{"id":601632,"date":"2026-08-22T23:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601632\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T23:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:36:28","slug":"west-cork-farmhouse-with-7-2-acres-treehouse-and-wildlife-sanctuary-on-the-market-for-e525000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601632\/","title":{"rendered":"West Cork farmhouse with 7.2 acres, treehouse and wildlife sanctuary on the market for \u20ac525,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 12,000km trip to the Indonesian Isles was the catalyst for buying a house at Coolea in West Cork<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The owner of this four-bed, detached farmhouse at Milleens, near Ballyvourney, had been to the Indonesian provinces on bird-watching adventures, photographing birds of paradise.<\/p>\n

She enjoyed her excursions so much that \u201cit was painful to be back in a material, throwaway world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted, I needed to find a low-tech bolthole with lots of nature in the countryside. I play the bodhr\u00e1n, so when I was in Ireland anyway, I saw this house and just fell in love with it,\u201d says Jean Goldberry.<\/p>\n

In 1996, when Jean bought this detached house it wasn\u2019t the charming, rural idyll it is today: \u201cThere was no running water and no electricity, so a lot of life was by candlelight and involved filtering water from the stream. I was used to travelling with just camera equipment and a small medical bag at that stage, so living with no electricity and no running water was no problem to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of the work, like mixing cement or cutting timber by hand. I put a roof on the barn and built up the walls with the help of a travel companion. I had been in dugout canoes in mangrove swamps in Papua New Guinea with my son, so this was no bother to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n
It was initially a holiday home\/project and then, in 2007, it became a permanent home and has \u201cbeen brilliant\u201d.<\/p>\n

For someone who once travelled so lightly, Jean then transported some hefty items to this house, which is 20 minutes from Macroom town.<\/p>\n

These include:<\/p>\n

A \u2018bed\u2019 milestone from Langstone harbour mill, which was built in 1720;
\n Beams from Bealick Mill in Macroom;
\n A big rope block and tackle from Plymouth Dockyard, used to tie ratlines to the deck on galleons;
\n Ropes from the sail loft in Dartmouth;
\n A bell wheel from the 11th century Holy Trinity Church in Old Bosham.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all part of this home\u2019s history now,\u201d Jean says.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"PondPond view framed by a stone wall\"AA ‘bed’ millstone from Langstone harbour mill which closed as a mill in 1939<\/p>\n

Some more modern and practical specifications were also added, including oil-fired central heating and laminated glass in all the windows as a security feature.<\/p>\n

Jean, an artist, who once worked as a British Airways cabin crew member \u2014 including assisting in an unexpected passenger birth, and performing CPR on a man who had stopped breathing \u2014 worked hard to revitalise the 7.2 acres around this house, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Part of the property is a \u2018forest garden\u2019 with an eclectic mix of native trees and more unusual ones, including blue sausage fruit, bladdernut (\u201cwhich tastes like pistachio\u201d), cobnuts, and Japanese walnut.<\/p>\n

After air hostessing, Jean studied horticulture \u2014 as a professional garden designer, she featured on BBC Two\u2019s Gardeners\u2019 World. In the polytunnels here she\u2019s grown cherries, nectarines, and plums.<\/p>\n

\"UpstairsUpstairs study area with access to balcony and view of the mountains. Pictures: Larry Cummins\"RearRear garden decking\"BalconyBalcony area off the main master bedroom<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to see this house being occupied by a family with children again. There\u2019s so much here for them. There\u2019s the decking, the tree house with a ladder up to it. There\u2019s so much room for more here, too. I have fenced off two acres. My own grandchildren were playing here the other day and I saw them bringing a basket with some croissants up the tree on a rope. There\u2019s a firebowl too, where we reheated pizzas from the evening before from The Top of Coom, a 12-minute drive away.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a pond: \u201cI\u2019m setting up the pump and water purifier and when that\u2019s up and running again you\u2019ll be able to swim in it. I\u2019ve been in it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"'Embracing‘Embracing couple’ stone sculpture beside the pond<\/p>\n

Agent Killian Lynch, of Killian Lynch Auctioneers, salutes all the hard work: \u201cCredit to Jean, it\u2019s a beautiful and unique home now. And there\u2019s already quite a bit of interest in it from people in Britain and also from up the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The C-rated house is on the market for \u20ac525k as the owner is moving to England.<\/p>\n

As well as being hugely attractive to the children in the family, this property also gets visits from wildlife, including red squirrels, rare butterflies, deer, foxes, birds of prey, a \u2018chatty\u2019 raven, and a beautiful pine marten, who \u201cvisited until he killed my bantams and didn\u2019t bother coming back\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA stove in the traditional style farmhouse fireplace.\u00a0\"\"\"GroundfloorGroundfloor guest bedroom<\/p>\n

Some more domesticated guests include two kunekune pigs: \u201cThey keep the grass nice and short. They have their own chalet and love foraging under the nut trees. Timmy and Rosie have actually been trained to sit on command and are so friendly, kind, and companionable. They\u2019re gorgeous. They will be rehomed… unless, of course, the new owners would like to talk to me about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JeanJean with her Kunekune pigs Rosie and Timmy at Milleens. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n

Back in the 219sq m house, there are deep sills, exposed brick and rafters, and oak flooring. There\u2019s a second-level balcony\/deck at a gable end and also a large, covered, verandah-style decked area, which gets lots of use as a sheltered \u2018outdoor room\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s around a 10-minute spin to Ballyvourney, and Macroom town is 20 minutes away. And for bigger purchases or some hustle and bustle, you\u2019ve got Killarney to the west, at about a 25-minute drive, while it\u2019s 45 minutes from Cork city.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a swimming pool<\/a> and an Irish-speaking primary school in C\u00fail Aodha, 1.7km away. And there\u2019s a secondary school, Col\u00e1iste Ghobnatan, 5.2km away in Ballymakeera.<\/p>\n

\n VERDICT: From birds of paradise to West Cork paradise, a truly unique rural haven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 12,000km trip to the Indonesian Isles was the catalyst for buying a house at Coolea in West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,25976,61,60],"class_list":["post-601632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-property","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}