New train of thought in West Cork for €395k

Cluain Ard €395k

The house, which has been restored and extended, comes with five acres of grounds.

For a glorious six decades or so, you could have taken a train to Church Cross in Co Cork from Schull or Skibbereen, and then walked the mile-and-a-half home to Cluain Ard, your traditional two-storey farmhouse in the townland of Reenmurragha.

You'd have been travelling on the Schull and Skibbereen Railway, 23km of narrow-gauge line that closed in 1947. The nearest station now is in Cork city, an hour-and-a-half away.

So the location is perhaps more remote than it used to be, but, after all, this is the heartland of west Cork, a draw for holidaymakers and expatriates for decades.

Cluain Ard comes with five acres of grounds including old clusters of outbuildings to tinker about in. The house itself, meanwhile, has been restored and extended to 1,722 sq ft.

Inside the front porch there's an open-plan kitchen and dining room with a beamed ceiling and a half-door to the back garden. The kitchen has a Belfast sink and a breakfast bar, and there's a separate utility room so you don't have to listen to a washing machine spinning a thousand times a minute over dinner.

The dining room has a central, double-sided fireplace with a stove, and behind this is a living room with a beamed ceiling and another door to the garden.

Living room with a beamed ceiling and double-sided fireplace.

Also central in the dining room is an unusual dog-legged staircase to the first floor, where there's a gallery landing overlooking the kitchen. The three bedrooms are all upstairs along with a family bathroom with a bath and separate shower.

Outbuildings include stables, workshops, carport and garage. Elsewhere, the gardens have lawns, stone walls, shrubs and a patio.

Cluain Ard is about two-and-a-half kilometres from Church Cross and 10 minutes' drive from Skibbereen. It's for sale for €395,000 with Sherry FitzGerald O'Neill in Skibbereen (028) 21404.