Tuck in: no trouble at Mill House in West Cork for €455,000 with history of corn and tuck mill uses

With plenty of history and heritage, it is no surprise the caretaking  owners of Mill House are reluctant to sell up, writes Tommy Barker 

Charm by the mill wheel bucket load: Mill House at Gearagh, near Clonakilty and Rosscarbery is guided at €455,000 by auctioneer Con O'Neill

Gearagh, Rosscarbery
€455,000
Size	154 sq m (1,650 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	E1

ROOTED in a rural, riverside, and agricultural locale is the utterly charming Mill House, a private West Cork hideaway home where hard-working and mill-stone grinding tradition has held sway through several centuries.

House and barn

The property is located roadside, on a quiet route northwest of Clonakilty town at a spot called Gearagh, near Rossmore. It is close too to the picturesque Argideen Bridge and an old ford on the Argideen River, which meanders at its own leisurely pace, along some 23km from Reenascreena to the sea in Timoleague and Courtmacsherry. A popular trout and salmon river, it bypasses the town of Clonakilty on its way, refusing it seems to have taken a short cut to the ocean.

Back 200 years ago, Gearagh’s Mill House had both corn and tuck mills, turning via a 13ft wheel and buckets, portions of which still survive in its derelict mill remains, and it was one of only a few dozen tuck mills in Cork, used in the woollen industry.

The long and intriguing history has been unearthed by estate agent Con O’Neill of Sherry FitzGerald’s diligent researches and maps sourcing, showing its evolution from 1805 to the present day, including time spent as local post office also.

Barn/outbuilding has been reroofed

The addition of a private house came by the mid-19th century, and notes on the then-owner, a John Hawkins, who leased 140 acres from the Earl of Bandon, detail the tuck mill (which ceased in the mid-1800s), the corn mill, house and he also sublet four other small houses here.

Time has taken its toll on the mill, which remains in a basic outline, whilst the Argideen no longer gets detoured for a millrace: What’s here, though, is a lovely home, which has a lovely barn with greenhouse lean-to, and a lovely natural garden of 0.75 of an acre also.

Interior with exposed beams

Its occupants have been here for about 20 years and are now set to relocate to be close to family in Kerry, and are reluctantly selling, says Con O’Neill, who prices their clearly, much-loved home here at €455,000.

He says the stone-built and slate-roofed home with c 1,600 sq ft in all has been renovated “into a home full of both character and comfort,” with due respect for older features, blending old and new.

No half measure: why aren't there more half doors?

Beyond its winsome half-door porch entrance (Why aren’t there more half doors made now, given advance in technology to render them draught proof?) it’s got a wide inglenook fireplace in the main living room, a small fireplace in a gable-end study (or optional fourth bedroom), stout hardwood stairs, some exposed stone walls, exposed ceiling beams in several rooms, and there is some unusual detailed ceiling plasterwork, more typical of a far grander home in the main living room by an attractively framed, wide chimney ope.

Garden glory at Gearagh

Due largely to its age, and stone construction not hidden inside or out in swathes of bland insulation, it gets an E2 BER, but upgraded windows and French doors to the gardens do have an A-rating.

Among the individual touches too are the mix of stone and curvaceous render section on the long roadside wall, and the placing of rough sawn timber planks high on the gable, and above the porch’s half door.

Roadside with Argideen Bridge 100 metres away

The house has been reslated with a mix of regular slate and curved ones for a scalloped (or perhaps fish-scale?) look, a nice craft worker’s touch.

The same look also features on the good-sized and robust stone barn in the grounds, with a lean-to potting shed/greenhouse along a side wall.

Might the next owners see upgrade scope for Airbnb, or extended family?

Viewings are only starting now via Sherry FitzGerald O’Neill’s Clonakilty offices, with Clonakility and Rosscarbery about a 15-minute drive. The more immediate locale has a national school at Kilmeen, a Drinagh Co-op, and much natural backwater beauty by the Argideen, with the local community having recently created a park and seating by the three-arched 1860s stone bridge on Mill House’s back doorstep.

VERDICT: No drama. The local Rossmore communtiy is known far and wide for hosting a well-regarded annual amateur drama festival, going back to the 1950s, and this set-piece well-tended heritage home is primed now for a role as a holiday bolt-hole, or full-time family home.