Co. Cork.

Roundtower was set up by Richard Good-Stephenson in 2001 after he restored his family's ancestral home, Cor Castle, during which he decided to produce lime mortars and plasters on site.

Harry said the plan is to restore the former pub "beautifully" and turn it into a showroom for the company, if the development is allowed to proceed.

Architectural drawings by fourem conservation architects submitted to Cork County Council show plans to demolish some of the newer structures on the 0.7-hectare site and construct a single-storey extension to the rear, with office rooms and a large trade counter.

The old pub will have a smooth plaster finish, a slate roof, new timber sash windows with historic details, a timber-panelled entrance door, and a new shopfront with historic details, according to the architect's plans. They will also remove the existing first floor to create a double-height showroom space within the old pub.

Proposed building sections at The Ramble Inn site by Fourem conservation architects.

At the back of the property, behind a new red-clad extension, the company intends to build a wholesale warehouse for its lime and hardware products in the grounds of the former agricultural transport museum.

The largest section of the green-corrugated warehouse will be 2.3 meters higher than the existing pub building but set back several hundred meters from the road.

The application is at pre-validation stage, and the local authority is due to decide on it by the first week of the new year.