A fairytale cottage above West Cork's Ilen River for €325,000

This four-room, stone-built cottage near Skibbereen underwent a three-year restoration

Thu, 03 Jun, 2021 - 11:30

Catherine Shanahan

Old Cottage, Skibbereen
€325,000
Size	107 sqm
Bedrooms	2
Bathrooms	2
BER	F

Subliminal messaging was not a consideration when naming this home. It’s an old cottage, hence ‘Old Cottage’.

It was certainly showing its age when bought by the current owners 21 years ago after a friend in Skibbereen alerted them to it. Knowing that they were on the lookout for a home near the coast, she phoned them as soon as a sale, which her solicitor brother was handling, fell through.

“It’s exactly what we were looking for. I got the train down on Saturday, viewed it on Sunday and bought it on Monday. My husband hadn’t even seen it but I knew he’d love it,” the vendor says.

They acquired a diminutive, two-chimney, four-room, stone-built derelict home, on an acre above the Ilen River, with sweeping countryside views, and much work required to render it habitable.

The transformation took about three years - “Every time we went away, so did the builders,” the owner laughs, and in the end, they did a house swap to hurry the work along, exchanging their Tenerife home for the house-hunter friend’s base in Skibbereen.

They restored Old Cottage sensitively to maximise light and ambience, adding a kitchen and little sunroom, drawing on local resources throughout. There’s a conservatory, kitchen/dining room, sitting room, two spacious bedrooms, guest WC, utility and family bathroom.

The sunroom is especially pretty with a huge picture window looking out on the exceptional gardens.

“My husband spent so much time in the garden, we weren’t bothered if daisies and buttercups came up through the lawn, we prefer it wild, organic, no sprays were used for the last six years. It’s like a wildflower meadow,” the owner says.

She believes it will appeal to someone who is eco-friendly (she says herself and her husband are like ‘70-year-old hippies’, she’s a retired ballet teacher, he’s a retired company director and keen sailor). It’s too small for a family, she says, but there is scope to address that, with the possibility of extending outwards on two sides.

There was planning permission for extending, which has lapsed, but the owner believes it could be obtained again. Similarly, a separate little outbuilding, at one time home to an animal, could, she feels, be transformed into a tiny, one-bed house (AirBnB potential?) or a home office (there’s fibre broadband).

“I had plans drawn up by an architect, so it could be developed and it would never intrude on the main house because you can’t see it until you drive past it. We had plans to use it when the kids came to stay, but then the recession hit and we didn’t proceed. But we minded the building and the roof is still on, otherwise you’d never get planning permission,” the owner says.

She is selling with a heavy heart to be closer to grandchildren in the Waterford/Wicklow direction, (“there will be tears when we leave for the final time, it’s been a fairytale”), but they got great use out of the Old Cottage, spending summers there and wintering in Tenerife.

While in Drisheen, they made full use of beaches in nearby Tragumna, while swimming, walking and kayaking at the magnificent Marine Nature Reserve of Lough Hyne, just 6km away. Skibbereen town is 4km away and the cottage is very near the acclaimed Skibbereen Rowing Club, which has produced Olympic medal winners, starting with the O’Donovan brothers.

Selling agent Olivia Hanafin of Sherry FitzGerald O'Neill says the picture-postcard cottage, midway between Skibbereen and Baltimore, is generating “a mountain of interest”.

“It’s not the kind of property that comes to market very often. There’s a huge mix of people interested, from first-time buyers, to people looking for a second home, to retirees.”

VERDICT: No subliminal messaging necessary to sell this product. It’s idyllic.