House of the Week: Historic Cork farmhouse with land, gardens and outbuildings at €660k

This 19th-century farmhouse near Cloyne offers charm, land, and potential for a dream home or rural business venture

Fri, 25 Jul, 2025 - 06:00

Trish Dromey Pictures: Lyne Media

Cloyne, Co Cork
€660,000
Size	251 sq m (2,701 sq ft) & 107 sq m (1,100 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3 & 3
Bathrooms	3 & 1
BER	D2 (Annex F)

ALL sorts of possibilities are open to the purchaser of Commons House in Cloyne, a period farmhouse with three and a quarter acres of land, walled gardens and a cluster of stone outbuildings.

“It could be turned into a magnificent family home but is also being looked at by people interested in using the walled gardens and outbuildings for some type of commercial enterprise. It could perhaps be used as a garden centre or some kind of tourist business, maybe a B & B,’’ says Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Property who is guiding it at €660,000.

Dating from the 19th Century, Commons House has all the signs of having once been a prosperous farm. The family who own it now have had it since the mid 1960s and have, over the decades, made some upgrades and additions and used it as a hobby farm, keeping cattle, sheep, chickens and horses until around 20 years ago.

Not much is known about the house’s history, except that the deeds show it selling for the first time in the 1870s. When the family purchased it in the 1960s it had a small annex with a separate entrance which they extended into a three -bed one.

“Neighbours told my parents that the property may once have been a rectory,’’ says a daughter of the house who has childhood memories of milking cows and riding ponies and of her father and uncle once keeping the hearse that had been used to bring Terence McSweeney to the graveyard out in the backyard.

The main house, accessed by a pillared entrance, has the high ceilings, marble fireplaces, ceiling coving and window shutter of its era. Behind the front porch, which was definitely a later addition, there’s a stepped entrance and a doorway with a Georgian fanlight.

Adaptations for modern living carried out since the 1960s include the installation of single glazed aluminium windows and oil fired heating and the house now has three bathrooms including an en suite. In the last ten years the bathrooms have been modernised and the family have also put in new kitchen units and built a sunroom with double glazing. Wrapped insulation brought the BER to a D2, which is better than you might expect for a house of its age. But TLC and modernisation will now be required to turn it into a comfortable home.

Off the hallway the property has two high ceilinged reception rooms with original marble fireplaces and cornicing– one a formal dining room and the other a drawing room- both of which will, with redecoration, regain their original elegance A staircase in the hallway leads to the first floor which has four bedrooms ( including an en suite) which like the other rooms would benefit from upgrading. On the first floor return the house has a modern tiled bathroom.

A small set of stairs in the hallway leads down to a section at the rear which has lower ceilings. Here there is a modern kitchen and sunroom extension and a living room which has a paved stone fireplace and 1970s style décor.

The three-bed annex has 102 sq metre of living space which includes a kitchen and living room. Ms Hegarty says it has been upgraded with a modern kitchen, has double glazing and is in good condition.

Mature gardens surround Commons House which has a gravel driveway with trees at the front and, at the rear, a huge area of lawn enclosed by 19th century stone walls which are probably more than 2.5 metres high.

Behind the annex there are two connected courtyards with a selection of stone outbuildings some of which may once have been as stables. Beyond the large walled garden there are fields and a large aluminium shed of the type used for sheltering animals.

The location, a little over a km from Cloyne could, according to Ms Hegarty suit both trade up buyers and ones with commercial plans.“The village, which has a round tower and is close to Ballymaloe House, is popular with tourists,’’ she says, noting that it’s just nine km from Midleton and also from the seaside village of Ballycotton.

VERDICT: It could potentially be turned into an elegant country home or made into a garden centre – or possibly even both.