€975,000 West Cork home by the water has earned its living as a wellness centre

WEST CORK is noted for relaxing areas filled with natural beauty — but at Rineen, those natural attributes were embraced and integrated into a substantial home which over three decades carved a niche as a residential retreat, wellness centre, and self-catering accommodation.

Now, the water-facing Rineen Wellness Centre on a little trafficked tidal estuary route is a property offer, guided at €975,000 by estate agent Andy Donoghue of Hodnett Forde who said since listing it online last Friday he’s already had a healthy string of inquiries.

The substantial 3,800 sq ft two-storey dormer home with feature apex window has large lounges at its core on both the ground and first floor levels, with bedrooms upstairs and down, six in all, plus two kitchens and several small reception rooms, one used as a treatment room, with adjacent infrared sauna.

It’s all on two acres, organically tended for decades, along with a one-bed bungalow, a two-bed annex, gym room/ studio, a mix of additional stores and outbuildings and productive gardens, along with three polytunnels, plus fruit and vegetable beds as well as an orchard and array of native woodland trees.

It’s 9km from Skibbereen and 6km from Castletownshend (or, 2.5kms by boat, depending on the tides) and “offers extraordinary versatility, it’s equally suited for multi-generational family living, as a lifestyle retreat, or simply a peaceful and private residence immersed in nature,” says Mr Donoghue.

VERDICT: Relaxing Rineen is a low-profile gem location, with trail walks in the nearby Coillte woods by ‘the narrows’, on lands previous part of the Salter Townshend estate at