The Mill and the gloss that transformed this €2.25m Nohoval home and barn

SECOND time around, better again and with a second house added is the still-unique, rare gift property offer — this 19th-century former flour mill, in a wooded glade, with access to a private cove, all steeped in Irish and maritime lore.Round One: The old flour mill at Rennies, Nohoval, was brought back from utter, roofless dereliction about 30 years ago by a then-young couple, Jim and Jackie McClay, who performed a heroic rescue mission, adventurously making it their home for two decades.Round Two: It featured in these pages a decade ago when it went for sale as a fully renovated family home over three floors, and the Price Register shows it selling for €690,000 by 2017, bought as an Irish/holiday home base by a smitten couple with five children, Dave and Katie McGoff, based in the UK but with deep Irish roots on both sides, in Cork and in Mayo.Given their background, in construction, law, and interior design, it’s possibly little surprise to hear the McGoffs made changes at The Mill… quite a lot.Dave is second generation in construction in the north of England, around Manchester. His parents Jim and Ethna hail from Bohola, Mayo, a tiny community reputed to have fostered more millionaire sons and daughters than any other small Irish community, and he’s one of four second generation siblings now running the €150m McGoff Group/Construction, with a niche in developing care homes.Katie’s own roots are Cork city (Douglas on her mum’s side) and Kinsale, and years of family holidays in Castlepark, Kinsale, tempted her and Dave to go seek out a place to call their own within easy reach of Cork city, airport, and Kinsale.The Mill, at Rennies, Nohoval, along the indented and craggy coastline between Cork Harbour and Kinsale fitted their bill. Katie says that it was the “lyrical” online editorial from the Irish Examiner Property pages at the time - linking it to its local area mill and seafaring heritage - that swayed them to come see it for themselves, to dip a literal toe in the water and nearby Man o’ War cove, or Smugglers’ Cove, to which it has private right of way access.“We weren’t actively looking, just discussing and dreaming when we came across the mill,” says Katie of the decision that felt like fate to make the leap of faith for it.In the years since, it has had much use as a family bolthole, has been loaned to family and friends, hosted her mum’s 80th birthday and a couple of 21sts for their own older children.Then, feeling the need to do more with it, the McGoffs went on a two-pronged programme of works, buoyed by their own professional skills and expertise.They added a second house, The Barn, a c 1,200sq ft black zinc and aluminium-clad three-bed detached house in place of an outdoor storehouse which had been built by previous owners, the McClays, to a design Dave worked up with the help of Cork-based architect James Murphy O’Connor, of the long established Boyd Barrett Murphy O’Connor (BBMOC) firm.The Barn“I loved the sound of the stream by the store and thought ‘wouldn’t it be lovely to hear that all the time’, so we got permission to built the barn there,” says Katie of the super-bright, utterly cool black box with decking expanse at its rear, currently crowded in by gunneras, those water-loving coarse-leaved ‘giant rhubarb’ plants, one of the verdant mix in this most magical of glade-like setting.Deck at the barnSo. The barn added three more rooms for family and friends, and the mix later morphed into a high-end holiday rental business also, available across a number of platforms as ‘the mill and barn’. The sleek barn was built in cosy timber frame over a mere four-month period in the covid times of 2021 by near neighbour in this hideaway Nohoval woodland, builder Simon Foley, who previously ran a company Sustainable Homes Ireland.Barn interiorSimon and a local crew built the barn on-site while Dave McGoff was largely on board via video link due to covid travel restrictions (then in force): “Yes, he found it frustrating, especially the costs in Ireland and the difficulty getting labour!” admits Katie.Kitchen at the BarnThe family clearly had great trust in Simon Foley and his tight-knit crew including Steve Ward and Richie Doorman.They also followed up on Simon’s suggestion (first hinted by a guest, Simon says) to turn the house’s lower two levels ‘upside down’, so that the main kitchen/dining/living room is now on the centre floor, with two lower ground level en suite bedrooms down a stone curving staircase, and three more on the top floor.The move made sense as the mid-level had garden access thanks to a slope in the tiered gardens — after all, it was the fall of ground here which would originally have provided enough water flow to turn a mill wheel to grind corn for flour.This transformation, which included some internal wall work, took five months and made for a complete transformation of the flow and the way people interact between the house and grounds, with a large outdoor terrace on the upper level with expansive ovens and BBQ grills, seating and entertaining spaces on tiled platforms.The two properties now sleep up to 19 people when rented for group and family get-togethers; the extra long spalted beech table indoors seats 12 (done by handyman Simon, who now also is groundsman and handles bookings and rentals for the McGoffs as that business took off).KATIE installed black Crittall windows (so on-brand right now!) in the barn and on the middle floor of the mill.It’s not just a tenuous visual link between both properties separated by 170 years in time on this plot, but on the mid-level they also now serve to safe containment for fire regs for safe egress from upstairs windows to the upper grounds, says Katie, wearing one of her many hats as former lawyer who now specialises in interior design and fit-out for the McGoffs developments and care home projects.She and colleague Tricia Cunningham worked with the mid 19th-century building’s classical architecture, high ceilings, and stone walls, exposed in many rooms with a rough lime render finish, with furniture and fittings a mix of old-world charm from Granny’s Bottom Drawer in Kinsale and contemporary touches from the likes of Sohoa Home, with Gucci wallpapers and tiles.Katie calls the layered look ‘modern country with coastal influences’. Art work on display recalls the local: monochrome photography by Giles Norman (including his iconic shot of Nohoval Cove) and ceramic pieces by local neighbour Sara Roberts are well displayed, appropriate perhaps as the Roberts family has owned much of the surrounding land here for generations and, in fact, sold the mill to the previous ownersback three decades ago.With work all done to a uniformly high standard and a thriving rental business, the McGoffs are looking to sell, as adjacent paired private properties, or a rental business or mix of both home and income stream, by a woodland stream.Leafy-set, the Mill and Barn go for sale this month with Eileen Neville of Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty guiding €2.25m for the pair on 1.5 acres, in mint order and with a high-end internal aesthetic contrasting easily with a rustic setting, and Ms Neville comments: “Though independent in design and purpose, these two residences share a sense of history, craftsmanship, and modern luxury that sets them apart as a rare sanctuary on Ireland’s south-west coast.”Apart from the tranquillity of the setting, and relative proximity to Kinsale -but a remove from its bustle via a network of tiny coastal backroads - the close proximity to Man o’ War cove and its old turreted lime kiln and boathouse to which it has right of way access is a stand-out feature.There’s little to compare the mix with, bar perhaps the standout 2024 sale near Clonakilty of two tiny stone dwellings, Fisherman’s Cottage at Simon’s Cove and with expansive sea views, which went to market with a €1.5m AMV to local amazement at the sum sought, only to find a buyer in jig-time from the US who paid €1.8m for the duo. VERDICT: Once derelict, the Mill has had two exciting rebirths, joined now by a new generation ‘barn-raiser’ second dwelling. Special, indeed.

View Original Article