Having grown up in the Co Louth fishing village of Clogherhead, Ciara Rose McCormack was no stranger to the natural beauty of the Wee County when she purchased the Dunany site where she built her substantial detached home 18 years ago.
McCormack worked as a creative director in advertising, a job that brought her around the world, from South Africa to the US. From the latter, she took the idea to attach a veranda to the side of the house where you can sit and listen to the hum of the birds in the surrounding forest.
She swims each morning, taking a direct path from the house through the trees to Dunany Point. She learned to swim here as an adult, a story she shared in compilation books on sea swimming such as The Art of Wild Swimming Ireland.
There is a separate studio building (76sq m) on the property made from a prefabricated timber frame imported from the UK and surrounded with stone. It was originally used as a studio for McCormack’s work and later became a short-term rental, complete with two bedrooms and a kitchenette, for people looking to leave their busy lifestyles behind. She also held wellbeing events on the 1.2-acre grounds.
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During Covid she stepped away from her career to work in wellness, operating events incorporating yoga, meditation and sound healing, and she also renovated a horse trailer into a mobile cafe called Chin Wag’on.
She now has her sights set on Portugal where she hopes to pursue opportunities in the wellness space, with the added benefit of the sunshine. She would love for prospective new owners to see the potential for sustainable living that exists at the Old Rectory and its grounds, she says.
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“Over the years, the house became more than a place to live,” McCormack says. “Living closely with woodland and sea, it emerged as a quiet teacher. [Here, nature] asserts itself through changing light, seasonal rhythms, and the discipline of weather. Living alongside these elements gradually shaped how the house was used and experienced.”
And for those who would like to balance idyllic country living with a city-based career, you can drive to Dundalk train station in 25 minutes from where there are one-hour services available to Dublin Connolly. You also have Dunleer village close by for essentials and Drogheda and Dundalk for further amenities.
Extending to 420sq m (4,521sq ft) with an efficient B1 Ber, The Old Rectory is on the market through Sherry Fitzgerald Lannon with an asking price of €850,000.
Through a gated entrance, you approach the house by a long driveway. Inside the arched double-door entrance, you step into the reception hall with mahogany wood herringbone floors. The floors are a key feature throughout the home and were sourced from a house in Oxford, the owner says. From here you can appreciate the staircase and the mezzanine floor above.
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Double doors open into the spacious kitchen and dining area, centred by a substantial island. The room gets light from all sides with sash windows and glazed double doors opening out to the veranda. There are three reception rooms to the rear of the ground floor: two livingrooms with a diningroom in the centre.
There is also a utility room, a bathroom and another room on this floor, which could be used as a study or a spare bedroom.
Upstairs the main bedroom is spacious and leads into a dressingroom and an en suite bathroom. The main bathroom features a pink free-standing bath and eye-catching geometric tile floors. There are a further four bedrooms on this floor, two of which are en suite. There are two further rooms and an en suite in the attic.
