16-05-2025
Lots of wow factor at expertly renovated €355k Rose Cottage in East Cork
THE evocative name Rose Cottage suggests an idyllic way of life, which is what's served up at this Clonpriest East home, near Ballymacoda.
Charming Rose Cottage
It took a lot of grafting by its UK owner, Chris Chesterman, and his Ballymacoda cousin, builder Pat Shanahan, to get it where it is today, but the results are edifying.
'Just about habitable,' is how Chris describes what it looked like when he bought it in 2017. A 'basic' one-bed home, his initial instinct was to go for an internal refit, until covid came along and he had time — and savings —on his hands.
'I got carried away,' Chris says.
Having added the main bedroom in 2018, as well as raising the living room ceiling into a vault (large chunks of the roof are new), going back in to add a mezzanine in 2022 seemed like a good idea.
Vaulted ceiling in living room
Main bedroom
'I wanted a bedroom for guests, so that's what the mezzanine is.
Guest bedroom in the mezzanine
We also added another bedroom in 2022, which I use as a study.'
The study at Rose Cottage
While Pat did most of the heavy lifting, Chris did the flooring and decorating, and installed a new kitchen, which he insulated.
French doors open from it to a rear patio and southwest-facing garden.
Chris, who retired in 2019, has a long association with Ballymacoda. It's his mother's native patch and her family once ran the local post office and shop.
'I've been coming here since I was two months old, it's always been a second home for me,' he says.
Practicising horticulture was part of the plan as the cottage comes with a 0.54a paddock.
Self-sufficiency on display in the paddock
He boned up on the subject via a year-long course at the Organic College in Limerick.
The fruits of his labours are evident in the industrial-size polytunnel and across the raised beds in the paddock.
In truth, Chris has transformed the site into a template for self-sufficiency, from a starting point of a dense growth of ash trees 'so dense that you couldn't even walk from one side of the paddock to the other'.
'It took a lot of chainsaw work to clear it,' he says. He also installed an irrigation system.
The cottage and site are in fine fettle now, but Chris, who has moved house 'many times', is on the move again.
Living room with vaulted ceiling
'I know the Irish weather well, but what I hadn't accounted for was the complete lack of light in the winter. It began to get to me. I retreated to Australia a few times, and once to Greece, but I need more consistency and brightness and warmth.' And so he's off to France. He feels the cottage is ideal for anyone interested in growing their own. While it might be small for a family, there's great scope for further expansion.
Selling agent Adrianna Hegarty, of Hegarty Properties, agrees that the cottage, on a quiet country lane, could be expanded, with planning permission, given the site size.
She says interest in it is excellent, with lots of locals and young families in the area keen to view it. Couples who can work from home have shown interest too. Because it's near beaches (Pilmore Strand, Youghal beach (10-minute drive), Ring Strand (in nearby Knockadoon) there's a possibility it could also be bought as a holiday home.
The guide price for Rose Cottage is €355,000.
VERDICT: Top-notch renovation job. Ideal for self-sufficiency enthusiasts. As charming as the name suggests.
