A patio big enough for Riverdance and an acre to play on made for a terrific Berrings family home 

Country living 20 minutes from Cork city

Property - Berrings, Co. Cork

Berrings, Co Cork
€560,000
Size	229 sq m (2465 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	B2

THE owner of this fine five-bed in Berrings bought a one-acre site from a farmer and brought in local tradesmen to help with the build in 2001. A year later, the man and his new bride moved in. “The big thing that she loved was the walk-in hotpress with its drying facilities,” the man says.

Over the years, the couple had four children who loved playing about on that acre, cycling the day-long around the house; playing on bouncy castles on days of celebration and kicking a football from dawn to dusk.

“It was a great site to play on and a great house in which to rear a family,” the man says.

In 2004, well before the Celtic Tiger fell flat on his back, he added a conservatory. You can stroll straight into it from the kitchen, and on into the rear garden, where there are two patios, one big enough to stage Riverdance.

There was a large garage and the man built a lean-to also, to house firewood, the dog and those well-cycled bikes.

In 2010, they re-did the kitchen. Later, a new well water system was installed and the external walls pumped with insulation, along with the attic, resulting in a good BER of B2.

The man loved his 229 sq m home, but they are moving as his wife’s mother has passed on and the opportunity to relocate to “the home house” in Ovens is too good to pass up, It’s nearer to his wife’s workplace, in Ovens National School, where she’s a teacher.

Kitchen opens to conservatory

Living room 

Conservatory

Norma Healy of Sherry FitzGerald is selling the detached home with its beautifully tended to, expansive gardens, cut through by a winding driveway, lined with upright hornbeam and white stem birch trees.

She says it’s a family home “offering the best of both worlds, tranquil countryside and interrupted views, in a lovely rural community, while at the same time just a 15 minute drive from Ballincollig and 20 minutes from Cork city”.

She says there’s a national school in Berrings with a creche and play school across the road and a school bus service from Berrings to Ballincollig. The house has fibre broadband and plenty of space for remote working.

VERDICT: Generous family home on terrific site.