House of the Week: A slice of West Cork for €400,000

This five-bed property has operated over the years both as a family home and a rental property

Baltimore, West Cork
€400,000
Size	252 sq m (2,700 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	C3

A simple Margherita or artisanal meats and cheeses? Thin and crispy or deep pan? Whatever your preference, there’s no denying an outdoor pizza oven adds to the already pleasurable experience of eating the world’s most irresistible Italian dish.

With this in mind, is there a case for claiming that an outdoor pizza oven could increase the value of a piece of real estate?

Even if you disagree, there’s no denying it’s a nice bonus, particularly if the house it serves is in an uber-fashionable holiday destination such as Baltimore, which recently made its way into luxury lifestyle and travel magazine, Condé Nast, for inclusion in its list of the dozen Most beautiful Villages and Small Towns In Ireland.

Baltimore’s only local competition was Kinsale (the remaining 10 towns were outside of Cork), but then it’s used to competing with Kinsale for accolades, notably in the culinary arena.

In fact of only four Michelin Star restaurants nationally, Kinsale and Baltimore have one apiece, Bastion in the former, and the eponymously-named Dede (after its Turkish-born head chef) in the latter. Ahmet Dede previously won a Michelin Star for his now closed Baltimore restaurant, Mews, but bagged a second in January for Dede, at Baltimore’s Customs House, which opened in July 2020, is owned and run by Maria Archer. Nearby too is top pizzeria/grill, La Jolie Brise.

With such culinary delights on your doorstep, is an outdoor pizza oven really necessary? Hell yes, because what better way to while away a summer’s night than sitting on the outdoor deck at Ballymacrown House in Baltimore, dishing up pizzas for family and friends, while watching the sun go down?

The good news is Ballymacrown House is for sale with Seán Carmody of Charles McCarthy Estate Agents and he is guiding at €400,000. A detached five-bedroom property, with a corresponding number of bathrooms, it has operated over the years both as a family home and a rental property.

The location is stellar, close to Lough Hyne, a seawater lake and Ireland’s first Marine Nature Reserve, ideal for swimming, snorkelling and kayaking and home to a fantastically diverse collection of plant and animal life. Then of course there’s Baltimore itself, just 1.5 kms away, where a bustling seafront (less bustling in times of pandemic) boasts a variety of hostelries and eateries, many of them shuttered at the moment, due to the pandemic.

From Baltimore’s pier, it’s a short ferry ride to beautiful Cape Clear and Sherkin Island - the options are endless in this gorgeous part of the world.

Given the myriad of local attractions, Ballymacrown House, a stone-built residence, could do well as a B&B; its bedrooms are all en suite, it has a good-size kitchen with two stoves (Stanley range and ESSE stove) a living room, a sunroom with wood pellet stove, a utility and separate laundry room. One of the five bedrooms is downstairs, with direct access to a bathroom. The remaining four bedrooms are upstairs.

As Mr Carmody points out, this 1997 build measuring 2,700 sq ft was completed to a high standard and could operate as a permanent residence or as a guest house.

There’s also scope to make something more of the detached garage, he says.

The house is on good grounds, 0.5 of an acre, set back from the road, with lawn, terracing and decking, and of course - that pizza oven.

While auctioneers are unable to conduct physical viewings at present due to Covid-19 restrictions, Mr Carmody expects good interest in Ballymacrown House coming into the summer months.

“West Cork is very popular and there is a real interest in property here at the moment. People are being far more definite about their desire to move down here,” he says.

Skibbereen market town is a 15-minute drive away and Cork Airport is just over an hour away.

VERDICT: Four Star? With a pizza oven on the side.