Iconic West Cork view with stunning cottage attached for €1.45m

Imagine owning your very own Instagram moment. The ruins of Raheen Castle are among the most historic and iconic in West Cork, featuring in postcards and photographs and, for many, they sum up the wild yet welcoming harbours of this picture-perfect part of the world.

Now the castle, with its adjacent former farmhouse, plus guest cottage, offering five bedrooms in all, and on 3.8 acres, is for sale seeking €1.45 million.

“It’s one of those generational houses,” says Maeve McCarthy, the agent handling the sale for Charles McCarthy.

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Barahane, Raheen, Union Hall, West Cork.

“It hasn’t come on the market for 30 years, and it’s so unique, you won’t find anything else like it again.”

The current occupants, who have owned, loved and restored the house during their tenure, came across it by chance.

“It was a series of coincidences,” says the owner, whose own background is in advertising. “We’d known that part of the world since we were children, we used to come down here swimming, and we just encountered that very beautiful view.”

So when the farm came up for sale they bought it and set about restoring the farmhouse, which was “pretty well ruined”. With the help of the late Bill Wolfe, a local builder renowned in the Union Hall/Glandore area of West Cork, they not only restored the farmhouse, but added two small wings, perfectly in keeping. They also built a summerhouse, and converted the barns across the pretty yard to create guest accommodation.

Immensely lucky

The resulting accommodation extends to 159sq m (1,700sq ft) in the farmhouse, and 68sq m (731sq ft) in the guest house. It’s delightfully cosy, without being twee, with slate floors, and tongue and groove panelling, low windows upstairs, plus a bright sun room for all weathers. New owners might want to add a lick of paint here and there, but otherwise it’s pretty much ideal.

“We were immensely lucky,” says the owner. “We knew what we wanted to do, and we had one of the best builders in the world to do it. The great thing about it is that it’s actually two houses. The main farmhouse is the most wonderful winter house, and then we built the two ‘ears’ on, and in summer that is magical. You look down over the estuary and the sun pours in.”

The house itself has direct private access to Castlehaven bay.

It clearly is a house that wraps its arms around its inhabitants, adds a smattering of elegance, and makes sense of the weather in all its moods.

The owner agrees: “You can have houses that are wonderful in the summer and have a marvellous view, but aren’t sympathetic to the periodic Irish meteorological vicissitudes,” he says.

“Or there are houses that have no view and are slightly gloomy, but in any season this is just magical.”

The couple are moving on, to another restoration project, but it will be hard to replicate this spot and the move won’t be entirely without regret.