The white cottage at Graiguerush, Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, is the kind of place many of us are thinking about when we decide we want a cottage in the country. The traditional cottage, which still has a loft bedroom over the living-room, has been carefully refurbished to create a comfortable modern home in a house that retains its original, simple style. It is for sale through Dungarvan agent Harty & Co for £80,000-plus.
The house on the busy Dungarvan to Carrick-on-Suir road has a fitted pine-panelled kitchen with new glass-fronted presses, a living-room with deep-ledged windows, a pine ceiling and cast-iron surround, and steep ladder-style steps leading to the loft bedroom. There are two double bedrooms with wardrobes downstairs, and the loft bedroom has space for two single beds and pine fitted presses. There is a tiled bathroom. The house has oil-fired central heating, is on a group water scheme, has a septic tank, electricity and telephone.
Behind the house, a large outbuilding has been converted into dormitory-style guest accommodation: the long, wide room has plenty of space for beds; there is a kitchen in one corner of the room, and a large shower room at one end. The wall at the other end is next to a large outdoor garage, which has potential to be incorporated into the guest accommodation. The property has a lovely, well-kept lawn and a paddock.
From the rear, the house looks up to the Comeragh mountains. The agent says that features of the Comeraghs, like Mahon Falls, Coumshingaun and Crottys Lake are all within trekking distance. The cottage is about 18 miles from Waterford city.
Waterford is a large county with a varied landscape, from the sea at Ring and on the coast between Dungarvan and Tramore, and inland to the Knockmealdown and Comeragh mountains. It includes beautiful small heritage towns like Lismore on the Blackwater, in the Cork direction, as well as bustling centres like Dungarvan. And although it is well-known to many visitors, local people feel that too many still speed through it on their way to the west, or to Dublin.
Still, the area generally attracts a mix of people wanting to buy homes, from English people retiring to an area that has easy access to a ferryport, to hill-walkers heading for the Comeragh mountains, to fishermen who want a home somewhere along the Blackwater.
Dubliners tend to be fixated on the Gaeltacht area of Ring and Helvick - perhaps a legacy of happy childhood summers at Irish college. Unfortunately, the supply of cottages here is scarce, and prices are consequently high, reaching West Cork levels: a house needing refurbishment on half an acre could cost as much as £50,000. But go to the coast on the other side of Dungarvan, and you'll find pretty beaches, cottages tucked away down quiet country roads at a range of prices - with the basic derelict house on half an acre selling from around £30,000. And as agents Margaret and Patrick Harty point out, most areas are a convenient drive from Dublin, and only about half-an-hour from either Waterford city or Dungarvan.
Just a short drive towards the coast from the main N25 road from Dungarvan to Waterford, for example, is Stradbally, a pretty Tidy Town-style village, with glimpses of a thatched roof, and roses curling around front doors. Just half a mile before the village, Margaret and Patrick Harty have a half acre site for sale for £30,000. It has no planning permission. It is located near three or four other houses, just beyond a viaduct. Just beyond Stradbally village is a sheltered strand, one of the many good beaches on this part of the coast. The coast road winds from here towards Tramore: about half way between Stradbally and that large resort lies Bunmahon, with its Blue Flag beach: just outside the village, Harty has a quarter-acre site for sale for £25,000. The area's natural beauties are enhanced by facilities like the Gold Coast leisure complex at Ballinacourty, near the strand at Clonea, which includes one of the many golf clubs in the area.
Only half-an-hour's drive inland, on the other side of the N25, the landscape is a complete contrast: but standing under Mahon Falls, a local beauty spot where a dramatic waterfall spills down the mountains, you can see clear over to the strand at Bunmahon.
AS well as the house at Kilmacthomas, the Harty agency has a partly refurbished two-bed cottage on an acre for sale at Gortnalaght, Leamybrien, less than half a mile from the N25. It has a fitted kitchen, living-room with an open fire, planning permission for a bungalow in a field at front, and good views over valley. It is for sale in the mid-£60,000s.
Driving away from the Falls, you meet flocks of sheep on back country roads, the kind of scene which reassures that you can still, very easily, get away from it all, even if you stray a short distance off the beaten track.
