Calling pagans and property lovers: Private €295k home has  its own stone circle 

THERE’S history, and “faked” history aptly tying in with Halloween this Samhain full-moon weekend, at this engaging Haremount, Kilmichael home that’s a whole lot more treat than trickery.

Set near the site of a well-known November 1920 War of Independence ambush site under Gen Tom Barry and his flying column, modest-looking but homely Haremount comes with up to four bedrooms, a modern kitchen and an upgraded bathroom, all in stark contrast with the stone remains of a Famine-era dwelling, 'Batty’s Cottage,' as well as a standing stone circle and a stone dolmen.

The fascinating mix is for sale with agent Ellen O’Sullivan of Ballincollig and Macroom area agency OM2 who guides the well-kept traditional roadside extended farm cottage on 1.1 acres with extensive planting at €295,000, to include a work-shed, small barn, orchard, and the remnants of’ ancient’ megalithic stone construction activity.

Only, it doesn’t really.

Rather than dating back many thousands of years to BC times, the dolmen, and the stone circle with 13 standing stones, are a quite modern construction and addition, done by previous owners of the property in a quiet rural setting, and who may have had the use of a small digger or JCB to move the tonnes of unearthed stones rather than more primitive physical graft and grunt and clever ropes and pulleys of old.

 They constructed it a decade ago, sourcing the large stones in a local quarry and placing them in a circle, 13 for the circle, matching the number now in West Cork’s 

more famous and much-visited original megalithic stone circle in Drumbeg near Glandore, and which had 17 stones when first composed over 3,000 years ago.

Numbers of stone in circle vary, there are very early circles in France, dating to as much as 4,500 BC, and there are c 1,300 recorded in Britain and Ireland: 1,301 and counting, if you include Haremount’s c 2013 AD addition.

While the dolmen and home-made stone circle might suit festive fun, holistic, pagan or druid-like lunar ceremonies (there’s a partial lunar eclipse tonight), Ms O’Sullivan says: “I’m not sure what that would entail!”

She adds that her current vendors are professional chefs from Sligo, do local food markets (the fridges in the smart new kitchen have reassuring Haccp storage advisory stickers) and are into their music: the living room has a stereo with large vinyl album collection, and there’s a black and white photo of blues maestro Rory Gallagher on display, perhaps from his time at Macroom’s Mountain Dew Festival?

 Ms O’Sullivan notes that when she’s called to the property “It’s warm and full of good vibes, with a gorgeous aroma of home cooking, with alternative music on the stereo.”

For her vendors (going back to Sligo), or anyone else, it’s an affordable lifestyle property too at its €295,000 guide and while there’s scope to grow food on the 1.1 acres, there’s already extensive planting with a holm or holly oak tree — the result of a cutting from a tree in Lourdes; a fairy crab apple tree from Toon Valley; and a small oak tree grown from an acorn from the 26’ girth Brian Boru Oak in Tuamgraney, Co Clare, reckoned to be up to 1,000 years old.

There are also other trees such as apple, apricot, medlars, plums, mock orange (mahonia), ornamental cherry tree, rowan, myrtles, acers and alders, holly oak, lilacs and limes, magnolia, prunus and cornus, azaleas, clematis, rhododendron and, given the weekend that’s in it, a ‘Ruby Glow’ witch hazel.

Buildings-wise, the extended and upgraded house has up to four bedrooms, a modern semi-pro kitchen with quartz counters, Belfast sink, Shaker units, LEDs, and a UV water filter.

The bathroom is extensively tiled with standalone slipper-style bath and double shower, and there are three first-floor bedrooms plus optional use of a ground-level room as a study or small bedroom. There’s also a characterful living/dining room with wood-burning stove in a chimney piece, and a second, triple-aspect reception room with beamed ceiling.

The BER’s an OK D2, and outside there’s a small workshed with bench and stove, small corrugated shed/barn, pumphouse by one of the two entrances to the corner-set site property on quiet roads near the Kilmichael ambush monument.

While aspects hark back to the past, or recent millennia, selling agent Ms O’Sullivan notes there is a Starlink satellite internet connection getting speed of up and over 100Mbps, perfect for home workers and says “this property has many valuable upgrades, making this both a traditional and contemporary home with style and character”.

VERDICT: Trick or treat? High-speed internet at Haremount via the stars? What frights might our megalithic ancestors have perceived of satellites whizzing across the night skies while observing the lunar cycles... if only this stone circle’s roots were so very, very many moons ago......