Escape the rat race to ecovillage ‘good life’ in Tipperary for €249k

Cloughjordan Ecovillage, the pioneering community in Co Tipperary, is a credit to all who sail in her. First mooted in 1990, it had a site in 2005, infrastructure from 2007, and its first residents at Christmas in 2009. Today, on 67 acres behind Cloughjordan town's main street, it has more than 50 low-energy homes and work units, as well as, stretching farther afield, 50 acres of allotments, farming and woodland. There is a train station nearby, and a community farm.

Houses in the ecovillage, all built using green techniques, seldom come on the market, so 7 Fearann Geal, an end-of-terrace two-storey house, is a rarity. It is also, with 110sq m (1,184sq ft) of living space, a more than decent-sized family home in a community and village well removed from the rat race.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 4

7 Fearann Geal: the dining area

Completed in 2010, number 7 is a light-filled house with, in an interior designed by its vendor, Patricia Curran, three bedrooms; a ground-floor wetroom and first-floor bathroom; south-facing living, kitchen and dining area with French windows to decking; a floored attic; and a thriving, diversely planted garden finished in local stone.

Curran has loved her time in the village. “It’s a great community,” she says, “and a really big project. I’ve made lots of friends here.” She is moving back to her roots in the west Cork arts scene. A new owner, she says, will also be buying a shared interest in the woods, organic agricultural land and community polytunnel, and will have access to their own 100sq m garden allotment. She has, she says, “put a lot of work into the house and garden. There’s solar-gain lighting and a heat-recovery system, as well as a district heating system.”

The ground-floor flooring is of engineered oiled oak; the first level and bedrooms are floored in beech. Fittings in the bespoke kitchen are also beech, and there is a Morso wood-burning stove.

Cloughjordan Ecovillage's website is at thevillage.ie