If there was a housing Olympics, Skibbereen would have another winner
Abbey Farmhouse Skibbereen
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Skibbereen, West Cork |
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€845,000 |
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Size |
227 sq m (2,500 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
4 |
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Bathrooms |
4 |
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BER |
D2 |
DESPITE a career with an international flavour that involved successfully placing thousands of nurses in hospitals across the globe, Kate Cowhig was a home bird at heart, who harboured a dream of living in an old farmhouse somewhere in West Cork.
She realised her dream in the late 1990s when Abbey Farmhouse came up for sale, a mile outside what is now the Olympic powerhouse of Skibbereen.
“I’m from West Cork myself, near Kilbrittain. Having grown up on a farm, I didn’t want a modern home, so when we saw Abbey Farmhouse, I fell in love,” Kate says.
Never one to shirk a challenge - she set up Kate Cowhig International Healthcare Recruitment after returning home from overseas work as a nurse in the job-depressed late ‘80s - Kate rolled up her sleeves and got going, not just on the house, but on the 2.76 acres of land that came with it.
Over the years this involved enhancing the physical dimensions of the farmhouse, adding a new "wing" to house a gorgeous summer room with double height vaulted beamed ceiling and stunning views.
It also involved much physical exertion outdoors, including the creation of a small lake, building upon a pre-existing turlough, even creating a small island, reached via a bridge which Kate also helped build.
Still thirsty for manual work, she helped build a gazebo on the island, cutting out the roof tiles. “If I had my life again, I’d be a tiler”, she says.
She could equally have been a gardener, as she does all of the gardening, growing potatoes and carrots and celery and adding a greenhouse to what used to be the henhouse, and planting roses and willow trees and 300-400 hardwoods, proving her talent for successful placement was not just confined to her recruitment company, which was acquired by the CPL Group in 2007.
Having “traipsed around the globe” from Iraq to America during her nursing career, and, at a later date, as a recruiter fulfilling major contracts with the HSE and NHS, bringing staff from countries such as India and the Philippines, Kate now operates as a healthcare consultant, working from home during lockdown, where she has “fantastic wifi”, she says.
In between time, when her sleeves aren’t rolled up, stuck in some garden project, she takes time to appreciate the natural world, as her pond is a magnet for ducks and moorhens and dragonflies, while the trees she planted are alive with birdsong.
The grounds are laid out in lawn, formal gardens, vegetable garden and a greenhouse, which, like the gazebo, has the benefit of its own electricity supply. There’s also a large and sheltered courtyard patio area, recently refurbished in Yorkstone, just off the summer room, which opens onto it via patio doors, facing a lovely wisteria wall.
“The whole aspect is facing south/south-west, so it’s getting the sun all day. Only one window in the house faces north,” Kate says.
While she and her husband have done much to the house, previous owners had already extended what was once a two up/two down traditional farmhouse, to incorporate a cowshed and a piggery. The upshot is a home with a quirkily attractive interior.
“It’s full of little snugs and rooms, like an Aladdin’s Cave, you’re never quite sure what you will come across next,” Kate says.
For sure there are many pleasant surprises in this 227 sq m period farmhouse on Glencurragh Road, from the modern 'cosy cottage' kitchen cum dining room installed in 2014, to the entrance hallway with vaulted ceiling that acts as a bridge between the old and the new.
Then there’s the snug sitting room with open fireplace, a TV room, a gorgeous study/home office with ensuite (could be a bedroom), as well as a bedroom suite on the first floor.
Two more bedrooms and a sizable family bathroom occupy the main house second floor. Additional downstairs accommodation includes a guest WC and a utility/pantry.
Outdoors, original outbuildings and a barn (combined space of approx 166 sq m) have been renovated and offer great storage space, Kate says. They could suit those interested in keeping a couple of ponies. There's also space to canter around the lake.
The property overlooks the Ilen Valley, where the River Ilen has helped produced several Olympic rowers.
It’s also close to a string of coastal villages, such as Glandore, Union Hall and Baltimore.
With Kate and her husband preparing to downsize locally, having invested heavily timewise and moneywise - including re-roofing, re-wiring and re-plumbing Abbey Farmhouse- selling agent Olivia Hanafin of Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill is guiding the property at €845,000.
At the high end of the market, Ms Hanafin describes it as a “high quality, carefully crafted home, with an amount of money spent on it over the years”.
There’s high demand currently for this type of property (carefully restored farmhouses) she says - and she cites the example of Old Cottage, near Skibbereen, which featured here recently and sold substantially above the €325,000 asking price.
She anticipates a UK buyer for Abbey Farmhouse, as a permanent home, with the option of working from home, in this tranquil oasis within rowing distance of Skibbereen.
: Gorgeous rural idyll with unique features.
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