€395k East Cork eco home has repaid investment many times over in energy savings

Couple did their research before building in energy efficient features back in 2005

Green setting for one-off home with gardens done on permaculture principles: agent Kyle Kennedy guides the energy efficient five-bed home at €395,000

Garryduff, Dungourney, East Cork
€395,000
Size	2,300 sq ft
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	B2

The energy-efficient design and elements put into this east Cork eco home when built in 2005 were not only well ahead of the curve for the time, but have also repaid the investment several times over in energy savings. So says the family behind the design and delivery of this high-performing rural one-off, in the countryside near Dungourney, 14.5km north of Midleton.

Chalet-like look to family home

Having first lived in Switzerland in the early 2000s before returning to Ireland with an appetite and interest fostered in sustainable building and permaculture gardening, the family delivered this eco-savvy house, on a rural site bounded by a small stream, with a wildlife-friendly mixed wild fruiting hedges.

Green setting

The B2 BER-rated five bed home is on 1.6 acres, and has solar panels for hot water, geothermal heating, sheeps’ wool insulation, internal plastering and solid timber joinery.

Interior

Its grounds are planted with heirloom varieties of apple, pear and cherry, as well as walnut, sweet chestnut, hazelnut and cob nut varieties, alongside blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries.

Planted up

A section was set aside for a fruit garden and a hen coop, while a lower portion includes varieties of willow for coppicing and weaving, a stand of silver birch and alder near the stream, a copper beech, and Irish oak and red oak have also embedded themselves happily here too. Unfortunately, the family weren’t able to immerse themselves as deeply into the natural lifestyle as they had originally planned as, shortly after the build was finished, life circumstances changed.

Main bedroom with access to sheltered balcony

“While this was our dream home, sadly work took us abroad again before we could truly realise our vision,” the owners say, from the Gulf region, where today they work in the academic and energy sectors, respectively.

Their property has been rented out since and the couple say their carefully laid-out garden “is not as heavily worked as it could have been. We hope that another family will embrace this lovingly built home and start to bring the beautiful and now mature garden back to glory”.

They also add that the original planting scheme is still available to new owners to identify and work with, sourced in the main through Future Forests (futureforests.ie/).

With their own futures overseas for the foreseeable, they’ve given sale of their Cork home to agent Kyle Kennedy of Hegarty Properties who guides it at €395,000, citing its appeal to “the ‘greener’ sector of prospective purchasers”.

“This may be the house for those seeking to live closely with nature while at the same time leaving as light an eco-footprint on the environment as humanly possible,” he observes of the 214 sq m home with up to five bedrooms, and it’s well suited to the rise of ‘work-from-home’ trends post-pandemic — even back in 2005, the couple were running a company from a home office here.

Clay plaster used inside

His vendors were fairly early adaptors to sustainable building and permaculture gardening, researching “ sustainable, eco-friendly options in order to build a future-proofed home with a focus on using locally sourced products as much as possible”.

It was an expensive decision at the time, but they installed both solar and geothermal energy systems. This investment has paid off several times since then.

These systems, along with underfloor heating, sheep wool insulation and breathable clay plaster (sourced from Youghal), meant a planned-for solid fuel stove in the living room wasn’t needed in the end.

Wiring is on a close loop system, with wiring for a home network, and timbers used inside are mostly solid Irish ash, with cedarwood internal doors; the balcony gable end is clad in cedar wood as are the fascia and soffit.

With a half-door main entrance, the internal layout includes an open plan living room, dining room and kitchen with deck and garden access via French, double doors, while the main bedroom accesses a sheltered gable balcony, with a walk-through wardrobe to an en suite with ceramic sink by Dingle potter Louis Mulcahy.

The Garryduff setting is by woodland and the River Womanagh, with the Kiltha as a tributary, which flows towards Mogeeely and Castlemartyr, five minutes drive from Dungourney and 15 from Midleton, described as “a tranquil setting with surrounding countryside views”.

VERDICT: the owners had the original vision, but it’s the next occupants who’ll reap the ongoing rewards.