To get to a three-bedroom semidetached cottage on a really quiet country road in Hazelwood, near Mallow, north Cork, you take the Limerick road out of Mallow, and turn right at the evocatively-named village of Newtwopothouse.
The cottage on about one acre is for sale through Liam Mullins and Associates in Mallow for around £80,000. It is a short distance up a deeply quiet country road from Hazelwood, a small crossroads village dominated by the Hazel Tree pub.
Accommodation in the cottage consists of a good-sized livingroom, a kitchen, three bedrooms and a bathroom with a shower. In the front garden, there is also a large chalet, which has electricity, which could be a studio, or provide extra accommodation.
The lush front garden, planted with a wide variety of plants, is attractive. There is another garden at the back, as well as a field.
Meanwhile, over near Macroom, Michael Hinchion, of John J Hinchion & Sons, has a 42-acre farm on an elevated riverside site at Currahy East, Ballingeary, Co Cork, for sale for around £130,000 to £135,000. The property, which straddles both sides of the road from Inchigeela to Bantry, has lake frontage, and fishing rights. It comes with a derelict farmhouse that is not habitable. He expects that an English buyer, or someone from the continent, will be interested in this property, primarily for residential, rather than agricultural use.
The north Cork towns of Mallow and Macroom are both becoming satellite towns of Cork city, like Clonakilty and Bandon to its west. As Cork enjoys a property boom, homes in these easily accessible towns are an attractive alternative. A newly-built three-bed semi in Macroom, for example, costs about £80,000 compared to up to £120,000 in Cork city, says agent Michael Hinchion.
But the villages and countryside of north Cork are still very much off the beaten track, particularly on the roads not leading to Cork city. A short drive from Macroom, for example, and you can be in the Lee Valley and Gougane Barra forest park; from Mallow, you can head for Kerry in one direction, or towards the lush Blackwater valley, to pretty villages like Castletownroche and Ballyhooley, in another.
In both areas, you can find a site of a half to one acre with a derelict house for an average £20,000 to £30,000 - about half the price of something similar in west Cork. A habitable house needing refurbishment would cost £40,000 to £50,000, and a refurbished bungalow/cottage in a rural area would cost around £80,000.
Both Michael Hinchion in Macroom and Peter Barry of Liam Mullins in Mallow report that Dubliners hardly feature in the market for rural hideaways in the north Cork area. The demand principally comes from English and European buyers, many of whom have discovered it through fishing, a major attraction in the area.
This is the loss of those of us who don't know this part of Co Cork - and an attraction for Dubliners who fancy a retreat somewhere they won't meet their neigbours from Dalkey or Dublin 4, as they might well if they buy, for example, in Connemara.
One short trip from Macroom, for example, takes you to Gougane Barra, heading in the direction of Kerry. On the trip, you pass through Ballingeary, a very pretty village in the west Muskerry Gaeltacht. Bantry is just 13 to 14 miles from here. As we head for Gougane Barra forest park, we pass a freshly-painted yellow house with, surprisingly, no signs on it to tell you that this was the house of The Tailor and Ansty, the couple made famous by Eric Cross's book and Eamon Kelly's one-man show. A signpost points the way to Kilgarvan and Jackie Healy Rae territory. Not far, too, is Coolea, the village made famous by Sean O'Riada.
The village of Gougane Barra is just two hotels and a post office - and around a bend, St Finbarr's beautiful stone church on the edge of a lake, a spot popular for weddings because of its romantic setting. The road through the forest park takes you past towering rocks and talls firs, right past the spot where the River Lee rises.
As Michael Hinchion says, relative to coastal areas, this part of the country is undeveloped. The same is true of the countryside around Mallow. Heading along the Blackwater valley, for example, you could find a cottage in pretty villages like Castletownroche, for example, which has an excellent tourist attraction in Anne's Grove Gardens. Liam Mullins, for example, has one for sale here for £18,000, and another for £80,000. Ballyhooley is another village with a steep road down to a bridge across the Blackwater river: here, there could be a choice between a derelict house on about an acre for £35,000, for sale through Liam Mullins, or a brand-new three or four-bed dormer bungalow which will cost between £95,000 to £110,000. Agent Paul O'Driscoll in Fermoy is handling sales of these, and he is already taking names.
Glantworth, where an old mill has been restored and a restaurant opened, is not far away; nearby too is Doneraile, where the castle is to be restored. The area also has associations with the novelist Elizabeth Bowen.
