New build grafted onto old cottage sees €750k West Cork home making the best of both worlds

WHAT a difference a decade makes…

This West Cork property last appeared in these pages back in October 2014,   when it stood as an 800 sq ft cottage on organic grounds by a stream, on the edge of Rosscarbery village with a €147,000 price tag, and loaded with potential.

Well, the site’s potential yielded something entirely in a different league for comfort, space and finish, as is the price tag: it’s now €750,000.

But, that’s for an entirely different property, which includes (almost as an afterthought) the original charming stone cottage under its green corrugated steel, backing gable-end onto a meandering country lane from Rosscarbery to pretty-as-a-picture Mill Cove.

It now comes with a far gable-end addition of a contemporary-designed

2,080 sq ft two/three-bed dormer home, with B2 BER — a far cry from the reflective and ‘honest’ G BER the original cottage had come for sale at.

Agent David Busteed of Bandon-based Sherry FitzGerald Brennan Busteed is selling this well-set ‘new-meets-old’ accessible coastal home, in turnkey condition, for its buyers of the mid-2010s who got planning for the new addition onto the earlier dwelling, rightly keeping the original rather than just doing a demolition job. The end combo result roots the mix to the locale’s already-rich built and archaeological heritage.

Not only are there beaches like the Warren Strand and coves on its doorstep but so too are the remains of defensive castles, a landscape belvedere and observation tower houses and lookouts.

 They include one Downeen castle left stubbornly and precariously balanced on a tiny island rock/cliff outcrop, likely to date to the 16th or 17th century and reached for a period by a wooden bridge over the wild sea, roiling beneath.

It’s altogether more benign where this Downeen home is set, roadside and glimpsed past its sliding electric gate which replaced the old wooden picket gate, and its 1.3ac site is fringed to the Rosscarbery side by a wooded stream.

In fact, the small stream actually cuts through a site portion and here (perhaps as a faint and distant recollection of the old wood bridge to Downeen Castle?) the property’s owners have put a wooden ramp or bridge to a reflective seating area, graced by a yellow garden bench.

Their work here also includes some rock/site excavation on the other, southern side off the dining area, where there’s now twin, outdoor patios/terraces fringed by rock, and further screened by stainless steel and glass balusters, reached by double doors from the kitchen and again from the dining/living area alongside.

The redesign/new build has a lot of different roof profiles and floor plan kinks, with a slight internal split level, plus some slight additional ceiling heights, with part-vaulted ceilings. The main en suite bedroom above has a gable window for views to the Rosscarbery lagoon by the N71 pier road and glimpses of the tides between the village and the Warren strand.

There’s a second en suite ground-floor bedroom plus home office/optional third bedroom in the c 2,100 sq ft overall internal area, as well a double-aspect living room with inset stove and more open-plan/linked living/kitchen/dining room with second stove.

In addition, there’s oil central heating (via radiators) and solar panels, plus triple glazing helping get the new build to a B2 BER, as well a utility and guest WC, whilst overall condition and presentation is “as new ”, according to Mr Busteed.

NOT entirely “as new’ is the original, retained older dwelling, under its preventative green corrugated steel roof with Veluxes, and serving as a privacy buffer of sorts between the contemporary home and the wider world outside on the quiet road to Mill Cove, a safe berthing place for small craft, and its pier.

The previous owner of the property was a woman who worked for Unesco, who travelled widely, living in Japan, Mexico, and Paris before buying here in Downeen in the late 1990s. She bought from a French owner who had put in some steel windows among his own input.

 Apart from putting down her own roots for over 15 years here, she also planted an organic, wild garden with fruit and vegetables, appreciating it as a haven for wildlife.

Since, some new developments have been inching a way out of the village of Rosscarbery, which is within a short walk past the N71 which avoids the village and its pretty square, and also close are spots like Glandore and Union Hall, while larger towns like Clonakilty and Rosscarbery are about a 15-minute spin in opposite directions from Downeen.

The mix here includes the 2,100 sq ft two-/three-bed B2-rated home,preserved original c 800 sq ft cottage (once thatched, before being corrugated?, useful stores/kennels, and a Steeltech shed standing alone in the lawns.

VERDICT: Buyers can just move in and enjoy, or perhaps devise further plans to upgrade the attached older dwelling, fortunately retained, for guests or other uses.